Allocation of limited resources in pandemics begs for ethical guidance. The issue of ventilator allocation in pandemics has been reviewed by many medical ethicists, but as localities activate crisis standards of care, and health care workers are infected from patient exposure, the decision to pursue cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) must also be examined to better balance the increased risks to healthcare personnel with the very low resuscitation rates of patients infected with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19). A crisis standard of care that is equitable, transparent, and mindful of both human and physical resources will lessen the impact on society in this era of COVID‐19. This paper builds on previous work of ventilator allocation in pandemic crises to propose a literature‐based, justice‐informed ethical framework for selecting treatment options for CPR. The pandemic affects regions differently over time, so these suggested guidelines may require adaptation to local practice variations.

An overwhelming body of evidence points to an inextricable link between race and health disparities in the United States. Although race is best understood as a social construct, its role in health outcomes has historically been attributed to increasingly debunked theories of underlying biological and genetic differences across races. Recently, growing calls for health equity and social justice have raised awareness of the impact of implicit bias and structural racism on social determinants of health, healthcare quality, and ultimately, health outcomes. This more nuanced recognition of the role of race in health disparities has, in turn, facilitated introspective racial disparities research, root cause analyses, and changes in practice within the medical community. Examining the complex interplay between race, social determinants of health, and health outcomes allows systems of health to create mechanisms for checks and balances that mitigate unfair and avoidable health inequalities. As one of the specialties most intertwined with social medicine, emergency medicine (EM) is ideally positioned to address racism in medicine, develop health equity metrics, monitor disparities in clinical performance data, identify research gaps, implement processes and policies to eliminate racial health inequities, and promote anti-racist ideals as advocates for structural change. In this critical review our aim was to (a) provide a synopsis of racial disparities across a broad scope of clinical pathology interests addressed in emergency departments—communicable diseases, non-communicable conditions, and injuries—and (b) through a race-conscious analysis, develop EM practice recommendations for advancing a culture of equity with the potential for measurable impact on healthcare quality and health outcomes.