“’The big question throughout the pandemic, as covid has ramped up demands on the health-care system, is what happens when there’s not enough of something urgently needed?’ said Colin Killick, executive director of Disability Policy Consortium, a civil rights advocacy organization run by people with disabilities in Massachusetts. ‘The answer, in all kinds of contexts, has been that disabled people go into the void.’

It is hard to know precisely how many people with chronic illnesses or disabilities living on their own, rather than in group settings, might be affected by pandemic-caused supply shortages, but estimates are in the tens of millions. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 6 in 10 people in the United States have a chronic disease, and more than 61 million Americans live with a disability of some kind — including impairments in mobility, cognition, hearing, vision or the ability to live independently.”