As a part of our commitment to provide education, support, and resources to our community members, the Amputee Coalition has joined the COVID-19 Vaccine Education & Equity Project.
The COVID-19 Vaccine Education & Equity Project aims to open dialogue, kickstart engagement, and ensure effective communication to address skepticism around vaccines. Additionally, the project will work to build confidence in the process and the science, which is key for authorized and approved vaccines to be a contributor to addressing health inequities that exist generally and specifically with respect to COVID-19.
This effort is made up of 60+ leading organizations representing patients, caregivers and families, diverse communities, healthcare workers, older Americans, veterans, frontline workers and scientists.
We have joined this coalition because we want to ensure people living with limb loss and limb difference are represented in these discussions and any resulting decisions. Here are some important and relevant data points about our community that made it clear we wanted to join this coalition:
- “In a recently published study in the Annals of Vascular Surgery, researchers found a more than twofold increase in major amputations and the degree of tissue loss for vascular surgery patients after the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 in comparison to patients in similar time frames in 2019 and 2018.” (Podiatry Today)
- “Patients with diabetes were 10.8 times more likely to undergo any level of amputation and 12.5 times more likely to receive a major amputation (transfemoral or transtibial) during the pandemic.” (Diabetes-Related Amputations: A Pandemic Within A Pandemic)
“Ultimately, our goal is to create a dialogue with the members of the limb loss and limb difference community and make sure they have trusted resources on the COVID-19 vaccine from a non-biased and evidence-based perspective,” said Amputee Coalition President and CEO Mary Richards. “We want to ensure our community continues to receive trusted and up-to-date information on COVID-19 to protect their health and well-being, and so that they may continue living their fullest life.”
For more information on the Covid-19 Vaccine Education & Equity Project, please visit: www.covidvaccineproject.org.