A NEW START

Top U.S. Pediatrics Group Ditches ‘Race-Based’ Guidance for Newborns

The American Academy of Pediatrics said it intensified its internal review after the death of George Floyd.

The American Academy of Pediatrics is beginning to remove flawed guidance from its policies by removing all “race-based” guidelines for newborns. Since its inception, the AAP has used race to determine protocols for parents when dealing with infants with urinary-tract infections and jaundice, which they say has created health disparities. The prestigious group began its review before the murder of George Floyd in 2020, but they intensified it shortly after, they said in a statement. At issue is whether Black kids were under-treated and overlooked, said Joseph Wright, the doctor who led the new policy guidance. “We are really being much more rigorous about the ways in which we assess risk for disease and health outcomes,” Wright said, according to the Associated Press. “We do have to hold ourselves accountable in that way. It’s going to require a heavy lift.”