As the country is moving towards pre-pandemic normalcy, most states and local government health restrictions like masking and social distancing mandates are receding too.

However, many millions Americans with chronic conditions or with compromised immunity, which are especially vulnerable to Covid-19 are reportedly feeling left behind.

The pandemic is not over. What the CDC is doing is leaving out immunocompromised and disabled people.

– Elena Hung, co-founder of Little Lobbyists, an advocacy group for chronically ill and disabled children (source: Politico)

During the vaccination rollout campaign, Minnesotans with disabilities felt “forgotten” too writes the Star Tribune.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation poll, nearly half of Americans told that the removal of pandemic precautions like indoor masking was premature. Referring to the poll’s finding, Politico writes “49 percent of adults were either ‘very worried ‘ or ‘somewhat worried ‘ that relaxing restrictions would result in more people dying in their communities.

• As masks come off, vulnerable Americans feel left behind
• ‘We feel forgotten’: People with disabilities push for inclusion in Minnesota’s vaccine rollout plan
• COVID still threatens millions of Americans. Why are we so eager to move on?

Gregg Gonsalves, an infectious disease expert at Yale University, told Politico “It’s important to realize how they’ve [the CDC] shifted the pandemic onus to individuals. They’ve taken the public out of public health. If you or I don’t want to catch Covid, we’re on our own. It seems as if we’ve decided, for political purposes, the pandemic is box office poison.”

Matthew Cortland, a disability rights advocate who takes immunosuppressant drugs, told Politico “they aren’t letting down their guard anytime soon. They’re also upset by the administration’s relaxing of precautions that would protect people like them. Their guidance devalues the lives of chronically ill, immunocompromised and disabled people.”