New York may have triggered a new constitutional challenge with its policy to prioritize non-white people in the distribution of certain COVID-19 treatments. There are growing shortages due to a failure of the Biden Administration to anticipate the demand for monoclonal antibody treatment and antiviral pills as well as testing kits. New York’s Department of Health has responded to this shortage with a policy that will make race one of the prioritizing factors in distributing available resources. The policy, in my view, raises serious constitutional concerns over racial preferences in the supply of potentially life-saving treatments.
The memo acknowledged that “supplies of Sotrovimab are extremely limited.” As a result, most people are unlikely to be able to get access to such antiviral monoclonal treatments in the coming weeks.
I spoke to two leading doctors in the area by phone on Sunday who were livid about the failure of the Biden Administration to prioritize therapeutics earlier in the year when there was still time. Both said that they have struggled to find these treatments. Neither agreed with the use of race as a factor in making individual decisions over access to the scarce treatments.
The policy requires that distribution be based on findings that someone has “a medical condition or other factors that increase their risk for severe illness.” The key “other factors” include the “risk factor” of being non-white:
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.
Using race as a factor in such medical decisions immediately triggers constitutional concerns. When you delve deeper into the basis for the race preferences, the constitutional concerns only multiply.
The memo relies on two documents from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). However, those documents identify medical conditions that are more prevalent in the minority populations. One document, entitled “People with Certain Medical Conditions,” describes those who are “more likely to get severely ill from COVID-19.” The obvious conditions are cancer, diabetes, obesity, heart conditions and other medical ailments. However, the CDC also discusses race as a factor:
Long-standing systemic health and social inequities have put various groups of people at increased risk of getting sick and dying from COVID-19, including many people from certain racial and ethnic minority groups and people with disabilities.
Studies have shown people from racial and ethnic minority groups are also dying from COVID-19 at younger ages. People in minority groups are often younger when they develop chronic medical conditions and may be more likely to have more than one condition.
The second document is entitled “Risk of Severe Illness or Death from COVID-19 — Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities.” The CDC notes that not only are certain conditions like obesity more prevalent in minority populations but “people from some racial and ethnic minority groups are less likely to be vaccinated against COVID-19 than non-Hispanic White people.”
The lower rate of vaccinations in the minority populations could present a problem for some commentators on the left who have demanded that the unvaccinated be denied care or placed at the end of the line for care at hospitals. While such a policy would be unethical for physicians, people from Jimmy Kimmel to Don Lemon have suggested possibly denying scarce medical resources to those who have not agreed to be vaccinated. That, however, would mean putting a disproportionate number of minority citizens on the “do not heal” list.
It is not clear how these columnists and celebrities will now deal with a policy that gives preference to racial groups in part due to their higher unvaccinated numbers.
The problem for courts is that there is no reason to make race itself a factor as opposed to the medical conditions. Whether someone is obese is a fact that is entirely separate from their race. Either that condition exists or it does not exist. New York could simply prioritize on the basis of those conditions regardless of race. Ironically, given the higher rate of these conditions in minority communities, there would still be a higher priority given to many minority patients. Yet, by dropping the race criteria, you avoid clearly discriminatory cases where someone with a more serious medical risk profile could be prioritized lower due to being white.
A court is likely to have difficulty with the use of racial classifications in light of the availability of race neutral factors based on the actual medical conditions.
Any challenge, however, could face a problem in establishing a record of race-based denials. The state seems to have taken a chapter from college admissions policies where racial preferences are difficult to challenge due to the inclusion with other factors. It is hard to establish that race as opposed to other factors was given the determinative weight.
Erin Silk, a spokesperson for the New York Department of Health, captured that argument in her telling response to Fox News:
Systemic poverty, which has clearly proven to be a risk factor in populations in New York State and nationwide, is added to the algorithm of prioritization similar to all other risk factors. It is merely mentioned as a factor that increases risk.
A litigant, even proceeding under a declaratory judgment action, would need to show standing and an underlying injury. That could be difficult if the state uses race as one of a number of criteria. However, the reference to the algorithm is key. That programming will have to assign a weight given to the racial preferences. That could be easily established in discovery and the algorithmic discrimination could be the subject of an injunction.
This controversy is reminiscent of the litigation over racial preferences used by the Biden Administration under its controversial $4 billion race-based federal relief program for farmers. The awarding of relief based on race immediately raised objections of racial discrimination. As we discussed earlier, the exclusion has been struck down by judges in various states as racially discriminatory. What was particularly concerning was the discovery of a document that showed that the Biden Administration recognized that such racial preferences were presumptively unconstitutional.
New York is now proceeding on the same questionable course of using race preferences when it could base medical decisions on specific medical risk criteria. It is not only legally problematic but practically unnecessary. It will only add more uncertainty and division over pandemic care at a time when the scarcity of testing kits and therapeutics are increasing tensions in the country.
TWO YEARS
If masks work, why don’t masks work?
If lockdowns work, why don’t lockdowns work?
If vaccinations work, why don’t vaccinations work?
Whites need not apply.
People of White. People of Yellow. Probably, People of Red, too. And, of course, People of Orange. People of Brown?
