Who are we?

Hi! I'm Fleur, a law student who's been shielding for most of the last 2 years. I use a non-invasive ventilator overnight and some of the time during the day, as I have a muscle-weakening condition. I'm classed as Clinically Extremely Vulnerable to Covid-19, as I would be more likely than others to require hospital treatment or die if I caught the virus.

I've teamed up with the fantastic Doug Paulley, a wheelchair user living in a care home. He is Clinically Extremely Vulnerable himself, and many others in his care home are also at serious risk from Covid-19. Should the current UK restrictions be lifted, the risk of serious illness or death will mean that Doug and his co-residents will feel obliged to segregate from society even more than care home residents have had to these last two years, for fear of bringing the infection into the home and thus causing further suffering and death.

What’s happening?

Boris Johnson announced on 9th February that ending the legal requirement to isolate if you have Covid-19 may be brought forward by a month. This puts myself, Doug, and the other 3.2 million shielders at a huge risk when in a public place, or at work, school or anywhere with other people, as the number of new cases per week is still over 300,000 (checked 17/2/22).

When making important decisions that affect disabled people, the government need to think carefully about the consequences of their plans, and talk to disabled people before choosing what to do. 

Nothing about us without us!

We don't think that happened, and so we think the decision isn't within the law. If we're right, they have to rip up their plan and start again.

We've got a lawyer. We've got our facts and data. We've got the passion and guts to do this, as we're talking about the lives of ourselves and the people we love. All we need is you.

How you can help

We need you to help us take the government to court - unless they agree to properly consider disabled people’s needs and the impact upon us.

We need you to give a little, which will help a lot.

We need you to share this page with everyone you know.

We need you to talk about this issue, and speak out whenever and wherever you find injustice.

Why we're doing this

Though the death rate is going down, Covid-19 is still a killer. Those most a risk will be the same as they have been throughout the pandemic - disabled people, particularly disabled women. 

Disabled people made up 6 in 10 (59.5%) of all deaths involving COVID-19 in the first part of the pandemic, and disabled women were one of the groups that experienced the greatest risk of death from Covid-19, 3.5 times non-disabled women (ONS, 2021). 

Restrictions are being lifted one by one, but the safety of those most at risk isn't being discussed. Ending isolation early will increase the risk to disabled people, and cause avoidable hospitalisations and deaths. 

This doesn't need to happen.

The risks need to be carefully thought about, and options fully talked through before making it happen.

We want to call out the government for ignoring disabled people, and make sure they find and look at all the data on the safety of disabled people.

Our plan

We want to take the government to court if they fail to properly consider how disabled people are going to be affected by this, and what can be done to mitigate the impact. 

We want them to understand that it's not OK to ignore the safety of disabled people and not talk to us about changes that affect our lives.

We want to start a Judicial Review of the decision to remove the need to isolate, if this is the decision that the government takes next week. We think this decision will have been badly made, and is a breach of the Equality Act 2010.

If we win, we would ask them to start again, and consider a new plan which properly takes into account the lives of disabled people.

We've already sent a letter warning them that we will challenge them if they end isolation early. 

The next step will be to consider the government’s response, consider the new guidance and regulations likely to be issued next week, send a pre-action letter, and apply for permission to start a Judicial Review if there are merits to do so. To do that, we need your help to pay the legal fees.

How much do we need?

We need at least £3,500 to get this started - and even £5 will help. 

This will cover our solicitors and barrister’s fees to investigate this important issue and do the work outlined above.

Thank you!