Abstract
The special vulnerability of people with disability (PWD) in the COIVD-19 pandemic has been confirmed by many studies, but data shows that the infection rate of PWD in China is lower than for non-disabled people. We believe that this difference can be attributed to the Chinese government's targeted safeguards for the disabled community during the pandemic, including support for disability empowerment, the establishment of a remote interactive decision-making system, fair vaccine distribution and economic protection for PWD. The professionalism of decision-makers and the maintenance of channels of interaction with PWD are also important. All of these changes have benefitted China's public health policy and legal framework. This system, which has six components (governance, prevention, response, knowledge, coordination, and people), enables the country to quickly formulate a series of safeguards for PWD that have a sufficient legal basis. We believe that China's rapidly improving public health policy and legal framework will make a hugely significant impact by alleviating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the PWD community. Countries should pay more attention to discovering the special needs and obstacles of PWD in the COIVD-19 pandemic: in referring to China's experience, they should explore the protection framework for persons with disabilities and adjust it to their own needs on the basis of national conditions.
Highlights
As of July 9, 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused 185,291,530 infections in more than 200 countries and regions, and 4,010,834 deaths [1]
people with disability (PWD) account for about 15% of the world’s total population [3] and are a key population in global public health [4]; when compared with non-disabled people, disability makes this group more physically vulnerable and more susceptible to infection, and this is confirmed by a PWD report that shows they are four times more likely to experience poor health [5]; in addition, it is much more difficult for them to be included in health promotion programs [6]
Our research suggests that too few medical and public health institutions record the disability status of COVID19 infected persons in statistical data, and we noted how this has hindered the development of national disability policy and the work of legal researchers during the COVID-19 pandemic [87]
Summary
As of July 9, 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused 185,291,530 infections in more than 200 countries and regions, and 4,010,834 deaths [1]. In the COVID-19 pandemic, after a team of medical experts determined that COVID-19 could be transmitted from person to person, China’s central government imposed a lockdown on the Wuhan, the outbreak epicenter, and its population of 12.33 million was confined indoors in just 72 h The rapidity of this process made it difficult for the authorities to fully interact with communities in the decisionmaking stage, and the social isolation caused by epidemic prevention further limited the realization of IDM. In the period mid-March-July, 2021, China vaccinated more than 2 billion people and exported more than 700 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine and stock solution [50] This has meant that China’s public health authorities have not even needed to raise the issue of whether to prioritize the distribution of vaccines to disadvantaged groups such as PWD. The central government addressed the needs of extremely poor disabled persons who have no source of income at all by stipulating that civil affairs departments across all levels are responsible for ensuring that they sustain a basic standard of living during the epidemic prevention period [61]
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