Related Experiment Video

Updated: Nov 19, 2025

Bridging the Technology Divide in the COVID-19 Era: Using Virtual Outreach to Expose Middle and High School Students to Imaging Technology
09:55

Bridging the Technology Divide in the COVID-19 Era: Using Virtual Outreach to Expose Middle and High School Students to Imaging Technology

Published on: September 28, 2022

1.9K

Promoting racial equity in COVID-19 resource allocation

Lori Bruce1,2,3, Ruth Tallman3,4

  • 1Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA Lori.Bruce@yale.edu.

Journal of Medical Ethics
|January 30, 2021
PubMed

Insights

COVID-19 triage protocols often worsen racial disparities. This paper critiques current methods and proposes a new paradigm to ensure equitable resource allocation for all patients, addressing systemic inequities.

Area of Science:

  • Public Health
  • Health Equity
  • Medical Ethics

Background:

  • COVID-19 has strained global health systems, necessitating triage protocols for scarce resource allocation.
  • Existing triage methods, relying on numerical morbidity scores, perpetuate racial disparities and health inequities.
  • Policy responses have been insufficient to address the complexity of racial bias in triage.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To dismantle arguments against addressing racial inequity in COVID-19 triage.
  • To highlight concerns with current and proposed triage protocols.
  • To propose a new framework for equitable allocation of COVID-19 resources.

Main Methods:

  • Critical analysis of existing COVID-19 triage protocols and their ethical implications.
  • Examination of policy statements and their translation into practice.
  • Review of arguments for and against race-based considerations in triage.
  • Development of a novel paradigm for equitable resource allocation.

Main Results:

  • Standard triage protocols exacerbate racial disparities in healthcare.
  • Race-based exceptions in triage are complex but not insurmountable.
  • Existing policies often make exceptions, demonstrating flexibility that can be applied to address racial inequity.

Conclusions:

  • A new paradigm is needed to ensure COVID-19 resource allocation is equitable.
  • Addressing racial bias in triage is crucial for achieving health justice.
  • Flexibility in policy-making should be extended to prioritize patients of color.

Keywords:
COVID-19clinical ethicsdistributive justicehealth care for specific diseases/groupsminorities

More Related Videos

A Novel Method for Involving Women of Color at High Risk for Preterm Birth in Research Priority Setting14:43

A Novel Method for Involving Women of Color at High Risk for Preterm Birth in Research Priority Setting

Published on: January 12, 2018

12.3K
Swabbing the Urban Environment - A Pipeline for Sampling and Detection of SARS-CoV-2 From Environmental Reservoirs07:13

Swabbing the Urban Environment - A Pipeline for Sampling and Detection of SARS-CoV-2 From Environmental Reservoirs

Published on: April 9, 2021

4.4K

Related Concept Videos

Equity Theory01:26

Equity Theory

Equity theory explains how our sense of fairness influences the dynamics of close relationships. Rooted in social psychology, the theory posits that individuals evaluate fairness by comparing the ratio of their contributions to the rewards they receive. Relationship satisfaction is highest when these ratios are perceived as balanced between partners, promoting mutual reciprocity and a sense of justice.Equity vs. Equality in RelationshipsEquity is distinct from equality. Fairness does not...
124
Bias in Epidemiological Studies01:29

Bias in Epidemiological Studies

Biases can arise at various stages of research, from study design and data collection to analysis and interpretation. Recognizing and addressing these biases is essential to ensure the validity and reliability of epidemiological findings.Broadly speaking, biases in epidemiology fall into three main categories: selection bias, information bias, and confounding. A more detailed description of possible biases is:  
975
Strategies for Assessing and Addressing Confounding01:25

Strategies for Assessing and Addressing Confounding

Confounding is a critical issue in epidemiological studies, often leading to misleading conclusions about associations between exposures and outcomes. It occurs when the relationship between the exposure and the outcome is mixed with the effects of other factors that influence the outcome. Given that, addressing confounding is of high importance for drawing accurate inferences in research.
Confounding can be addressed at both the design phase of a study and through analytical methods after data...
222
Randomized Experiments01:13

Randomized Experiments

The randomization process involves assigning study participants randomly to experimental or control groups based on their probability of being equally assigned. Randomization is meant to eliminate selection bias and balance known and unknown confounding factors so that the control group is similar to the treatment group as much as possible. A computer program and a random number generator can be used to assign participants to groups in a way that minimizes bias.
Simple randomization
Simple...
8.6K
RACE - Rapid Amplification of cDNA Ends02:35

RACE - Rapid Amplification of cDNA Ends

Rapid Amplification of cDNA Ends, or RACE, is one of the most effective methods to obtain a full-length cDNA from an mRNA sequence between a known internal region to the unknown sequence at the 5’ or 3’ end. The unknown region is cloned in the cDNA by a gene-specific primer that binds the known end, and a hybrid primer that attaches a predefined anchor sequence to the unknown end of the cDNA. The sequence in between is amplified by PCR with an anchor primer and a gene-specific...
6.8K
Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination02:55

Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination

Humans are very diverse and although we share many similarities, we also have many differences. The social groups we belong to help form our identities (Tajfel, 1974). These differences may be difficult for some people to reconcile, which may lead to prejudice toward people who are different. Prejudice is a negative attitude and feeling toward an individual based solely on one’s membership in a particular social group (Allport, 1954; Brown, 2010). Prejudice is common against people who...
93.9K