OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
The administration of President Joe Biden has decided to allow the decisions on who lives and who dies to be based, in part, by the race of the person who needs the help.
In a stunning decision, the administration has said it is OK for states to prioritize who receives potentially life saving monoclonal antibodies and oral antivirals used to fight COVID-19 based on their “race or ethnicity,” Fox News reported.
In a fact sheet issued for healthcare providers by the Food and Drug Administration, the federal agency approved emergency use authorizations of sotrovimab – a monoclonal antibody proven to be effective against the Omicron variant – only to patients considered “high risk.”
The guidance, updated in December 2021, says “medical conditions or factors” such as “race or ethnicity” have the potential to “place individual patients at high risk for progression to severe COVID-19,” adding that the “authorization of sotrovimab under the EUA is not limited to” other factors outlined by the agency.
Older age, obesity, pregnancy, chronic kidney disease, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease are among the multiple medical conditions and factors associated with what are considered “high risk” individuals by the FDA.
Some states, including New York and Utah, have made it clear they will prioritize certain racial minorities over other high–risk patients when it comes to the distribution of particular COVID treatments.
The fact that race could play a factor in determining if someone lives or dies is abhorrent and something that you could expect in the days of slavery and Jim Crow, not in 2022.
The state of New York, in its guidance, said that because of systemic racism white people can get in the back of the line for the new pills to treat COVID.
It said that one “risk factor” is not being a white person because of “longstanding systemic health and social inequities,” The Daily Mail reported.
New York State’s Health Department sent out a shocking memo, approved by Gov. Kathy Hochul that detailed the plan.
“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 memo said.
What that basically means is non-white people are going to be at the front of the line for these life saving treatments and white people will be left to pray they do not die.
The guidance comes as New York State set a one-day record of 76,555 for positive COVID tests, fueled by the Omicron variant, with more than 41,000 of those cases coming from New York City, according to data compiled by the health department.
However, the agency’s website does not detail the races of those infected.
Data from New York City’s official site shows the vaccination rate of white people at 63 percent, compared with 75 percent for Latinos, 58 percent for black residents and an astronomical 97 percent for Asians.
The state’s missive, titled ‘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 two oral antiviral treatments that had been touted as ‘available and lifesaving’ by the organization in an October press release.
In this week’s notice, however, department officials announced that the state was facing severe shortages in the availability of the two antiviral therapies, and subsequently listed a series of eligibility factors – such as age, weight, and mildness of symptoms – that practitioners are to take into account when administering the treatments.
The shortages have pushed New York’s Health officials to give members of ethnic group precedence when divvying out the sought-after drugs, said to be more effective at combating the latest mutation of the ever-present coronavirus, which has seen cases in New York City – as well as New York State – soar to record highs in recent weeks.
And in Utah not being white gives a person two points in determining if they qualify for the monoclonal antibodies.
“Race/ethnicity continues to be a risk factor for severe COVID-19 disease, and the Utah COVID Risk Score is one approach to address equitable access to hard hit communities,” the Utah guidance stated, adding a reminder that national guidance from the FDA “specifically states that race and ethnicity may be considered when identifying patients most likely to benefit from this lifesaving treatment,” it s
