Individuals with intellectual disabilities face discrimination on a daily basis. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the systemic ableism that is embedded within American culture, particularly through healthcare bias and discrimination. In turn, this creates further marginalization during diagnosis, triage, and treatment of the novel coronavirus. Multiple states have filed complaints against state triage protocols that suggest an abled life is more worthy than a life with a disability. Although many of these protocols have been updated and replaced, generalized triage statements fail to address healthcare bias that is embedded within the American system. In addition to the existing solutions, proposed solutions to addressing healthcare bias include integrating social workers into the emergency management process and the overall disaster management field. To combat bias and ableism across the healthcare system, a social justice perspective which highlights discrimination, inequalities, and inequities in overall individual care must be adopted.
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