MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says Alabama agreed to remove old ventilator triage guidelines that advocates said discriminated against the elderly and disabled.
The state said the decade-old document was outdated and no longer applied, but federal officials said Alabama needed to do more to clarify that stereotypes about a person's worth should not be used to decide which patients get the potentially life-saving treatment if there aren't enough ventilators for all who need them.
About 52% of Alabama's confirmed COVID-19 deaths have been African Americans, even though about a fourth of the state’s population is black.