Words by: Ewura-Ama Quarshie, Disability Rights UK

The Covid-19 Inquiry is an ongoing investigation into how the pandemic affected the UK, including certain areas of society and government response to it.

We know already that the pandemic affected disabled people disproportionately:

• Disabled people accounted for approximately six out of every 10 deaths related to Covid-19. 
• In Wales, the number went up to seven in 10 between 2 March and 14 July 2020. 
• A Public Health England report estimated that people with learning disabilities were six times more likely to die compared with the general population. 
• The death rate for people aged 18-34 with learning disabilities was 30 times higher than the rate in the same age group without disabilities. 

These statistics are just a snapshot of the harm and inequality disabled people experienced during the pandemic, which wasn’t considered or addressed by the government at the time.

The Covid-19 Inquiry is a chance to do a deep dive into what went wrong and hear detailed accounts of the issues faced by the community, plus create robust plans to do better in the event of another pandemic.

What have we learned so far?

Module 1 on resilience and preparedness: Module 1 opened on 21 July 2022 and looked into the UK’s resilience and preparedness for the pandemic. A report, published in July 2024, recommended that the government should have collaborated with disability organisations during the pandemic.

Module 3 on the Impact of Covid-19 pandemic on healthcare systems: This module analysed factors like the effect on patients, healthcare workers, NHS backlogs, Long Covid diagnosis and support. The Disability Charities Consortium (DCC) were core participants in this module and highlighted the disproportionate effect the pandemic had on disabled people, who accounted for 30,000 out of 50,000 deaths (60%) in Jan-Nov 2020.

Module 4 on Vaccines and Therapeutics: This module considered and made recommendations on a range of issues relating to the development of Covid-19 vaccines and the implementation of the vaccine rollout programme across the UK. It found that people who couldn’t get vaccines were left without treatment, messaging around priority groups for vaccines was confusing and some vaccine centres were inaccessible for disabled people.

Module 6 on the Care Sector: The pandemic highlighted the alarming flaws within the care sector, notably DNACPR (Do not attempt cardio-pulmonary resuscitation) orders being applied to people without their knowledge. This led to disabled people not being resuscitated where they may have chosen to be given the chance to live. 

The Inquiry launched an initiative called Every Story Matters to collect the public’s personal stories about the pandemic, to be used as evidence during the investigation. Common experiences included the sudden isolation of those in care, communication challenges for some d/Deaf* and disabled people due to masks, vague and/or conflicting government recommendations and blanket rules being unfairly applied to varied groups.

Module 8 on Children and Young People: This part of the Inquiry uncovered that disabled children and young people experienced worsening health issues when allied health services were removed after the closure of schools. Many missed out on education entirely because they didn’t have an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan and as such weren’t allowed to stay in school. It also found that tech and platforms used for online learning were inaccessible for many.

Module 9 on Economic response: Module 9 will hear evidence across four weeks from November 24 to December 18. What we know already is that disabled people are more likely to be on a low income, and many took a worse financial hit during the pandemic. Universal Credit received an uplift, but legacy benefits didn’t, which left many disabled people without enough to live on.

Module 10: Impact on society: The Office for National Statistics published a report in April 2021 which highlighted the massive impact the pandemic had on disabled people. More disabled people reported worse mental health (46% for disabled people vs 29% for non-disabled people), loneliness (49% vs 37%), stress and anxiety (67% compared with 54%) during the pandemic. Nine roundtable discussions will take place between February and June 2025, with each exploring a different aspect of Module 10. 

What comes next?

Overall, the Covid-19 Inquiry has highlighted some of the ways disabled people were disadvantaged by the pandemic and failed by the government and healthcare systems. The Inquiry makes recommendations based on its findings, but more needs to be done to make sure the findings actually lead to change. DPOs (Disabled People’s Organisations) are also making their own recommendations to improve areas the Inquiry investigated, as well as pushing for the government to agree not to make any decisions about disabled people without first consulting DPOs and disabled people themselves.

*The combined term d/Deaf acknowledges people who have hearing lost but my not identify with the Deaf community (d) and those who identify as part of the Deaf community and culture (D).