‘Why were we not shielded from the beginning?’: Type 1 diabetics respond to high Covid-19 death rates

It was in late February when Katie*, 49, heard in the playground that a class from her son’s Essex school had been on a trip to Northern Italy over half term. The coronavirus was already spreading rapidly in the country and some of the first lockdowns in Europe were being implemented in the Lombardy province on 21 February. Despite such precautions being a month away for the UK, Katie made the decision to take Ben* out of school immediately.