This letter was sent this morning to the Governor’s Office and Commissioner Malcolm as a follow up to previous advocacy efforts and communications that have gone largely unanswered. Feel free to share or use in your personal advocacy efforts. 

Good morning:

I’m following up again on the multiple requests to prioritize and protect Minnesotans with Down syndrome. 

Minnesota’s plan leaves out most individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities and adults with Down syndrome will suffer the most dire consequences under the current vaccination rollout plan. 

Adults with Down syndrome are at a significantly greater risk of death than all the groups identified in 1b. We are asking them to be specifically identified and moved to the top of phase 1b. In their current spot in 1c, more than half of Minnesota’s adult population will have the opportunity to be vaccinated before them. That’s a critical mistake. We are simply asking you to follow the science. 

Adults with Ds are nearly ten times more likely to die than their same aged peers and twice as likely to die than nearly every other high risk group. I’ve included the study of 8 million adults in the UK, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-4986

We’ve started a change.org petition to advocate and support this request. Not my preferred method of advocacy, but going through the proper channels has not resulted in any change or response. In just over 36 hours we’ve garnered 3500 signatures. That’s more than twice the population we are looking to vaccinate. https://www.change.org/MinnDsVaccine

Please respond. We are more than willing to be your partner in vaccination so that Minnesota can adequately prioritize and protect adults with Down syndrome.  

Sarah Curfman
Executive Director
Down Syndrome Association of  Minnesota