On the next form that gives option to fill in “Other,” I’m filling in “beige.” Maybe ‘Tahitian vanilla’. Definitely not white.
Democrats are lawless and propose ideas that are anti-Constitution. Can all Dems just please move to Venezuela, Cuba, or some of their other dream countries? Real Americans are tired of Dem’s totalitarian and fascist ideas.
Did Congress identify, disclose and mandate people who contracted AIDS when it threatened the world?
Did any level of government mandate and compel quarantines, masking and vaccination during the AIDS outbreak?
Did Congress have a legal basis and any power to force lockdowns, masking and inoculations when AIDS threatened the world?
Seems like people refused to have AIDS disclosed to their insurance companies.
Seems like people refused disclosure of their HIV infection to their employers, insurance companies and elsewhere.
George, Fauci was in charge of AIDS also. So you have to understand that this is different because shut up!
No, apparently, socially liberal trans/homosexual males were not politically congruent (“=”), trendy, at that time.
Did Congress identify, disclose and mandate people who contracted AIDS when it threatened the world?
It was worse. If you were a homosexual, you were guilty of being a threat because it was assumed you were HIV+
Did any level of government mandate and compel quarantines, masking and vaccination during the AIDS outbreak?
Again, it was worse. Since it not airborne, quarantines, masking and vaccinations are not applicable. However, if it was discovered you were HIV+, you were fired from your job, and treated like a pariah
Did Congress have a legal basis and any power to force lockdowns, masking and inoculations when AIDS threatened the world?
see above
Seems like people refused to have AIDS disclosed to their insurance companies.
Actually, HIV+ sadly purposely drove up their viral load numbers so as to cash out on their insurance policies. Pretty horrific, but that’s what they did. They knew they were going to die, so they sold their insurance polices for one last hoorah. Sad but true
Seems like people refused disclosure of their HIV infection to their employers, insurance companies and elsewhere.
HIV people did not disclose their HIV status because people like you kept them that way.
George, these forums are meant for people to engage in intelligent discussions, back and forth dialogue, so that people can negotiate, grow and evolve. I realize you post in large part because of your mental illness (I mean this charitably), but you do have the ability to control and self-regulate your behaviors. Try to monitor yourself and play nicely in the sandbox. You win more flies with honey than vinegar. The stuff you wrote above about HIV folks is textbook what some of my ex-patients, who are now dead, had to endure because their families, friends, ex-lovers, wives/husbands/children, and church folks treated them like scum. One day you will need the compassionate care of a physician and medical team of professionals.
Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.
Gospel of St Matthew 25:40
“There are growing shortages due to a failure of the Biden Administration to anticipate the demand for monoclonal antibody treatment and antiviral pills as well as testing kits.”
Why is this a failure of the Biden Administration? The White House is for governance, not for doing business.
This is a failure of businessmen in the marketplace of supply and demand.
The White House is for governance, not for doing business.
Say what? Either you have no idea what you’re talking about, or the Texas HHS doesn’t, when they announced on December 27th:
The federal government controls the distribution of monoclonal antibodies, and the regional infusion centers in Austin, El Paso, Fort Worth, San Antonio and The Woodlands have exhausted their supply of sotrovimab, the monoclonal antibody effective against the COVID-19 Omicron variant, due to the national shortage from the federal government. They will not be able to offer it until federal authorities ship additional courses of sotrovimab to Texas in January.
This is a failure of businessmen in the marketplace of supply and demand.
Prove it.
Sorry, here is the link to my quote: https://dshs.texas.gov/news/releases/2021/20211227.aspx
Olly,
“The federal government controls the distribution of monoclonal antibodies”
Why would the government control this? What authority do they have to control this?
PR,
Idealism: The White House is for governance, not for doing business.
meets
Realism: Why would the government control this? What authority do they have to control this?
This is how you go from giving the wrong answers, to asking the right questions.
Well done!
Of course, the government has no legal basis or power to “control the distribution of monoclonal antibodies.”
Stalin, Hitler and Lincoln seized power and controlled everything – is that your position?
Please cite the Constitution wherein Congress and/or the executive branch are provided any power or authority to function as a private enterprise, to market or provide medical treatments, to mandate inoculations, or to regulate anything other than money, commerce and land and naval Forces.
Please do not cite irrelevant “case law” and fraudulent “implied powers” as any and all modifications of the actual literation of the Constitution must be achieved through the amendment process described in the Constitution.
And when the businessmen in the marketplace of supply and demand are competing for supply with the Biden administration’s HHS, is that the White House’s “governance” or is that the White House’s “business?”
DeSantis noted that the administration had stopped sending both Regeneron and Eli Lily monoclonal antibody treatments. The department later said it would allow states to order those products from HHS.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ron-desantis-biden-monoclonal-antibodies
Order from HHS? Say what? Is the HHS part of the supply chain, or is this just governance?
Olly,
“And when the businessmen in the marketplace of supply and demand are competing for supply with the Biden administration’s HHS, is that the White House’s “governance” or is that the White House’s “business?””
That is very bizarre and inappropriate. That is not the job of the HHS.
“Order from HHS? Say what? Is the HHS part of the supply chain”
They shouldn’t be, I agree.
