EClinicalMedicine, a clinical journal published by the Lancet, urging the Biden administration to amend the priority guidelines for COVID-19 vaccinations to include all people with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (I/DD; Hotez et al., 2021).
It is critical that the entire I/DD population gains access to priority vaccines. But it’s also important that we consider why they were excluded in the first place.
People with I/DD, including individuals with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy, learning disabilities, seizures, developmental delays, and/or intellectual impairment, comprise between 1% and 2% of the U.S. population. They are particularly susceptible to COVID-19, demonstrating more severe illness, greater risk of hospitalization, and almost twice the case fatality rates for individuals ages 18 to 74 (Turk et al., 2020). People with I/DD may experience difficulties following social distancing guidelines (Embregts et al., 2020) and often require in-person services from professionals who have been noted to work multiple jobs (Contrera, 2021). Despite that, the guidelines—from which states take their cue in administering vaccines—exclude the bulk of this population. It is critical that the entire I/DD population gains access to priority vaccines. But it’s also important that we consider why they were excluded in the first place.