F.A.I.R. Sues NYC Over Race-Based Medical Policy: ‘Violated Fundamental Constitutional & Civil Rights Protections’

Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism files federal lawsuit “to stop New York City from enforcing its unconstitutional order prioritizing COVID-19 treatments based on racial categorization and ethnicity.”

QUICK FACTS:
  • On January 20, 2022, FAIR filed a federal lawsuit to stop New York City from enforcing its unconstitutional order prioritizing COVID-19 treatments based on racial categorization and ethnicity, according to the organization’s website.
  • New York justifies this “racial hierarchy,” writes FAIR, not because of any genetic or biological predisposition to severe Covid-19, but because of “longstanding systemic health and social inequities.”
  • “By treating individuals differently based on their ancestry, the City has violated fundamental constitutional and civil rights protections. While nominally aimed at addressing inequities, racializing healthcare harms people from all racial and ethnic groups,” FAIR argues.
  • You can read the full legal complaint here.
WHERE THE RACISM IS:

“A non-white or Hispanic adult patient will automatically be placed on the priority list for treatment, no matter how young and healthy they are,” FAIR explains. “Additionally, a non-Hispanic white patient will always be in line behind a patient who is the same in every respect but is non-white or Hispanic.”

“By treating individuals differently based on their ancestry, the City has violated fundamental constitutional and civil rights protections. While nominally aimed at addressing inequities, racializing healthcare harms people from all racial and ethnic groups. Non-white and Hispanic patients who are otherwise young and healthy will receive these experimental therapies, even though they likely do not need them, while similarly situated white patients will not receive them. In fact, a 64-year-old white woman with no known risk factors, but who is nonetheless at much greater risk simply because of her age, would receive lower priority than a healthy 19-year-old Hispanic woman. Furthermore, while the treatments are highly effective in the short term, their long-term consequences are unknown. Because non-white patients are automatically prioritized, they will disproportionately bear the risk of experimental treatments with as yet unknown future effects. The City’s order also furthers the vile idea that non-white people are more sickly, weak, or infectious simply because of their racial categorization.”

BACKGROUND:
  • FAIR outlines how New York has already determined that because Covid-19 treatments are in short supply, patients should be prioritized by how many “risk factors” they have (among other things), most of the listed risk factors being medical conditions, such as cancer.
  • However, providers are also directed to count “non-white race or Hispanic/Latino ethnicity” as a risk factor, FAIR notes.
  • FAIR is being represented in the lawsuit by civil rights attorney Ameer Benno of Benno & Associates in New York City.

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