Hi Prairie.
The feds have taken control of the monoclonal antibody supply. Normally, as you touched on, there is a supply/demand relationship between supplier and consumer. Demand for this therapeutic was low earlier in the year, so the feds relinquished control. When demand shot back up, the feds again took over.
While demand was low, there would not be enough money to ramp up production against a future surge, not in the order of magnitude needed for the entire country, let alone to address global need. It would require too much capital, and the risk would be that Covid might have faded in severity. This was a human health issue in which the feds should have placed future orders to stockpile treatment. We’ve known for a very long time now that the replication of the virus yields variants, while natural selection would favor variants that can evade immunity. The virus wouldn’t “care” what kind of immunity blocked its infection – whether vaccine-induced or naturally-acquired. Therefore, variants that could evade vaccination was predictable. Therefor, the Biden Administration focusing its efforts on vaccination was ludicrous. Vaccination is just one important weapon in the arsenal, not a panacea. Not only did vaccination not take into account naturally acquired immunity, but it ignored the obvious danger of new variants emerging that would have sufficiently different spike proteins so as to avoid immunity.
We’re lucky that omicron is milder, since it affects young people more than previous strains. One day, there might come a variant that both affects the young, and is severe. Luck favors the prepared.
I’ve enclosed an article that explains a bit about what’s going on.
https://www.aha.org/special-bulletin/2021-09-17-hhs-reinstates-original-distribution-method-covid-19-monoclonal
Thank you, Karen! I don’t recall having read anything about this in the news.
While I understand the capital concerns to some degree, in some ways it is more worrisome that the feds took over that industry at all.
I will read more on this matter.
I appreciate your patience!
Thank you, Karen! I don’t recall having read anything about this in the news.
Not the “news” you consume. They are curating the facts for you. Lots of stuff that would cause you to question the approved narrative.
Think long and hard about that as you spend all this week being spoon fed a “story” around Jan 6. Newsweek just broke the story about the DoJ, unilaterally executed an elabrote plan that included Agents dressed as protestors at the Capital.
https://www.newsweek.com/exclusive-secret-commandos-shoot-kill-authority-were-capitol-1661330?
Iowan2,
“Not the “news” you consume. They are curating the facts for you. Lots of stuff that would cause you to question the approved narrative.”
You have no idea what “news” I “consume”. I have been extremely busy the last 2-3 months and have not read as much of the news as I ought (in any case, the “narrative” is everywhere and it gets tedious sifting through it). I try to read a wide variety of news (various local papers/news sites, Zerohedge, Drudge, GoogleNews, LibertyDaily, etc). I am aware various sites curate news. I deeply question the approved narrative. I ignore pretty much any “news” on the events of January 6. It is a $h!t$how.
PR:
I agree with your concern about the feds controlling the entire monoclonal antibody supply chain. They should have placed a large order to stockpile against future necessity. Negotiated contracts. This would have helped fund manufacturing scale up. They should have provided grants. But seize control of the entire supply chain, prohibit direct orders from hospitals, and ration based on race and allegedly, political affiliation of states? No.
This is the second time the feds took control of this therapeutic. Only a few news organizations covered this story, for the most part when the Biden Administration began rationing it.
This is always the problem with government control of an industry. You might not agree with allocation and efficiency.
Prarie, the Feds control all things medical in the USA, a good thing. If you travel to Mexico, just across from San Diego in Tijuana, you can pick up just about any thing you wish that is medically related. Not so in the USA. Pharmaceutical products, medical devices, diagnostics, equipment, etc, all controlled by the Feds, again a very good thing. So yes, Biden is at fault here.
See:
FDA’s Role in Regulating Medical Devices
FDA regulates the sale of medical device products (including diagnostic tests) in the U.S. and monitors the safety of all regulated medical products.
https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/home-use-devices/fdas-role-regulating-medical-devices
Estovir,
“the Feds control all things medical in the USA, a good thing”
Thank you for the clarity. I did not realize the extent of control and regulation.
Then, yes, Biden is very much at fault.
Thank you for your patience, too, Estovir!
On this I think I prefer the freedom of Mexico.
The US healthcare bureaucrats have made a very sorry spectacle in the last couple of years. They have provided multiple examples of why we don’t want greasy federal fingers stuck into every pie.
On this I think I prefer the freedom of Mexico.
You are not thinking it through. I forget where you live in the USA, but if you were to travel to San Diego, cross the bridge to Tijuana, and roam the area where pharmacy vendors are located, you would have at your disposal the entire gamut of drugs offered in America at far cheaper prices, as well as drugs not offered in America but available in South America. If you were to visit each vendor, you would notice that the prices are more or less the same, and you could haggle about the price. However, upon inspection, you would notice that the labels are dubious. You have no assurance by the vendor that the box or vial of X you are purchasing, contains X. It could contain a small concentration of X, mixed with water, silica, aspirin, sand, etc. It could be pure, it could be 100% fake, but you would not know during your visit to the vendor. Unless if you had a private laboratory at home that could perform a quality analysis of the product you purchased, you would be at the mercy of the “good faith” of the vendor. The vendor likely is just a middle man trying to sell his wares to earn a living in Mexico.
