Tim Walz’s Minnesota Prioritized COVID Care Based On Race

Minnesota, under Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, prioritized non-white residents for COVID-19 treatments during the pandemic.

In Minnesota, an “ethical framework” prioritized black 18-year-olds over elderly whites, even though the elderly were at a much higher risk of severe complications due to COVID, the Free Beacon reported in January 2022.

The racial discrimination stemmed from the FDA’s guidance when authorizing monoclonal antibodies and oral antivirals for emergency use. The FDA only authorized these treatments for “high risk” patients, and included race as a factor determining someone to be “high risk.”

As the Free Beacon noted in 2022:

The FDA “fact sheet” for Sotrovimab, the only monoclonal antibody effective against the Omicron variant, states that “race or ethnicity” can “place individual patients at high risk for progression to severe COVID-19.” The fact sheet for Paxlovid, Pfizer’s new antiviral pill, uses the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s definition of “high risk,” which states that “systemic health and social inequities” have put minorities “at increased risk of getting sick and dying from COVID-19.”

Even though the guidance is nonbinding, several states used it to justify race-based triage to the detriment of those at a higher risk of dying from COVID-19.

Minnesota, for example, explicitly cited the FDA as the reason it prioritized lower-risk minorities over higher-risk white people.

“The FDA has acknowledged that in addition to certain underlying health conditions, race and ethnicity ‘may also place individual patients at high risk for progression to severe COVID-19,’” Minnesota’s racial triage plan states. “FDA’s acknowledgment means that race and ethnicity alone, apart from other underlying health conditions, may be considered in determining eligibility for [monoclonal antibodies].”

The FDA said race may be considered, but it never said race should be the priority when determining who should get treatment.

Unsurprisingly, even though men were approximately 50% more likely to die from COVID than women – according to research from the Brookings Institution – sex was not included as a risk factor in the FDA guidance.

As the Free Beacon noted, the triage in Minnesota gave non-white patients two points when determining risk, whereas comorbidities like “hypertension in a patient 55 years and older” were only worth one point.

The policy followed others in Minnesota, which are getting renewed attention after Vice President Kamala Harris chose Walz as her running mate. Another policy Walz implemented was a COVID hotline that allowed Minnesotans to snitch on their neighbors for violating lockdown orders.

The hotline generated thousands of reports – against people playing basketball, walking their dogs, or attending church, local outlet Alpha News reported in 2022. Walz’s administration continued to monitor the hotline until November 2020, though it remained operational until June 2022.