I recently noted that the Biden Administration has plans to take over nationwide distribution of monoclonal antibody treatments. Ostensibly, officials say, it is in the name of equity, as 70% of those treatments have gone to red states.
However, the move targeted red states that successfully opened up monoclonal antibody treatment clinics for the early and convenient treatment of infections, rather than trying to impose impossible vaccine mandates on their populations. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis promptly sought to bypass the Biden takeover by procuring another source for Florida.
Now, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says his state has also bypassed the Biden administration’s limits on monoclonal antibodies by obtaining its own supply.
“Texas has obtained its own separate allocation of these monoclonal antibody treatments working around the limitations that President Biden has put on us so that we will be able to ensure that anybody in the state of Texas that wants access to these special treatments, that they will be able to get it,” Abbott said during an interview on with Dana Loesch.In a tweet, Abbott, a Republican, said Texans who test positive for COVID-19 and get a doctor’s referral will have access to “these proven, effective treatments.”
Like DeSantis, Abbott is opening up monoclonal antibody treatment centers across the state, making the procedure free to citizens. The latest to open up is in Waco.
Governor Greg Abbott on Monday announced the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) will launch a new COVID-19 therapeutic infusion center in Waco that will provide free treatment at no cost to patients.The infusion center in Waco will reportedly be located at Texas State Technical College at 3801 Campus Drive.It will begin accepting patients on Tuesday and has been provided with monoclonal antibodies to treat outpatient cases of COVID-19 who have a referral from a doctor.The McLennan County, Baylor Scott & White Medical Center – Hillcrest, Waco-McLennan County Public Health District, Texas State Technical College, the Waco-McLennan County Office of Emergency Management, and the City of Waco are partnering with the state.“Thank you to our partners in Waco and McLennan County for working with the State of Texas to launch this infusion center,” said Governor Abbott. “This facility will expand access to this free and effective treatment for Central Texans who test positive for COVID-19.”
The focus on early treatment appears to be the winning option, as data shows that COVID-19 deaths in Florida have plummeted.
For those who insist on focusing solely on vaccinations for the “return to a normal life,” this summary about hospitalizations in Maine might be illuminating.
One last piece of data from Texas highlights that vaccinations are not the sole solution to COVID-19: 70% of fully vaccinated people in a Texas prison caught COVID-19 during an outbreak of the Delta variant in July.
Of 185 fully vaccinated prisoners at the unnamed prison, 129, or about 70%, caught the virus, data compiled by the CDC and the Federal Bureau of Prisons showed. This was a much lower rate than the unvaccinated prisoners, 39 of 42 of whom – or about 93% — caught COVID-19 during the outbreak, said the study, published Tuesday in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.Four people, three of whom were unvaccinated, needed treatment in a hospital, the study said. One unvaccinated person died, it said.Most of the prisoners were white men, and many had received Pfizer’s vaccine at least four months before the outbreak, the data showed.
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