People wait to be vaccinated with the Covid vaccine at the Jacob K Javits Convention Center in New York City on March 2, 2021. (Mike Seger / Reuters)
A century Earlier, Soviet dissident writer Evgeny Zamiatin novelized a future dystopia where equality was taken very seriously. New York is currently trying something similar. He advises doctors to reject Covid-19’s white life-saving drugs because of racial equality. To do so, it treats non-whiteness as an insult as a serious medical illness.
A note from the State Health Department approved by Governor Kathy Hokul states that race should be a factor in the ratio of Pfizer’s Paxrovid pills to monoclonal antibody therapy, along with consideration of age, weight, and severity of symptoms. Said:
Non-Caucasian or Hispanic / Latin ethnicity is a risk factor as many years of general health and social inequality contribute to the increased risk of serious illness and death from COVID-19. Should be considered.
For clarity, whites in New York can prescribe these treatments, if available. However, non-white patients are presumed to be suffering from social inequality that exacerbates the likelihood of illness and death because they are not white and are therefore immediately eligible. If Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai gets sick from Covid in New York and falls into a situation similar to a white street sweeper in New York City, New York guidance states that Pichai (net worth: about $ 600 million) is an equal name. Given the priority below. Alternatively, at least the Pichai race should focus on ration decisions as a serious comorbidity.
Curiously, this is not the first time a public health agency has attempted an obvious and dull form of racism — as if their job was not to stop the pandemic, but to the social consequences between racial groups. As if to smooth the distribution. In 2020, the CDC’s Vaccine Advisory Board proposed racial preferences for vaccine distribution. This form of madness was thankfully abandoned. But in the overwhelmingly white state of Vermont, the Republican governor defended the racial preference for vaccines. New York City guidance also calls for racial preferences, where doctors are required to report the race of people receiving life-saving Covid treatment.
It can be argued that some racial groups suffered more during the pandemic, but it usually lives in crowded homes, is an essential worker, or has comorbidities such as severe obesity. This is because it is highly likely that you have it. Prioritizing public health responses to meet people in such situations in a racially neutral manner may be an appropriate policy.
What New York is proposing is like the positive discrimination preached by Ibram X. Kendy: All government policies must actively discriminate against whites until equality is achieved. Become an anti-racist and reject antiviral drugs against the sick.
This form of egalitarianism points out that it violates New York’s own constitution, which prohibits companies, institutions, and state institutions from discriminating on the basis of “race, color, beliefs, or religion.” Is enough.
But that policy is also stupid and immoral. Like most forms of affirmative action, it does not resolve inequality, but is fair and ethical while benefiting most members of racial minority groups who have sufficient privileges to play the system. It confuses and confuses administrators trying to do their jobs. To make matters worse, by treating racial status as an inherent disability, or disqualification of treatment, it violates the oldest principles of medical ethics: do not harm or injustice.
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