The Mortality Experience of Disabled Persons in the United States During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

New data from the Social Security Administration suggests there were 260,000 excess deaths in the United States among current or former disability beneficiaries during the first 22 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. These beneficiaries accounted for 26 percent of all excess deaths in the US during this period. The pattern of deaths among disabled beneficiaries corresponds closely with known milestones in the pandemic’s history. Disabled beneficiaries in New York, particularly those residing in institutions, had extremely elevated mortality with the onset of the pandemic in the spring of 2020. Across all regions in the US, mortality among disability beneficiaries increased sharply with the onset of the winter of 2020-2021 and with the emergence of the Delta and Omicron variants in 2021. Elevated mortality was observed for persons with intellectual, mental, and physical impairments. Future public information campaigns about vaccines and other measures may be more successful if they include specific efforts to directly target disability beneficiaries. In addition, clinical trials and other research should consider including disabled persons as specific study groups as the severity of their underlying health impairments is likely comparable to that of persons of advanced age.