The USA has 2 types of pharmacies available to the public. The first is the retail pharmacy (e.g. CVS, Rite-Aid, etc) and the other is the compounding pharmacy. In the former you can buy products certified by the FDA. None of them are made by the pharmacy staff, but all coming from pharma companies, via distributors as governed by Fed laws, all verified as to purity and efficaciousness. However if you wish to buy an injectable medication, for example, if you have a hormonal imbalance ailment, you might be tempted to send your prescription from your physician to have it dispensed by the compounding pharmacy, e.g. Empower Pharmacy in Texas, a popular CP for active duty military.
https://www.empowerpharmacy.com/drug-catalog?drug%5B0%5D=dosage_form_drug%3A5
There is no assurance any of those injectable items are what they claim to be. Sadly, desperate patients will buy from compounding pharmacies thinking they are saving money for an equally efficacious CVS dispensed product. The FDA does not routinely inspect compounding pharmacies, but when they do, they often have a history of being issued a red flag known as a “Form FDA-483”
https://www.fda.gov/media/137544/download
It would be comforting to believe that the vendor in Mexico, compounding pharmacies and your local drug dealer, are selling you purified, sterile, clinically proven efficacious products.
The nation was started by the US Founding Fathers in the belief that natural law governed men. Today that is a quaint idea. You can’t trust the vendors, the compounding pharmacies, the local drug dealer, nor the government agencies and politicians offering to “Make America Great Again” / “Build Back Better”. So yes, we need the government to control medical products in our nation, since they are charged to patrol our borders. Alas, they aren’t patrolling our borders so there is that.
Prairie Rose says: January 3, 2022 at 8:37 PM
Thank you for your patience, too, Estovir!
You’re welcome. I get something out of this forum as well: distractions and a break from the pressures of my career and otherwise heavy, dense, cerebral stuff mixed with the human condition. What could possibly go wrong? :-/
Salut!
“. . . we need the government to control medical products in our nation . . .”
Why? You don’t trust your own judgment? Or your doctor’s? Or the pharmacy’s? Or the Pharm company’s?
You don’t trust the judgment of any of those individuals? But you do trust the judgment of bureaucrats?
Why? You don’t trust your own judgment? Or your doctor’s? Or the pharmacy’s? Or the Pharm company’s?
1. I am flawed and imperfect, hence my judgment is not infallible.
2. I consult with my doctors about their opinions on whatever ails me but they rarely provide a solid pronouncement, knowing I will likely have half a dozen clinical studies in my pocket supporting my concerns. But yes, I do rely on their insight since it has more weight than that of my family and friends.
3. I am not able to perform a lab analysis of drugs sold at the pharmacy
4. Never
Do you have an intellectual argument to make on here?
You don’t trust the judgment of any of those individuals? But you do trust the judgment of bureaucrats?
As stated elsewhere, I have little regard for government agencies but I am not about to overthrow them.
Notice how the majority of my comments are supported by links pointing to scientific studies, clinical documents, quotes from reliable sources, etc. Feel free to show us some of that academic shtick you supposedly utilized at your former employer, or was that at a culinary arts school?
Why is it all or none? Without question, our government-controlled ‘health’ sector, whether the FDA, CDC, Medicare, or Medicaid, have all screwed up badly. There are good arguments made on both sides, but the arguments we hear from the left today are not good arguments.
Estovir, think of years ago and people with atrial tachycardia. They were provided dangerous treatments and frequently had to be hospitalized. This situation occurred while the FDA banned a drug successfully used in Europe and Canada. When that drug was finally approved, it was used. Most people with atrial tachycardia were treated with a lower risk of complications and death and sent home without hospitalization. Think of those with asthma. Doctors were using high doses of steroids. We all know the damage steroids do, but at the same time, inhaled steroids at a tiny fraction of the dose were inhaled directly into the lungs, successfully reducing the need for high doses of oral or injectable steroids. That was lousy thinking on the part of the FDA in both cases and many others. Think of the drug fen-phen for weight control. Though not necessary like the other drugs that saved lives, fen-phen was approved. You are a doctor, so you know that drug probably never should have been approved as it blocked both pathways leading to disease (Carcinoid-like) for some reason the FDA did not expect. You know what I am talking about.
Then we can look at the CDC and those government departments that were supposed to save us from epidemics. When Covid came, the cabinets that should have been filled with supplies were near empty. That is government at work. Move onto protective gear, treatments and vaccines, the production of which was being bumbled by our government agencies. You know all that. What was Trump’s great contribution? He opened the door to private entrepreneurs to provide us with what we needed. We got a vaccine in less than a year. Our government never thought about producing drugs and essential life-saving PPE in this country, instead of permitting our enemy China to control our supply and our well-being.
How about Medicare and Medicaid? You do know that there was a lot of fighting about Medicare. That fighting was not to deny older people healthcare. It was about preserving our economy and stimulating private insurance, which was starting to be a major force in protecting the old as well as the young. I’m sure you know that the alternative program to Medicare at the time was a program similar to Medicaid, which was aimed to provide help to those with few resources.
