Press Release
CSS Joins Amicus Brief Urging NY Court to Dismiss Challenge to State’s COVID-19 Treatment Guidance
The Community Service Society (CSS) is honored to be among several leading medical, health equity, social science experts and organizations with direct experience on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic filing an amicus brief urging the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York Binghamton Division in Jacobson v. Bassett to dismiss a case filed against New York challenging its COVID-19 treatment guidance.
The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare inequities in our health care system. Indeed, Black New Yorkers are four times more likely to die from COVID than their white counterparts.
This past December, in recognition of the correlation between longstanding systemic health and social inequities, and disproportionately higher rates of hospitalization and death from COVID-19 for Black and brown populations, New York released guidance from the Department of Health suggesting that medical professionals consider an individual’s non-white race or Hispanic/Latino ethnicity in treatment decisions for COVID-19 during times of short supply. The guidance from DOH is not a mandate. However, that did not stop conservative groups from attacking these efforts to score political points with their far-right base.
Simply put, the treatment guidelines are just that, guidelines that are not binding or a restriction of COVID-19 treatments by race. They do not replace doctors’ clinical judgement or prevent any patient from receiving necessary treatment. Most importantly, the guidance is based on empirical, scientific and medical research that recommends to providers and hospitals that they consider race and ethnicity as risk factors when prescribing oral antiviral treatments. Hopefully, the court will agree and dismiss the case with prejudice.