On April 14, I put up a publish on “Race, ‘Wokeness,’ and Kidney Transplant Shortages,” which was partly a critique of Dr. Stanley Goldfarb’s article on the identical topic, revealed by the Metropolis Journal. Dr. Goldfarb has despatched me a considerate response to my piece, which I’m comfortable to publish right here, at his request. I’ll possible put up a rejoinder in a separate publish.
Right here is Dr. Goldfarb’s response to me:
Expensive Professor Somin,
Thanks for the chance to answer your article quoting my piece, “Reparations Come to Medication” in Metropolis Journal. You described my place as favoring a race-based method for figuring out kidney perform. If the article conveys that concept, I apologize as that isn’t my place. The earlier formulation that required a separate calculation for African People have been labeled as racist. That’s merely and demonstrably unfaithful. They had been verified in a number of medical research with a whole lot of sufferers. As a part of the “racial awakening” of the well being care enterprise, there was a push to get rid of all race-based algorithms in healthcare. I object to characterizing the older, empirically derived equations as racist as has develop into a normal trope for activists. It’s all a part of blaming well being care disparities on discriminatory well being care therapy and it’s a canard. My article sought to clarify that the previous method was completely not an indicator of racism.
Adopting new formulae for calculating kidney perform is ok if they’re correct and goal. The most recent method utilizing available blood chemistries shouldn’t be extra correct than the previous method and chosen because it produces the specified consequence of decreasing the estimation of kidney perform in Black sufferers. Counterintuitively, estimating decrease kidney perform in Black sufferers has a profit: It permits them to enter the kidney transplant ready listing sooner. It’s unlikely to extend the variety of Black sufferers receiving a kidney because the precise foundation for the disproportionately low variety of Black kidney recipients is lack of willingness to pursue this very demanding type of therapy.
I object to using the brand new method to retroactively alter earlier estimates of kidney perform and to revise the transplant wait listing to mirror the newly calculated values. Utilizing the brand new method prospectively will possible have a minimal affect however utilizing it retrospectively will drive a to-be-determined variety of White and Asian sufferers to lose their place on the transplant wait listing and be compelled to attend longer for his or her transplants. Because the method was knowingly constructed to realize this outcome, this retroactive revision is unfair.
Sincerely yours,
Stanley Goldfarb MD
Chairman, Do No Hurt