Immunocompromised People Left Behind As Covid-19 Restrictions Are Lifted

Disability Rap

As mask mandates and other Covid-19 precautions are being relaxed across the country, we look at a group of people who are being left behind as the country races to return to a pre-pandemic normal. There are 7 million people in the US with compromised immune systems, making up just under 3% of the population. For many of these people, the risk of severe illness, hospitalization, and death from Covid-19 is substantially higher than it is in the general population, and since their immune systems are compromised, they are at much higher risk of contracting the virus, even if they are vaccinated and boosted. On the show, we hear what immunocompromised people are experiencing at this stage of the pandemic and hear what they are calling for now.

We’re joined by Jillian Parramore, an educator, writer, speaker, and disability rights advocate based in southern California. She has a compromised immune system and other disabilities. Near the start of the pandemic, she was laid off from her job as a school district adviser because she couldn’t work in person. Jillian is a Board member of Disability Rights California.

We’re also joined by Ed Yong, staff writer at The Atlantic. He recently wrote a piece headlined, The Millions of People Stuck in Pandemic Limbo: What does society owe immunocompromised people? In the article, he documents the challenges immunocompromised people are facing right now and amplifies their calls for systemic change. Ed Yong won the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting last year for his coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic.