Assemblyman Jarett Gandolfo (R,C,I-Sayville) has sent a letter to Acting Commissioner of Health Mary T. Bassett to demand new guidelines pertaining to the distribution of life-saving COVID-19 treatments based on race be rescinded. The letter was drafted in response to a memo issued by the Department of Health on Dec. 27 stating residents who are non-white or are Hispanic/Latino should be given priority access to critical COVID-19 treatments.

“The policy outlined in this memo is as inhumane as it is un-American,” said Gandolfo. “Any law that discriminates against people based on immutable characteristics such as race should never be left to stand, but withholding treatments people need to live based on their race is especially despicable. The Department of Health must act quickly to reverse this ill-conceived policy, because it would be truly tragic for someone to learn their loved one was left to die because of the way they were born.”