'The loss of disabled and chronically ill lives due to COVID-19 is no less tragic or preventable.'
Ever since the beginning of the pandemic, there's been a disturbing caveat to the casualty reports. Many of the dead, the reports say, had"comorbidities"—other conditions that left them especially vulnerable to the virus.
Unfortunately, a surprising number of people seem to agree it wouldn't be so bad if the world population were culled a bit. It's not just the Nazis, who famously exterminated people with disabilities and mental illnesses. Instead, these attitudes can appear in more subtle ways. These attitudes can also show up in the debate over pandemic school closures. A return to in-person learning may be an acceptable risk for healthy, vaccinated students and staff. But what about those who are disabled, immunocompromised, and at higher risk of death if they return to classroom instruction?