Demand for COVID antibody drugs soars in hard-hit states
Aug 21, 2021 09:50:47 #
Question, are the people taking the experimental non FDA approved drug the same government stooges all the anti-vaxers call those who took the vaccine??? Would you take this drug if you got Covid?
In this photo provided by Louie Lopez, sick people lie on the floor in a medical facility in Jacksonville, Fla., on Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021. Lopez took the photo while waiting more than 2.5 hours to get antibody treatment at a facility run by the state. While he waited, he watched the room fill up with extremely sick patients. (Louie Lopez via AP)
KELLI KENNEDY and MATTHEW PERRONE
Fri, August 20, 2021, 3:26 PM
People infected with COVID-19 were captured in a photo this week lying on the floor in pain while waiting for antibody infusions at a treatment site set up inside the library in Jacksonville, Florida.
The image has become a vivid illustration of the huge demand for the once-neglected COVID-19 drugs in the states hit hardest by a summer surge of infections being driven by the highly contagious delta variant.
"They were moaning and obviously in a lot of pain. They were miserable,” said Louie Lopez, who shot the photograph as he waited for more than two hours to receive the treatment.
Antibody treatments remain one of a handful of therapies that can blunt the worst effects of COVID-19, and they are the only option available to people with mild-to-moderate cases who aren’t yet in the hospital.
They have risen in demand in states seeing a spike in infections, including Florida, Louisiana and Texas, where hospitalizations among the unvaccinated are overwhelming the health care system.
White House officials reported recently that federal shipments of the drugs increased five-fold last month to nearly 110,000 doses, with the vast majority going to states with low vaccination rates.
“They are safe, they are free, they keep people out of the hospital and help keep them alive,” said Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, a senior adviser to the White House’s COVID-19 response team.
The main drug in use is Regeneron’s dual-antibody cocktail, which has been purchased in mass quantities by the U.S. government. It’s the same drug former President Donald Trump received when he was hospitalized with COVID-19 last October.
The drugs are laboratory-made versions of virus-blocking antibodies that help fight off infections. The treatments help the patient by supplying concentrated doses of one or two antibodies.
The drugs are only recommended for people at the highest risk of progressing to severe COVID-19, but regulators have slowly broadened who can qualify. The list of conditions now includes older age, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, pregnancy and more than a half-dozen other issues.
With expanded eligibility and skyrocketing caseloads across the country, more people are getting the treatments.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who this week tested positive for the virus and is himself receiving the treatments, said five state-run COVID-19 antibody infusion centers opened last week and that another four would open by Monday. At least 140 providers across Texas are offering the antibodies treatment, his office said.
In Florida, where more than 20,000 people a day on average are testing positive for the virus, the rising demand created a scene at the Jacksonville center that resembled an overwhelmed emergency room.
At one point, Lopez said staff brought out paper hospital gowns and covered a woman on the floor. It took more than half an hour for staff to bring out enough wheelchairs for people to sit in.
“They poured them into the wheelchairs,” he said. “They were just so sick.”
After the photo was published Wednesday, Florida health officials said they had increased the number of wheelchairs at the facility. They also said it is open seven days a week and has plenty of cots, as well as ambulances on standby to transfer the sickest patients to the hospital.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said during a news conference Friday that the woman in the photo is fine and feeling great after the treatment.
“None of our sites are having a capacity issue,” said Weesam Khoury, spokesperson for the Florida Department of Health. “We have the resources and if we need more we can quickly get them.”
But she cautioned, “This is a site where people are going to be very ill.”
That’s why state health officials are urging patients who test positive for COVID to get the antibody treatment immediately instead of waiting until they are extremely sick, which many patients are doing.
Florida over the past week has set up about a dozen monoclonal antibody clinics typically serving 300 patients per day, with an online portal for appointments, and plans to stand up more, as DeSantis has traveled around the state to promote them.
Getting the drugs involves a number of steps.
A positive test for COVID-19 is required, which must be reviewed by a physician or health professional. They then decide whether to recommend an antibody treatment for the patient, which usually means scheduling an appointment at a local administration site.
To be effective, the drugs are supposed to be given within 10 days of initial symptoms. That’s the timeframe in which they have been shown to cut rates of hospitalization and death by roughly 70%.
Medical experts agreed that the drugs should not be seen as the first line of defense against the virus or a substitute for wearing a mask and getting vaccinated.
