Republicans are accusing the Biden administration of racism — against white people.
The administration’s recommendation that race and ethnicity be considered when deciding who gets the limited supply of new Covid drugs is the latest political talking points with which Republicans are hammering Democrats, looking to energize their base ahead of the midterm elections.
The issue is gaining steam in both the establishment and MAGA activist wings of the party.
Sen. Marco Rubio is among several lawmakers pushing the Food and Drug Administration to rescind the recommendation, calling it “racist and un-American.” Former President Donald Trump during his rally in Arizona earlier this month claimed that the Biden administration is “denigrating white people to determine who lives and who dies.”
The nonbinding recommendations and similar criteria from a handful of state health departments are intended to reduce the racial disparities that have been present since the beginning of the pandemic.
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Recent CDC data also shows that white Americans are, if anything, at the front of the line for still-scarce Covid treatments. Monoclonal antibodies were given to Hispanic patients 58 percent less often than to white patients over the past year, and rates for Black, Asian, and other race patients similarly lagged, according to an agency study released in January.