You might think I am too right-wing since I believe in people like Hayek and Friedman. Am I? Look at what we are doing to the middle-class today that can no longer afford the deductibles or premiums in today’s world. Just remember, Hayek stated that it could afford to provide some healthcare to the needy in a rich country as long as it did so with the least interference in the marketplace. Doing that would have made the lives of today’s middle class much better.
I know Mexico pretty well. You don’t like the government’s lack of control over health care, and it can be scary. It is not all or none, as indicated by ‘right-wing’ Hayek. I don’t want to extend this discussion to pages and pages, but think of why, before all this government control, people looked towards solid companies like Merck rather than fly by nights. Then think of the 100,000 + and rising deaths from drugs coming across the border while thinking about the cost to benefit ratios. While you think, I will stop.
Each individual needs choice. For the most part, I think the individual is more concerned over his own life than that high school dropout in DC that has been given control over the patient’s future.
S. Meyer,
“When Covid came, the cabinets that should have been filled with supplies were near empty. That is government at work. Move onto protective gear, treatments and vaccines, the production of which was being bumbled by our government agencies.”
It is being explained as a crisis of incompetence, but there is too much propaganda, too many fascinating juxtapositions for it to be just that. That element is in there to some degree, sure, but, as Dr. Peterson might say–It’s waaaay deeper than that.
On the bright side, perhaps there’ll be some judicious pruning going on. However, I’m not inclined to be espaliered, so to speak.
S. Meyer– ” I know Mexico pretty well. ”
+++
Me too. Estovir paints a darker picture than is justified by the realities. Funny that Canadians come to America for healthcare and Americans go to Mexico or Costa Rica or Thailand for some products and services. In all cases the flow is to greater choice and freedom.
Estovir is not the only one who understands the world of immigrants, even those from Cuba.
Decades ago, while we were socializing healthcare, I advocated something completely different. I thought we should make America into the healthcare mecca of the world. We had the ability, knowledge and freedom to make healthcare a cash cow while benefitting Americans.
Would that it had been done.
One thing that has made healthcare so slow to respond is that multiple layers of regulation have put as much focus on ‘compliance’ and ‘targets’ as on actually treating patients properly.
Young, at a later date I advocated offshore treatment facilities in countries close to the US or just offshore the coast (you can guess what I was thinking). The offshore facilities would be close enough to be staffed by physicians from certain major medical centers.
Healthcare prices in this country are very high and in great part due to government and liability concerns. Costs could probably be cut in half or more without compromising quality and access if we used the marketplace.
S. Meyer,
Isn’t a huge part of the problem with the FDA, and likely the CDC (and probably other parts of of government), the excessively close relationships with Big Business (particularly large pharmaceutical companies) and revolving employment from the private sector to the government and back again? (among other problems)
People can too easily make allowances for friends and former colleagues, give people breaks, etc. when they are too closely allied with those in the private sector–i.e., corporatism/crony capitalism.
Perhaps it isn’t that the FDA or the CDC exist, it’s how the people leading these public institutions are behaving. Are they public servants or private servants?
Prairie, think about our discussion about schools, and see how what you are saying above can be applied to what we talked about before.
S. Meyer,
The corporatism/crony capitalism would only be a serious problem in the largest districts. Most districts are in towns and small cities where people know each other, each others’ connections, and can keep tabs on their elected representatives far better.
Prairie, that doesn’t mean they do.
S. Meyer,
“Prairie, that doesn’t mean they do.”
There is that possibility. However, I do not see it much at all in my area. People are extremely interconnected. Lots of folks whose great-great-great grandparents were born here or moved in as immigrants and their descendants have also stayed.
Prairie, draw a circle in proportion to the map that equals 34 square miles. Then put your town in the center and let us know the population within the circle.
N=1 is anecdotal.
S. Meyer,
I do not want to give such potentially detailed information about my location. Fewer than 30,000 in about 50 square miles. Another district I’ve lived in only had about 50 people per square mile.
New York City has about 30,000 people per square mile.
Estovir– ” I am flawed and imperfect, hence my judgment is not infallible.”
++++
So are people like Fauci and Biden, hence the need for open discourse and judgment.
Right now the popes of the system are clearly fallible on vaccines and Ivermectin and early treatment. Rational [successful] treatments have been worked out in the field, not handed down from on high.
The popes of healthcare also bungled with their lockdowns and masks and other policies. Now they are strangling the supplies of monoclonal antibodies. Remdesivir, which is costly, toxic and ineffective is still bring used for Covid.
Looking back at the wreckage and deaths from their policies I am struggling to find anything they got right.
The one normal corrective in science, open airing of different views, is being crushed by agencies, media and by big tech colluding with government.
There is no stabilizing mechanism. Estovir, you are on your own and you need to use your own “flawed and imperfect” judgment to the best of your ability.
Big Brother is really Big Bully. And Big Bully doesn’t give a crap about you.
“Do you have an intellectual argument to make on here?” “. . . culinary arts school?”
I know. You don’t like having your ideas and premises challenged, so you attack the challenger. That’s your MO.
So much for “playing nice in the sandbox.”
🙂
“. . . all controlled by the Feds, again a very good thing.”
Why is government control of medicine a “good thing?” (Or did I misunderstand you?)
