NYC will consider race when distributing life-saving COVID treatments
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
New York City will take a patient’s race into account when distributing potentially life-saving COVID treatments, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene revealed on their website.
The city will “consider race and ethnicity when assessing individual risk,” reads the agency’s official guidance from Dec. 20, which adds that “longstanding systemic health and social inequities” can contribute to an increased risk of dying from COVID-19.
The guidance applies to both the distribution of monoclonal antibodies and oral antivirals like Paxlovid and Molnupiravir.
“Monoclonal antibody treatments have averted at least 1,100 hospitalizations and at least 500 deaths among people treated in New York City,” the city said in October.
The race-based approach in treatment has already begun to have real-world consequences. One Staten Island doctor said he filled two prescriptions for Paxlovid this week and was asked by the pharmacist to disclose the race of his patients before the treatment was authorized.
“In my 30 years of being a physician I have never been asked that question when I have prescribed any treatment,” said the doctor, who requested anonymity. “The mere fact of having to ask this question is a slippery slope.”
Both patients, who are white, were ultimately granted their prescriptions.
A recent “Request for Proposals,” form on behalf of the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene stressed the agency’s commitment to “racial equity.”
NYC admits prioritizing race in distributing COVID tests: leaked emails
“The … DOHMH is committed to improving health outcomes for all New Yorkers by explicitly advancing racial equity and social justice. Racial equity does not mean simply treating everyone equally, but rather, allocating resources and services in such a way that explicitly addresses barriers imposed by structural racism (i.e. policies and institutional practices that perpetuate racial inequity) and White privilege,” it read.
It is unclear if the new “race” guidance has yet to exclude whites from getting treatment, but observers and doctors fear that a system is being created that could lead to racial exclusions in the future during a drug shortage or case surge.
“We are collecting demographic data on COVID antivirals at the request of the city for anonymized data reporting purposes only, as is commonly done with COVID tests and vaccines,” Michael Krueger, a pharmacy rep said. For now, the city is participating exclusively with Alto Pharmacy to distribute the new drugs.
Medical experts said it is correct for COVID treatment to be allocated based who is at the highest risk, but stressed that race was not a biological risk factor.
“I have not seen [race] as one of the risk factors for severe disease and death,” Martin Kulldorff, a Harvard epidemiologist and professor, told The Post. “The reason that a lot of African Americans have died in New York — which is true — is because the rich people and more affluent were working from home while the working class were exposed.”
“The lockdowns have discriminated against minorities. Basically they have discriminated against the working class, and minorities are a bigger proportion of the working class.” Kulldorff added.
In a public notice, the state Department of Health said last week that “Non-white race or Hispanic/Latino ethnicity should be considered a risk factor” — putting it in a class with other COVID risk factors like age and obesity.
“There are severe supply shortages for all COVID-19 outpatient therapeutics,” warns city health officials, who urge providers to follow the state guidelines.
directives follow a slew of new laws signed by Gov. Hochul aimed at “address[ing] discrimination and racial injustice.” One of the new edicts formally declares racism to be a public health crisis.
“It’s just absurd and it shows this is not about public health. This has not been about the health of New Yorkers from the get-go,” Andrew Giuliani, a GOP candidate for governor. told The Post. “Politics before the health and safety of New Yorkers. It continues from the Cuomo administration to the Hochul administration with these new laws.”
“New Yorkers of color have borne the brunt of this pandemic due to structural racism and the legacy of disinvestment in many minority communities,” Michael Lanza, a city Health Department spokesman, told The Post. “Doctors are advised to consider the disproportionate impact felt by these communities in addition to systemic health disparities when prescribing treatments for people who are at highest risk for severe COVID-19 outcomes.”
Lanza added the data was only being collected “to assess equitable distribution” and that race would never be used as a reason to deny treatment.
Antiviral treatment for coronavirus infection represents the cutting edge of treatment for the virus. Interest in the therapeutics has peaked with the arrival of the new Omicron variant and its widespread ability to evade the vaccine.
On Dec. 22, the federal Food and Drug Administration approved an emergency use authorization for Paxlovid “for the treatment of mild-to-moderate coronavirus disease” for anyone 12 and older. Molnupiravir received its emergency use authorization a week later.
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As New York moves back to the Jim Crow era.
This is illegal discrimination
If it was aimed the other way, there would be a great uproar
It is illegal and I'm seeing a pretty great uproar right here on these threads right now.
I think you are missing the point
Have you read these threads? Normally if you have 2 beds and 3 sick people they go to the 2 people with the most money. This is just doing the same thing but differently. If you gave the 2 beds to the 2 people with the least money you would be discriminating against white people.
Not only is New York distributing medicine on the basis of race, it's also using race to decide who gets the tests.
