Minnesota health department issues guidance urging hospitals to privilege ‘BIPOC’ over whites for COVID-19 treatment

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The Minnesota Department of Health has issued guidance to hospitals urging them to discriminate against white people by ensuring priority access for non-white patients when it comes to the availability of life-saving COVID-19 treatments.

Documents titled the “Ethical Framework for Allocation of Monoclonal Antibodies during the COVID-19 Pandemic,” were unearthed by Minnesota-based Alpha News details how immutable characteristics could be considered in determining eligibility for monoclonal antibodies.

The document states that “race and ethnicity alone, apart from other underlying health conditions, may be considered in determining eligibility for mAbs [monoclonal antibodies].”

As popularized by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis who first pushed the availability of monoclonal antibodies as a therapeutic for the treatment of severe COVID-19 cases, monoclonal antibodies are produced in a lab and designed to mimic natural antibodies. Their efficacy has been widely proven and has been recommended by the Biden administration as a treatment for COVID-19 sufferers.

Due to their efficacy and high demand, national supplies of monoclonal antibodies are running into shortages, prompting hospitals to roll the dice on who receives the treatment and who does not.

“Minnesota’s solution is to ration mAbs based on various health factors, each assigned a different score,” Alpha News reported. “The maximum number of points a patient can amass is 24. Antibodies will be distributed based on these scores (highest numbers receiving treatment first) where supplies run low.”

Curiously, two of the health factors that determine prioritization include being non-white or “BIPOC,” which carries two points, and pregnancy, which carries four points.

The point chart and its associated values are as follows:

• Being BIPOC (2 points)
• Age 65+ (2 points)
• BMI 35 kg/m2 and higher (2 points)
• Diabetes mellitus (2 points)
• Chronic kidney disease (3 points)
• Heart disease in patients ages 55+ (2 points)
• Chronic respiratory disease in patients ages 55+ (3 points)
• Hypertension in patients age 55+ (1 point)
• Immunocompromised (3 points)
• Pregnancy (4 points)

Under the metric, a pregnant black woman would receive a higher priority over a pregnant white woman in a hospital with limited monoclonal antibody supplies.

Alpha News obtained a document showing how Minnesota’s HealthPartners is instructing employees to use the scoring system, including its racial element to decide the haves and have nots. Under the system, whiteness is a disadvantage rather than a privilege.

“This [system] does not mean people at lower risk will be excluded from treatment if adequate capacity exists. However, it does mean that people at higher risk will be prioritized for available appointments,” the email explained.

Essentially, the guidance serves as a form of systemic racism, which is apparently okay because it only disaffects white people.

Others privileged for monoclonal antibodies include the morbidly obese who are privileged with two points for failing to take care of their health.

According to the document itself, the point system was created by the Mayo Clinic. The state claims that the policy is made to “promote equity and access and promote health disparities.”