At some point the solution is going to be extra-judicial action.
The Left is going to finally do something that triggers a response that is becoming seen as the only way to remove the radical Left from control of the Federal Government.
The Anniversary of January 6th is fast approaching….let’s pray it remains peaceful.
The safe way to show your feelings about the situation the Country finds itself enduring is to stay home….call in sick to work….stay off line….read a book…cook a good meal…spend time with your family.
Let the Lefties get out and show what they are made of and how they view civility and respect for Law and Order.
Personally, I would love seeing a passive revolt by those who object to the Leftist Agenda.
For the record…..FJB!
Form a committee; refer to the FBI and the DOJ.
Question: Has there ever been “Yellow” supremacy?
Has there ever been incessant “Yellow” caterwauling and demands for assistance, affirmative action, “free stuff,” social services, “fair housing,” forced busing, “non-discrimination,” public housing, Yellowcare, etc.
“No rice; no justice!”
Never heard that before!
It seems like the “Yellow” people are quietly self-reliant, persistently busily preparing themselves for the “talent/labor” market, and inexorably successful in obtaining advanced university degrees, frequently, in my experience, Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD), and successful in their personal and professional lives.
I vote for “Yellow” supremacy.
“…THE RECONSTRUCTION OF A SOCIAL WORLD.”
It’s “People of Color” supremacy engendered, not by physics, nature, acumen or merit, but by the making equal of the unequal and by the making superior of the inferior, by the socially engineered redistribution of communism imposed on America by “Crazy Abe” Lincoln’ during his wholly unconstitutional, dictatorial and tyrannical “Reign of Terror,” which was advocated then approved by none other than Karl Marx himself.
To wit,
“The workingmen of Europe feel sure that, as the American War of Independence initiated a new era of ascendancy for the middle class, so the American Antislavery War will do for the working classes. They consider it an earnest of the epoch to come that it fell to the lot of Abraham Lincoln, the single-minded son of the working class, to lead his country through the matchless struggle for the rescue of an enchained race and the reconstruction of a social world.”
– Karl Marx and the First International Workingmen’s Association to Lincoln, 1864
“New York Announces That Scarce Covid-19 Treatments Will Be Prioritized For Non-White Patients”
The people making these kinds of pure race based decisions are anti-white racists; period, end of discussion. It seems that anti-white persecution is politically correct for the anti constitution social justice blithering idiots.
All these race based virtue signaling decisions intentionally giving non-white individuals specific privileges over white individuals are destroying the arguments that white privilege or anti-black systemic racism actually exists in the USA. You don’t see ANY equivalent decisions intentionally giving white individuals specific privileges over non-white individuals, I challenge anyone to show me just one example. As far as I’m concerned; the systemic white supremacist racism claims are a fake news, faux outrage, lies, etc; however, the new anti-white systemic racism claims are documented just like this decision.
Racism is wrong no matter what race is being intentionally discriminated against.
Witherspoon, that’s not what the memo that Turley is using to make that claim is saying. Turley is being disingenuous with the facts here.
Wrong! Turley is highly ethical.
I’m breaking my own rule and commenting on a comment from one of the anonymous commenters.
Anonymous wrote, “that’s not what the memo that Turley is using to make that claim is saying. Turley is being disingenuous with the facts here.”
“Disingenuous with the facts”,that’s an absolutely absurd claim.
The memo clearly stated, “Non-white race or Hispanic/Latino ethnicity should be considered a risk factor”; that Mr. Anonymous is literally a directive and it’s as clear as the nose on your face; period, end of discussion. If you can’t comprehend that that statement was directive to immorally prioritize giving non-white patients treatments over white patients then you’re either an idiot or a liar, you choose which.
I know that was brutally honest but it’s absolutely truthful.
Fin.
Why are these issues at all? Why do American citizens allow the government to accuse US of racism 60 years after the Democrat Party’s “Great Society”? The alleged “systemic racism” and “medical disadvantage” has come from the US government itself during the two+ generations since it was made law. Government: You know, those 2 political Parties and all those Democrat and Republican Congressmen who become fossilized in their seats in Congress for 50 years utilizing a political ideology older than dirt (marxism/progressivism/socialism). Further, how many years has the Democrat Party been the majority in Washington DC and Main street? It’s striking that fwe were told for the last 60 years that the Democrat Party’s “Great Society” legislation would change all these complaints for the American citizens in the Black community, and by extention other minorities like the Native American, American Hispanic, Naturalized Latino, and the Southeast Asian communities. Those groups have been exclusively supported by the US government through Federal and State Welfare, food stamps, and Medicaid. Medicaid provides their medical care, paid for by the government and provided for by government-affiliated facilities which receive beaucoup money every year. The modern history of government-provided “health care” on Indian reservations is infamously bad, and, I’d wager, just the same as what the Black community had endured.
Compare and contrast how Trump and Biden approached logistical considerations for the pandemic.