Staten Island’s mostly white South Shore — despite one of the city’s highest coronavirus rates — is not among those 31 priority neighborhoods . Staten Island has 13 city testing sites, all on the more heavily non-white North Shore.
“We are clearly not on their racial and ethnic rubric priority list,” Borelli told The Post. “ There was no problem pointing fingers at the South Shore of Staten Island when it came to sending enforcement goons” to fine small businesses over COVID regulations
While waiting to board the subway to City Hall, Adams, a former New York City police captain, called 911 to report an assault he saw taking place on a street in the city.
He may be getting more than he bargained for.
“The lockdowns have discriminated against minorities. Basically they have discriminated against the working class, and minorities are a bigger proportion of the working class.”
The lockdowns have been imposed by Democrats. Do they hate minorities?
Equity is not equality. Social justice is not about being fair.
Fortunately I don’t see anything about actual distribution or administration of treatment based on race. It sounds like they’re just keeping track of who is getting the medicine.
What I can’t figure out is why this is even necessary. Does anyone really think in 2022 that anyone is being denied medicine because of their race? And if they are, it seems like there should be a stronger response - like someone should go to jail.
So since this seems like a solution in search of a problem, I’m forced to suspect some kind of virtue signaling is at work. I.e.: “See? We care about people of color.”
I noticed that.
And that's the key question, isn't it? Why do they want to know, if they don't intend to discriminate in the future?
I'm very sure there are people who believe that. People will happily embrace all sorts of madness if it confirms their existing biases.
Yes, the pharmacy is only collecting race data, but the government's prioritization memo directs physicians to use race as a criteria in how those treatments are to be prescribed. All non whites are considered to have a risk factor, thus giving them in a better position than similarly situated white people. Since there is a shortage of these medications, the guidelines are presumably being followed.
That's a clear, concise post, Sean. But I'm not sure "all non-whites are considered to have a risk factor" but some certainly do. Do you have a problem with them being prioritized ?
When the vaccines first came out the elderly were prioritized. Did you have an issue with that ?
all races have elderly
Was that in question ?
My kids had no problem getting free covid tests from the city. I am not sure where you are getting that idea from.
There is no evidence that anyone has been denied Covid medication because of race.
And all races have a young healthy population that doesn't need to be prioritized.
I'm so glad to hear that!
I am not sure where you are getting that idea from.
Probably from the real world:
But that's how the city directs doctors to treat non white people, as if being non white is a risk factor.
Do you have a problem with them being prioritized ?
Yeah, I have a problem with the government prioritizing members of one race over another.
When the vaccines first came out the elderly were prioritized. Did you have an issue with that ?
Not at all. There's a medical basis for prioritizing elderly people. I object to racial discrimination, which is what the city is doing. It takes two similarly situated people in terms of age/actual medical risks and treats one better solely because of race.
The news.
The point is the city is telling Doctors to use race as a factor in deciding who gets these medications. Whether doctors are following the directives is unknown, whether patients who have been discriminated against know they were discriminated against is unknown. Maybe the stocks aren't depleted enough for rationing to be be widely in effect yet.
Do you think it's sound policy fort the government to tell Doctors to discriminate on the basis of race and then hope they don't?
The way I understand the guidance is that the medicines are prioritized based on risk factors for progressing to severe Covid - meaning they currently don’t give the meds to just everyone who feels bad and calls the doctor or runs to the hospital. Most people just recover on their own.
So they dispense treatments like monoclonal antibodies early on to people who are sick, and aren’t yet in a bad way, but because of certain risk factors (e.g., age, diabetes, weak immune system, etc.) are more likely than others to become very sick. They limit it this way because of low supply.
Anyway, the CDC has said that race is also a risk factor for severe Covid. I doubt this is a direct result of ancestry or skin color. I would guess it’s more likely correlated to a series of socio-economic factors that might make a person of color more vulnerable - like generally not taking better care of oneself due to less education, poverty, drug habits, a history of substandard medical care, or a cultural distrust of doctors, generally. This is not intended as an exhaustive list.
Of course, a white person could be characterized by any of these traits as well, and no one of these factors is a guarantee that a person will develop severe Covid.
Risk factors, of course, are often just correlational relationships, and not cause-and-effect. i.e.: Being black or brown - on it’s own - doesn’t make people more sick with Covid. I would hope the other factors I mentioned are give more weight because there does appear to be more causal relationships there.
I really doubt many doctors are just throwing monoclonal antibodies at every person of color who walks through the door. And I doubt even fewer (I would actually guess zero) are refusing medicine to a white person on the grounds of their skin color alone.
On a related note: Early indications are the the monoclonal antibodies might not be as effective against Omicron as they were against other variants. But the new pill coming out is. And they claim supply won’t be a problem for the pill. So this may all be moot soon.
Don't worry, they know what the point is. They are all for it!