A recent study found that people with intellectual or developmental disabilities were more likely to die from COVID-19. But that news does not surprise the disability community
The study appeared in the Disability and Health Journal, and found that among those ages 18-to-74, the fatality rate was 4.5%; compared to 2.7% among those without intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Jon Meyers is the executive director of the Arc of Arizona.
"There are so many different factors involved with individuals who have intellectual and developmental disabilities, physical disabilities."
Factors include hypertension, heart disease, respiratory disease and diabetes.
Another surprise was that the death rate was higher among people who were younger than 17.
"And because of communication issues because of challenges that many of them have sharing information about how they feel, and so forth, it's often very difficult to know when they have contracted something or when an illness has begun to set in."
As of last week, there were 148 cases of COVID among the intellectual and developmental disabilities population and 10 deaths, according to Meyers.
