January 9, 2022
Rochelle P. Walensky, MD, MPH
Director
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
1600 Clifton Road
Atlanta, GA 30329
Dear CDC and Director Walensky:
I am writing on behalf of Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (DREDF). We are a leading national civil rights law and policy center directed by disabled people and parents who have children with disabilities.
During an interview on Good Morning America on January 7, 2022, in response to a question about the encouraging findings from a study showing that severe COVID and death were rare among people who are fully vaccinated, you responded:
“The overwhelming number of deaths, over 75%, occurred in people who had at least four comorbidities, so really these are people who were unwell to begin with, and yes really encouraging news in the context of Omicron, this means not only just to get your primary series, but to get your booster series, and yes, we are really encouraged by these results.”
Your words convey that the deaths of disabled people (“people who had at least four comorbidities,” “people who were unwell to begin with”) are acceptable. Not only is this message from the head of the CDC abhorrent, it perpetuates widely and wrongly held perceptions that disabled people have a worse quality of life than nondisabled people and our lives are more expendable.
When physicians hold these beliefs, and they do (see Physicians’ Perceptions Of People With Disability And Their Health Care, Health Affairs, Feb. 2021, Vol. 40, No. 2), the outcomes for disabled people, especially during a pandemic such as we are living through now, can be fatal.
Messages from the head of the CDC must convey that all lives are valuable, and the loss of any life from COVID-19, whether it is the life of a person with a disability, an older adult, or a 32 year old with no known disabilities, is a tragedy.
We ask that you reflect on your words, the bias behind them, and that you change how you speak about the lives and deaths of disabled people.
Sincerely yours,
Susan Henderson
Executive Director, DREDF