“I see the monoclonal antibodies as a short-term bridge to get us to the point where enough people are fully vaccinated,” said Dr. James Cutrell of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. “We definitely need to keep vaccinating as many people as possible.”
Joyce Wachsmuth, of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and her husband were infected with COVID-19 in January. A breast cancer survivor, she had never felt so much pain.
“I actually thought to myself if 10 days of this is what COVID people go thru, I don't know if I want to live,” she said.
When doctors at the local Mayo Clinic told the 67-year-old that she and her 70-year-old husband were prime candidates for experimental drug treatment, she jumped at the opportunity.
She said she felt relief just two hours after the one-hour, drip treatment.
“It did wonders. It kept us off the hospital and off the ventilators,” said Wachsmuth, who has since been vaccinated.
The federal government has been distributing monoclonal antibody drugs to the states since last winter but the treatments were underused due to lack of awareness from physicians, low interest among the public and the logistics of setting up areas to give them to patients via IV infusion.
Also, persistent testing delays meant many people didn’t even get their results for seven days or longer, and clinics were focused on the upcoming vaccines or managing the winter surge of cases.
Since then, many cities have set up alternative locations to administer the drugs and offer vaccines. The treatments are free for most patients, largely because the federal government has been actively involved in securing and distributing them.
“There was less urgency at that time — the important thing was to get people vaccinated to crush the curve,” said Dr. Arturo Casadevall of Johns Hopkins University. “But the delta variant has changed the equation."
In this photo provided by Louie Lopez, sick people lie on the floor in a medical facility in Jacksonville, Fla., on Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021. Lopez took the photo while waiting more than 2.5 hours to get antibody treatment at a facility run by the state. While he waited, he watched the room fill up with extremely sick patients. (Louie Lopez via AP)
KELLI KENNEDY and MATTHEW PERRONE
Fri, August 20, 2021, 3:26 PM
People infected with COVID-19 were captured in a photo this week lying on the floor in pain while waiting for antibody infusions at a treatment site set up inside the library in Jacksonville, Florida.
The image has become a vivid illustration of the huge demand for the once-neglected COVID-19 drugs in the states hit hardest by a summer surge of infections being driven by the highly contagious delta variant.
"They were moaning and obviously in a lot of pain. They were miserable,” said Louie Lopez, who shot the photograph as he waited for more than two hours to receive the treatment.
Antibody treatments remain one of a handful of therapies that can blunt the worst effects of COVID-19, and they are the only option available to people with mild-to-moderate cases who aren’t yet in the hospital.
They have risen in demand in states seeing a spike in infections, including Florida, Louisiana and Texas, where hospitalizations among the unvaccinated are overwhelming the health care system.
White House officials reported recently that federal shipments of the drugs increased five-fold last month to nearly 110,000 doses, with the vast majority going to states with low vaccination rates.
“They are safe, they are free, they keep people out of the hospital and help keep them alive,” said Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, a senior adviser to the White House’s COVID-19 response team.
The main drug in use is Regeneron’s dual-antibody cocktail, which has been purchased in mass quantities by the U.S. government. It’s the same drug former President Donald Trump received when he was hospitalized with COVID-19 last October.
The drugs are laboratory-made versions of virus-blocking antibodies that help fight off infections. The treatments help the patient by supplying concentrated doses of one or two antibodies.
The drugs are only recommended for people at the highest risk of progressing to severe COVID-19, but regulators have slowly broadened who can qualify. The list of conditions now includes older age, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, pregnancy and more than a half-dozen other issues.
With expanded eligibility and skyrocketing caseloads across the country, more people are getting the treatments.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who this week tested positive for the virus and is himself receiving the treatments, said five state-run COVID-19 antibody infusion centers opened last week and that another four would open by Monday. At least 140 providers across Texas are offering the antibodies treatment, his office said.
In Florida, where more than 20,000 people a day on average are testing positive for the virus, the rising demand created a scene at the Jacksonville center that resembled an overwhelmed emergency room.
At one point, Lopez said staff brought out paper hospital gowns and covered a woman on the floor. It took more than half an hour for staff to bring out enough wheelchairs for people to sit in.
“They poured them into the wheelchairs,” he said. “They were just so sick.”
