This is more of that Biden Unity… Turns out New York City Health Officials have been using a less than fair method to determine who will gain access to the limited number of COVID tests. You’d think it would be first come, first served or divided equally among the many counties, but that would make sense. NYC is instead only focusing on neighborhoods that have been flagged for inclusion and equity…
“New York City health officials have been using race to help decide how to allocate precious coronavirus testing resources, leaked emails from the agency show.
In a conversation with reps for the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, City Councilman Joe Borelli’s office said constituents on Staten Island’s South Shore were having trouble getting tested at city facilities.
“Our office has been receiving calls regarding the mobile NYC H+H testing sites such as Wolfes Pond Park. It appears many are waiting with delays, and are being turned away after waiting for hours,” wrote Borelli staffer Briana Nasti in a Dec. 22 email.
The agency responded the same day and informed Nasti that they would prioritize neighborhoods flagged by the city’s Taskforce on Racial Inclusion & Equity.”
“The task force said [neighborhoods] were picked based a DOHMH’s analysis of “health status, living conditions, social inequities, occupation, and COVID-19 Wave 1 impact” — though the methodology has never been released.”
“Staten Island’s mostly white, middle-class South Shore — despite one of the highest COVID rates in the city during December — is not one of the priority neighborhoods. The borough has 13 city testing sites, all on the more diverse North Shore.”
“We’re now two years into a test shortage, with no end in sight, and the emergence of politicization shouldn’t come as a surprise. It took Joe Biden nearly a year to get serious on testing development, production, and distribution. By this point, it appears we won’t get enough of a supply to obviate rationing for at least several weeks if not several months, by which the current shock wave of Omicron transmission will have passed. That means that stupid rationing decisions based on whatever benefits political leaders in place at this moment will have to continue, likely all the way through the Omicron wave and potentially into whatever variant wave may come next.”
What about this sounds fair? Everyone should have an equal shot at the COVID Tests regardless of their race or economic status. The idea that Dems are singling out neighborhoods that are diverse and fit their ideals is B.S., and frankly discrimination.