The Argument for New York's Racist and Illegal Distribution of COVID Treatments Could Backfire

Using the same logic, vaccine mandates are racist too!

The FDA has in recent months approved, on an emergency basis, the use of monoclonal antibodies for treatment of COVID. But New York City does not have enough monoclonal antibodies to go around, and is using race to help prioritize who will be given the treatment. Not only is this decision immoral and illegal, but the logic could well be used to argue that vaccination mandates are racist.

The Gazette reported on December 31:

When it comes to distributing two new COVID-19 treatments in New York, officials have been instructed to prioritize nonwhite people as the state contends with a surge in cases with the emergence of the omicron variant.

The New York Department of Health released a memo Monday outlining a plan for prioritizing distribution of the limited supply of the antiviral treatment molnupiravir, which is manufactured by Merck, and the antiviral pill Paxlovid, manufactured by Pfizer. Both treatments are for people with mild to moderate COVID-19 at high risk of progression to a severe case, and both were approved by the Food and Drug Administration last week under the Emergency Use Authorization.

Included in the memo is a section on eligibility that includes a criterion that people must have a medical condition or other factors that increase their risk for severe illness. A bullet point below that criterion said people who are nonwhite or Hispanic/Latino should be considered as having a risk factor and therefore meets that criterion.

"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 document said.

Medical care should be individualized, and a black or Latino Ivy-League educated bank executive living in the tony part of town after a pampered childhood ought not be seen as more at risk because of his or her race or ethnicity, as compared to, say, a poor white man from Appalachia who was laid off from his factory job three years ago and has struggled with homelessness and addiction ever since. The sort of wokeism behind New York’s proposed rationing favors stereotypes over individualized assessments by doctors, and is a prime example of the reason conservatives have always been suspicious of a system that puts government in charge of rationing health care.

What’s more, such a rule is almost certainly illegal.