After the photo was published Wednesday, Florida health officials said they had increased the number of wheelchairs at the facility. They also said it is open seven days a week and has plenty of cots, as well as ambulances on standby to transfer the sickest patients to the hospital.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said during a news conference Friday that the woman in the photo is fine and feeling great after the treatment.
“None of our sites are having a capacity issue,” said Weesam Khoury, spokesperson for the Florida Department of Health. “We have the resources and if we need more we can quickly get them.”
But she cautioned, “This is a site where people are going to be very ill.”
That’s why state health officials are urging patients who test positive for COVID to get the antibody treatment immediately instead of waiting until they are extremely sick, which many patients are doing.
Florida over the past week has set up about a dozen monoclonal antibody clinics typically serving 300 patients per day, with an online portal for appointments, and plans to stand up more, as DeSantis has traveled around the state to promote them.
Getting the drugs involves a number of steps.
A positive test for COVID-19 is required, which must be reviewed by a physician or health professional. They then decide whether to recommend an antibody treatment for the patient, which usually means scheduling an appointment at a local administration site.
To be effective, the drugs are supposed to be given within 10 days of initial symptoms. That’s the timeframe in which they have been shown to cut rates of hospitalization and death by roughly 70%.
Medical experts agreed that the drugs should not be seen as the first line of defense against the virus or a substitute for wearing a mask and getting vaccinated.
“I see the monoclonal antibodies as a short-term bridge to get us to the point where enough people are fully vaccinated,” said Dr. James Cutrell of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. “We definitely need to keep vaccinating as many people as possible.”
Joyce Wachsmuth, of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and her husband were infected with COVID-19 in January. A breast cancer survivor, she had never felt so much pain.
“I actually thought to myself if 10 days of this is what COVID people go thru, I don't know if I want to live,” she said.
When doctors at the local Mayo Clinic told the 67-year-old that she and her 70-year-old husband were prime candidates for experimental drug treatment, she jumped at the opportunity.
She said she felt relief just two hours after the one-hour, drip treatment.
“It did wonders. It kept us off the hospital and off the ventilators,” said Wachsmuth, who has since been vaccinated.
The federal government has been distributing monoclonal antibody drugs to the states since last winter but the treatments were underused due to lack of awareness from physicians, low interest among the public and the logistics of setting up areas to give them to patients via IV infusion.
Also, persistent testing delays meant many people didn’t even get their results for seven days or longer, and clinics were focused on the upcoming vaccines or managing the winter surge of cases.
Since then, many cities have set up alternative locations to administer the drugs and offer vaccines. The treatments are free for most patients, largely because the federal government has been actively involved in securing and distributing them.
“There was less urgency at that time — the important thing was to get people vaccinated to crush the curve,” said Dr. Arturo Casadevall of Johns Hopkins University. “But the delta variant has changed the equation."
Aug 21, 2021 10:12:54 #
youngwilliam
Loc: Deep in the heart
Michael10 wrote:
Question, are the people taking the experimental n... (show quote)
Why are you so concerned with what other people do. Are you really that lonely?
Aug 21, 2021 10:30:35 #
youngwilliam wrote:
Why are you so concerned with what other people do. Are you really that lonely?
It is all his pathetic attempt to keep diverting from Biden's massive failures.
Aug 21, 2021 10:35:23 #
youngwilliam wrote:
Why are you so concerned with what other people do. Are you really that lonely?
I'm curious how the anti vax crowd feels about this unapproved drug, more curious than concerned. Plus what these people do may have an impact on me or my family at some point, right now in Alabama there are no ICU beds in the state according to the Alabama Hospital Association. Plus there's at least 12 people per hospital waiting in line for these beds. If I or one of my family has a car wreck or heart attack and need an ICU bed we'll have to go to Tennessee or some other state because of the low vaccination rates in AL. That would be my concern, do you think it's fair people who willingly don't protect themselves take space that someone in an accident could use?
Aug 21, 2021 11:03:49 #
Michael10 wrote:
I'm curious how the anti vax crowd feels about thi... (show quote)
If you are that concerned, why don’t you move to one of those other states?
Aug 21, 2021 11:46:29 #
JFlorio
Loc: Seminole Florida
Michael10 wrote:
I'm curious how the anti vax crowd feels about thi... (show quote)
You should leave and go to where ever all the other scared shitless people go. Locally we had two twenty something year olds rushed to the emergency room a couple of minutes after getting the vaccine at a local Walgreen's. They had stopped breathing. I'm no anti vaccer either. I've been vaccinated. Just pointing out nothing is written in stone.