Trump enacted Operation Warpspeed. He identified critical supply chain bottlenecks and swept them away. Even companies that refused to accept Warpspeed funds, because they didn’t want to be bound to price controls, found myriad ways in which to receive government funding. Normally, pharmaceutical companies wait for FDA approval, and then design and ramp up manufacturing, slowly increasing supply. Trump had a standing order of guaranteed money, allowing these companies to build out manufacturing even before approval so they could hit the ground running. I don’t think many people outside the pharmaceutical industry appreciate the shocking smooth and fast innovation to delivery speed that passed Warp 9. It was transwarp. Infinite Warp 10.
By contrast, Biden ignored advice to ramp up testing and therapeutics. He fumbled, and whined that a surge in Covid was not predicted, despite epidemiologists warning that the nature of Covid replication favored variants that evade immunity…any kind of immunity, whether vaccination-induced or naturally acquired. This makes further waves inevitable.
Vaccination was the first crucial step. But this isn’t smallpox that can be eradicated through a vaccine, because Covid generates genetic changes every time it replicates. We should have immediately shifted to focus on testing, therapeutics, and prevention. The results of masking is mixed, especially because the general population do not follow medical masking protocols, discarding masks throughout the day and replacing with fresh. You cannot rely on masking.
THIS is yet another reason why conservatives like me conclude that the Left is racist.
There is no excuse for deliberate racial discrimination in health care. Medical need should be the parameter.
This sends the message that a healthy 35 year old black man would somehow deserve Covid medicine more than a 60 year old Asian or white woman with risk factors.
This should violate the Civil Rights Act.
Everyone is equal, but some are more equal than others, right?
We also need an investigation into allegations that the Biden Administration has throttled down Covid medication to Red States.
Finally, policies need to reflect the science, and value naturally-acquired immunity as much as vaccinated immunity. Natural selection gives variants that can evade immunity the edge on replication. The Covid vaccine, while valuable, stimulates immunity against the original spike protein. Omicron has a sufficiently different spike protein that it can infect the vaccinated. Those who recover from Omicron will have immunity based on different proteins than the original SARS-CoV2. Theoretically, if you’re vaccinated and recover from Omicron, you have a far more varied immunity than if you were vaccinated alone. I’m not urging anyone to get sick, but the silver lining is an increased immunity. Those who recovered from the original Covid had immunity that recognized something like 56 more binding sites than that generated from vaccination. Those who recover from the original, or even Delta Covid, as well as Omicron, will have immunity to diverse binding sites. Diversity is good, right?
The vaccine likely saved the life and health of people like me, who are high risk. I’m grateful it was made available. But these draconian measures using brute government force is going down the wrong road.
Remember when people would laugh at the reasoning for the 2nd Amendment, to guard against tyranny? I think less people are laughing now, having seen how quickly our Republic has veered left into dictatorial policies.
Does this mean Senator Warren can go to the front of the line because she is a woman of color?
Will the governor of New York go to the end of the line? Probably not.
Isn’t diversity great!
“Omicron has a sufficiently different spike protein that it can infect the vaccinated.”
There are also “breakthrough” cases with Delta.
The administration’s excuse for not ordering sufficient therapeutics is that they did not see the Omicron variant coming. And they weren’t aware of the Delta variant (and the efficacy of treating that variant with therapeutics)? And their public health “experts” (Fauci, et al) do not know the history and science of how viruses mutate? And they don’t realize that, given the nature of viruses, Omicron is a natural and predictable progression?
If that’s true, then while Fauci considers himself the embodiment of “science,” he doesn’t know science.
So what they are really saying is that of all the people in NY, it is the white population that are better suited to take care of themselves without the need of the nanny state and it is the POC minorities that just can’t quite get it done for themselves? Prove me wrong or does the dem party treat their “minority” population as their “special needs” child.
Diversity [dogma] (i.e. color judgment, class-based bigotry), Inequity, and Exclusion. DIE is a protocol under the Pro-Choice religion that denies women and men’s dignity and agency, and reduces human life to a politically congruent (“=”) commodity.
n.n., States: “reduces life to a politically congruent commodity.”
Yes, it is at the foundation of “utilitarianism”; the philosophy of the demonrat party since it was formed, as well Margaret Sanger, hitler, both Sr and Jr Gates, Allen Dulles, fraudchi, many others.
Speaking to the edict by hochul – Such discrimination cannot be explained without ascribing some motivation; and an acknowledgement that the obvious one is rarely the actual motivation. This is a demonrat initiative/policy “favoring (imposed)” on segments of the population which have resisted the “jabs” and “boosters” (of course the first step in treating any infection (as all will co-present with a CoVid-19 scariant) will be application of an initial dose of the mRNA concoction); and such demographic groups have been trending away from the demonrat party servitude. …
I wonder: Could the “favoring, discrimination” be “punishment” rather than “favoritism” ?
Achieving health equity requires valuing everyone equally with focused and ongoing efforts to address avoidable inequities, historical and contemporary injustices, and the elimination of health and healthcare disparities.
This run-on sentence would normally have the word but after the word equally. That however would make their racism even more obvious. If the goal of this administration was to make white Americans suffer the indignity of racism in the same way Democrats made non-white’s suffer under Jim Crow laws, then they would have something they’ve accomplished after a year in office.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/health-equity/cdc-strategy.html
Is there any federal agency that our citizens can trust is committed to policy-making that doesn’t discriminate by race?
