AGS position paper addresses resource allocation in the COVID-19 era

The pandemic has raised the question of how society should allocate scarce resources during a crisis, and experts addressed the question in a new position statement from the American Geriatrics Society (AGS). "Unfortunately, some strategies use age as an arbitrary criterion, which disfavors older adults regardless of their function and health relative to COVID-19," said AGS President Annie Medina-Walpole, MD, AGSF. "With this statement, we hope to support hospitals, health systems, and policymakers as they develop resource allocation strategies for use in emergent situations that do not rely on age as a criterion."