Aug 21, 2021 11:50:34 #
youngwilliam
Loc: Deep in the heart
Michael10 wrote:
I'm curious how the anti vax crowd feels about thi... (show quote)
Sorry, but your vaxx does not protect you from anything. Turn off your T.V. and see what is happening in real world.
Read, 14 Isrealis contract covid after 3RD jab. That was 2 weeks ago, don't know total.
Obama's party, all sophisticated and fully vaxxed. 70 and counting contracted the virus and transmitted to hotel staff.
Texas lawmakers, ALL fully vaxxed, brought covid to D.C. Contaminated white house staff.
Need I go on?
Like I said, you are protected from nothing.
Aug 21, 2021 16:42:02 #
JFlorio wrote:
You should leave and go to where ever all the other scared shitless people go. Locally we had two twenty something year olds rushed to the emergency room a couple of minutes after getting the vaccine at a local Walgreen's. They had stopped breathing. I'm no anti vaccer either. I've been vaccinated. Just pointing out nothing is written in stone.
Nothing is written in stone, agreed. You can do things that make your chances better, but so far no one has answered the question. Is it fair for someone who willingly takes the chance of catching this to take a bed of say a 20 year old in an accident not of his fault.
Aug 21, 2021 16:47:05 #
youngwilliam wrote:
Sorry, but your vaxx does not protect you from any... (show quote)
The facts still remain, the hospitals are filling up with 85 to 90% unvaccinated
Aug 21, 2021 17:12:43 #
youngwilliam
Loc: Deep in the heart
Michael10 wrote:
The facts still remain, the hospitals are filling up with 85 to 90% unvaccinated
Says who. I'm reading hospitals are struggling because nurses, doctors and other staff are resigning because of the mandates.
Aug 21, 2021 18:02:02 #
JFlorio
Loc: Seminole Florida
Michael10 wrote:
Nothing is written in stone, agreed. You can do things that make your chances better, but so far no one has answered the question. Is it fair for someone who willingly takes the chance of catching this to take a bed of say a 20 year old in an accident not of his fault.
Fair? Strange question. Of course it’s fair. May be a number of reasons in a FREE society why you didn’t take the vaccine. Now, in Florida around 25% of ICU beds have people that were vaccinated. Will you take responsibility for someone having an allergic reaction to the vaccine? We’ve had two locally, rushed from Walgreens to the emergency room. Do people that have had Covid and recovered and have antibodies, need vaccinated? Some doctors say that would be a mistake. The science is not settled on this at all. Why aren’t you mad at China and the WHO?
Aug 21, 2021 18:04:39 #
youngwilliam
Loc: Deep in the heart
Michael10 wrote:
Nothing is written in stone, agreed. You can do things that make your chances better, but so far no one has answered the question. Is it fair for someone who willingly takes the chance of catching this to take a bed of say a 20 year old in an accident not of his fault.
There is nothing fair in this world.
There is nothing safe in this world.
There is nothing sure in this world.
There is nothing pure in this world.
There is nothing left in this world.
Start again.
Billy Idol
White wedding.
Aug 21, 2021 18:27:04 #
Michael10 wrote:
The facts still remain, the hospitals are filling up with 85 to 90% unvaccinated
Those aren’t facts. There are medical professionals in my family that say we’re being lied to. And you readily lap up the propaganda.
Aug 21, 2021 18:28:07 #
Michael10 wrote:
The facts still remain, the hospitals are filling up with 85 to 90% unvaccinated
Name the hospitals. Compare notes with Kemmer. LOL
Aug 21, 2021 18:48:47 #
youngwilliam wrote:
Says who. I'm reading hospitals are struggling because nurses, doctors and other staff are resigning because of the mandates.
Ha, Yea Doctors and nurses don't wanna wear masks or take a vaccine. That's really funny.
NPR's A Martinez talks with Rev. Moneka Thompson, a staff chaplain at the UAB Hospital in Birmingham about the COVID-19 surge in her state, where ICU beds are completely full.
Alabama State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris said COVID-19 cases and ICU beds full.
Alabama’s ICU beds are beyond full as COVID-19 rages
Mobile County health officials are discussing getting refrigeration trucks to hold the growing number of COVID-19 deaths.
thats just a few one quick internet search turns up a LOT more.
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