“. . . address avoidable inequities, historical and contemporary injustices . . .”
With, of course, whites as the “oppressors” and blacks as the “oppressed.”
Will they also deny that CRT has infiltrated medicine?
Will they also deny that CRT has infiltrated medicine?
Yes, but not because it hasn’t; because they cannot defend their racism on principle. So they will seek to gaslight rational people with their denials. It will only work on (and be defended by) the reliably gullible useful idiots.
“. . . they will seek to gaslight rational people . . .”
Exactly! Their obfuscations, half-truths, inconsistencies, outright lies, and panic-mongering have been on full display, since the start of this absurdity.
What’s equally disturbing is Americans’ passivity. With the first tyrannical diktats — the lockdowns (of the healthy?!), the shutdowns of business, the usurpations of rights (freedom of assembly, of religion, of property) — I remember thinking: “This will be a good test of whether Americans are still Americans — whether they still have the spirit of: “Don’t tread on me.”
Tragically, over the last two years, the American response to those diktats (with rare exceptions) has been to curl up into a fetal position.
I remember thinking: “This will be a good test of whether Americans are still Americans — whether they still have the spirit of: “Don’t tread on me.”
Perhaps I haven’t been paying attention, but has there been any discussions regarding wargaming a virus like this exercise in October 2019? If you click through the links at the top of the page, it would appear to have been the response we’ve actually taken. One more thing: if we boiled down Fauci’s recommendations since this all began, every ingredient (recommendation) would be offset by an opposing ingredient. The residual at the bottom of the pan, for which there has been no offset recommendation, is government control over everything.
The Event 201 scenario
Event 201 simulates an outbreak of a novel zoonotic coronavirus transmitted from bats to pigs to people that eventually becomes efficiently transmissible from person to person, leading to a severe pandemic. The pathogen and the disease it causes are modeled largely on SARS, but it is more transmissible in the community setting by people with mild symptoms.
The disease starts in pig farms in Brazil, quietly and slowly at first, but then it starts to spread more rapidly in healthcare settings. When it starts to spread efficiently from person to person in the low-income, densely packed neighborhoods of some of the megacities in South America, the epidemic explodes. It is first exported by air travel to Portugal, the United States, and China and then to many other countries. Although at first some countries are able to control it, it continues to spread and be reintroduced, and eventually no country can maintain control.
There is no possibility of a vaccine being available in the first year. There is a fictional antiviral drug that can help the sick but not significantly limit spread of the disease.
Since the whole human population is susceptible, during the initial months of the pandemic, the cumulative number of cases increases exponentially, doubling every week. And as the cases and deaths accumulate, the economic and societal consequences become increasingly severe.
The scenario ends at the 18-month point, with 65 million deaths. The pandemic is beginning to slow due to the decreasing number of susceptible people. The pandemic will continue at some rate until there is an effective vaccine or until 80-90 % of the global population has been exposed. From that point on, it is likely to be an endemic childhood disease.
https://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/event201/scenario.html
“. . . the word but after the word equally.”
That’s a great, careful reading — and an excellent point. They try to hide their actual agenda, both by commission (the squishy words that they use), and by omission (the “but”).
(the squishy words that they use),
I like the way you put that. I’m going to use that on my 13 year old son to explain to him how his 500 word essay could eliminate 400 “squishy” words that add absolutely no value to the essay. 😉
It’s not just New York. The federal government issued a rule in September that the drug companies could only sell these drugs to the government, and the government would distribute them to the states. But the Biden government has failed again, and there are shortages all over the country. Minnesota is using a “priority list” of who can and cannot get these drugs: you get points for being over 65, for having various preconditions….and for simply being a minority. This places “group identity” over individual health, and that seems to be the crux of all the differences between the woke/CRT mob and conservatives: group vs. individual. The irony is that most of them haven’t a clue what socialism is and how they will NOT like it at all once they impose it from above. Never thought I’d live to see the day when medicines were rationed according to race, but the Democrats have violated all norms of ethics and decency.
Would Barack Obama qualify as non-white when it is irrefutable he is 50% white? How ‘non-white’ does one need to be to meet New York State ‘standards?’
“Would Barack Obama qualify as non-white when it is irrefutable he is 50% white?”
Maybe NY will decide to give him only ½ a pill. Logic defies leftists.
“. . . policy to prioritize non-white people in the distribution of certain COVID-19 treatments.”
If America’s tribalists are trying to trigger an ethnic war, such racist policies are a step in the right direction.
The”healthcare is a right!” sloganeering popular with the Left needs to be modified.
What they really mean is “healthcare is a right. Unless you are white.”
It even rhymes.
Healthcare is a rite, as in women’s reproductive rites, is a [Pro-Choice (“ethical”)] religious practice for social, redistributive, and fair weather causes with progressive prices and availability. Baby Lives Matter (BLM)
Don’t worry Danny, you’ll get your antibodies after you or someone in your family contracts covid (despite being triple jabbed)! Would you be making the same argument if it favored any non-minority group? Of course you wouldn’t.
These kind of openly discriminatory laws are another example of how much the left hates Heritage America.
I want a DIVORCE.
antonio