New York

This blog from the Petrie-Flom Center’s Bill of Health argues that many state guidelines for the rationing of scarce resources during a public health emergency disadvantage and devalue the lives of persons with disabilities. Most scarce resource allocation guidelines prioritize Read More

This case series of pregnant women in NYC hospitals found that among pregnant women with COVID-19, 86% possessed mild disease, 9% exhibited severe disease, and 5% developed critical disease – much like everyone else. New York is clearly an epicenter Read More

This letter to the editor presents results from a universal COVID-19 testing program implemented to all pregnant women who were admitted for delivery between March 22 and April 4, 2020 at New York–Presbyterian Allen Hospital and Columbia University Irving Medical Read More

This article discusses the development of pandemic response plans over the past several years and reviews existing plans from 14 states, including policies that address potential need to ration scarce resources during a public health crisis. Public health and emergency Read More

This study evaluates the relative risk of death from COVID-19 in people <65 years old versus older individuals in the general population, provides estimates of absolute risk of death in epicenters of the pandemic, and reports what proportion of COVID-19 Read More

This essay from Joseph J. Fins, one of the authors of New York’s 2015 guidelines on ventilator allocation during a public health emergency, contends that the Task Force’s guidelines should not be interpreted to authorize the commandeering of ventilators used Read More

This article reports on the potential that ventilators may be reallocated from long-term care facilities to hospitals to respond to resource scarcity due to COVID-19 case surge, including the controversial possibility of disconnecting ventilators currently in use by long-term ventilator-dependent Read More

This draft legal analysis addresses whether existing protocols for rationing scarce resources comply with moral principles and with anti-discrimination laws, including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and concludes that existing approaches adopting a utilitarian approach will have the effect Read More

This article reports on guidelines released by Northwell Health, one of New York state’s largest hospital systems, outlining institutional processes for allocating ventilators toward patients most likely to benefit should the need arise due to resource scarcity. According to the Read More

This press release and press conference detail an April 3 executive order issued by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo authorizing the National Guard to take ventilators and personal protective equipment (PPE) from institutions in the state that do not currently Read More