Minnesota: We Will Use Race To Decide Who Gets COVID Monoclonal Antibodies

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The Minnesota public health agency has prioritized non-white residents in the rationing of monoclonal antibodies

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Minnesota’s state health department has adopted new ethical standards that include considering a person’s skin color in determining who can receive a potentially life-saving treatment for Covid-19 patients.

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At issue is allocation of monoclonal antibodies, which have been in hot demand and short supply after proving effective in helping prevent Covid-19 illnesses from becoming severe. The lab-created antibodies help a patient’s immune system fight disease.

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Minnesota’s revised “ethical framework” for the rationing of medical care was posted late last week, and noted that “race and ethnicity alone, apart from other underlying health conditions, may be considered in determining eligibility” for monoclonal antibody therapies (mAbs).

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The state is using a scoring system to determine the level of priority a patient should be given in determining eligibility for mAbs. A non-white racial status is worth two points in the system – the same weighting given to such categories as being 65 or older, or being 55 or older and having cardiovascular disease.

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The policy means that if a white patient and a black patient are both 70 years old and suffering from cardiovascular disease, the white person would have a screening score of four and the black person would get six points, assuming neither has other pre-existing conditions that merit special consideration.

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Depending on how severe mAbs shortages become, those scores could make the difference between which patient gets treatment. The state has advised healthcare providers to deprioritize patients with low screening scores and to ratchet up the eligibility bar “as scarcity deepens.”

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