By The FirstSenator Marco Rubio (R-FL) wrote a letter to the FDA demanding they change its recent guidance to distribute life-saving monoclonal antibody treatments for COVID patience based on race and ethnicity; the Senator calls it “racist and un-American.”
According to Fox News, the FDA made the switch in December, saying “medical conditions or factors” such as “race or ethnicity” have the potential to “place individual patients at high risk for progression to severe COVID-19,” adding that the “authorization of sotrovimab under the EUA is not limited to” other factors outlined by the agency.
“While our nation should seek to better understand and address real disparities that exist in health outcomes, that important work is a far cry from the rationing of vital medicines based on race and ethnicity,” wrote Rubio in his letter to the FDA. “Rationing life-saving drug treatments based on race and ethnicity is racist and un-American. There is no other way to put it.”
“Therefore, by prioritizing an individuals’ medical history, health care providers would ensure racial minorities at highest risk of disease, including all other high-risk patients, can receive these life-saving drugs,” he said.
