On January 7, 2022, the Biden administration issued new “guidance” regarding the treatment of COVID-19 patients. According to the FDA-generated “fact sheet,” hospitals should treat patients based on “risk level” and that risk should, in part, be determined by “race or ethnicity.”
On Monday, a midwestern hospital chain announced they will no longer adhere to the guidelines, noting an attorney called the guidance “profoundly unethical…, immoral, [and] illegal.”
SSM Health, a hospital chain operating 23 hospitals in the midwest, announced it would no longer use race as a determining factor for assigning a risk level to COVID-19 patients.
The chain noted it reevaluated its policy after receiving a strongly worded letter from a nonprofit conservative law firm.
Fox News reports that attorneys at the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) sent a letter to SSM Health warning “it is illegal to distribute monoclonal antibody products (mAbs) based on race.”
The letter referenced the new FDA-approved risk scoring calculator, which assigns White patients a 7-point handicap or disadvantage in scoring. WILL argues that, as there is a maximum score of 20 on the risk calculator, a seven-point advantage is very difficult to overcome and inherently racist.
Several civil rights groups assert the wording was necessary to ensure equity, noting that people of color are disproportionately impacted by COVID-19.
In a statement to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, SSM Health said the calculator referenced in WILL’s letter was outdated and no longer used. However, they recognized the inappropriateness of the latest guidance from the administration, stating:
“The internal memo cited by WILL inadvertently referenced an expired calculator…. While early versions of risk calculators across the nation appropriately included race and gender criteria based on initial outcomes, SSM Health has continued to evaluate and update our protocols weekly to reflect the most up-to-date clinical evidence available. As a result, race and gender criteria are no longer utilized.”
Fox News reports that medical facilities in Minnesota have also removed race as a determining factor for providing medical care to COVID-19 patients.
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