New York City to Consider a Patient’s Race When Providing Covid Treatments
New York City’s Health Department will take into account a Covid-19 patient’s race when considering whether they should receive potentially lifesaving treatment • Full Story
Yeshiva World News
New York City’s Health Department will take into account a Covid-19 patient’s race when considering whether they should receive potentially lifesaving treatment.
The Health Department’s official guidance says it will “consider race and ethnicity when assessing individual risk,” claiming that “longstanding systemic health and social inequities” can lead to higher rates of black and Hispanic people dying of Covid-19.
The guidance will apply to both the distribution of monoclonal antibodies and oral medications like Paxlovid and Molnupiravir, the NY Post reports.
The Post says that the city’s guidance is already having real-world effects, with a Staten Island doctor saying that a pharmacist asked for information regarding the race of two patients before filling prescriptions they had for Paxlovid.
“In my 30 years of being a physician I have never been asked that question when I have prescribed any treatment,” the doctor told the Post. “The mere fact of having to ask this question is a slippery slope.”
The Post says that it isn’t yet clear whether whites are being excluded from treatments due to the city’s guidance, but many are concerned that it could lead to white people being barred from obtaining necessary drugs in the future.
“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.”
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