(Andrew Kelly/Reuters)
I have written frequently here about how the medical establishment has been promoting policies that would discriminate against white people to promote “equity” (for example, this piece in the New England Journal of Medicine and this one in The Lancet).
Now, the discriminatory equity agenda has apparently been adopted as official policy in New York, where the Department of Health has enacted a Covid therapeutics triage policy that allows some patients access to treatment that will be denied others based on race/ethnicity. This is blatantly discriminatory.
The NYSDOH announcement “COVID-19 Oral Antiviral Treatments Authorized and Severe Shortage of Oral Antiviral and Monoclonal Antibody Treatment Products” sets out a list of eligibility requirements for oral antiviral treatment. They include factors of age, weight, Covid test results, mildness of symptoms, etc. Here is the last item on the list:
Non-white race or Hispanic/Latino ethnicity should be considered a risk factor, as longstanding systemic health and social inequities have contributed to an increased risk of severe illness and death from COVID-19.
The same policy has been adopted in New York City.
In other words, all patients must meet all the eligibility criteria, i.e., be above a certain age, have moderate symptoms, etc. But patients of “non-white race or Hispanic/Latino ethnicity” would not have to meet all the criteria because their race/ethnicity is itself considered a risk factor. People of color and Hispanics would be eligible for antiviral treatment even if they did not meet all the listed medical criteria required of similarly situated white or non-Hispanic patients to obtain the antivirals.
This policy must be reversed immediately, and if it isn’t, lawsuits filed. Denying treatment to some patients but allowing it for others based on their race/ethnicity is unquestionably unconstitutional, and hence this state action is unconstitutional. Moreover, such discriminatory policies will bitterly divide the country along racial lines and increase the growing distrust in our public-health institutions.
This is why it is important to keep an eagle eye on advocacy in the professional journals. The articles published there are not mere intellectual musings. They are intended to be adopted as official policy — as we now see happening in New York State.