CLAIM: New York Gov. Kathy Hochul approved a memo “denying white people certain medical treatments.”
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The post is referencing a memo from 2021 concerning the distribution of antiviral therapies for COVID-19 that said being “non-white race or Hispanic/Latino ethnicity” could be considered a risk factor to receive such treatments. It did not say white people with other risk factors couldn’t access the treatments.
THE FACTS: A blog and related Facebook post are distorting old guidance from New York state to suggest that Hochul recently acted to withhold medical treatments from white people.
“Governor Approves Memo Denying White People Certain Medical Treatments,” reads text paired with an image of Hochul that was shared on Facebook Sunday.
The post includes a link to a story on a blog that references a New York State Department of Health memo concerning “COVID-19 Oral Antiviral Treatment” — which it misleadingly suggests is new.
In reality, the memo in question is from December 2021 and noted that the Food and Drug Administration had authorized two oral antiviral treatments, Paxlovid and molnupiravir, for patients with COVID-19 who were at high risk of severe disease.
The memo noted that patients should meet several eligibility criteria for such treatments, including having “a medical condition or other factors that increase their risk for severe illness.” It added: “Non-white race or Hispanic/Latino ethnicity should be considered a risk factor, as longstanding systemic health and social inequities have contributed to an increased risk of severe illness and death from COVID-19.”
It did not state white people couldn’t receive the therapies.
Such policies allowing doctors to consider race as a risk factor when allocating scarce COVID-19 treatments came under conservative criticism at the time, as The Associated Press reported, though health officials have long said there is a strong case for considering race as one of many risk factors in treatment decisions.
“The assertion that certain race or ethnic groups were prioritized regarding eligibility for an oral antiviral COVID-19 treatment is patently false,” Cadence Acquaviva, a state Department of Health spokesperson, told the AP in an email this week. “Neither race nor ethnicity would disqualify an individual from receiving treatment.”
The guidance was based on guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention because COVID-19 mortality rates were higher in certain demographic groups, Acquaviva said, noting that legal challenges to the department’s guidance were unsuccessful.
A federal lawsuit filed in early 2022 by a Cornell University law professor and conservative law firm against New York’s then-health commissioner over the inclusion of race in the risk criteria was later dismissed.
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This story has been updated to add comment from the New York State Department of Health.
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This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.
