A snarling controversy has broken out over an excellent COVID-19 therapeutic, monoclonal antibody treatments (MAT). They were developed in tandem with the federal government’s 2020 crash program for vaccines, Operation Warp Speed, as part of Health and Human Services Department’s Biomedical and Advanced Research Development Authority (BARDA). The first federal contract was in July 2020. The most famous MAT is that produced by Regeneron, made of lab-produced antibodies that have been found to be effective at defeating the virus. (The antibodies were first found in the blood of recovered COVID-19 patients.) The treatments strengthen the body’s immune system early in its war with the virus and are successful in preventing serious illness.
The FDA granted an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for Regeneron last November, and HHS has been supplying the MAT kits in limited quantities to states since then. The EUA specifies the limited use of MATs for those 55 years old and older, who are at risk for serious illness. (Risk factors include immune-suppression, obesity, etc.) Treatment must begin within the first 10 days of infection. The benefits of the treatment last up to three months. During the December/January surge of infection in the U.S., MAT was vital in keeping the severe strain upon hospitals from being even worse than it was. In May 2021, the FDA widened the EUA, allowing usage for 12 years old and older, and loosening some of the risk factors (such as lowering the weight requirement for being considered a risk). The federal government’s first two contracts purchased a total of 1.6 million kits and distributed them free to the states. (The treatment costs about $2,100 per patient.)
Over most of 2021, the states deployed MATs for their intended and limited use, and their stocks have not been drawn down. MATs cost a hundred times more than a vaccine, are much more invasive of the body, have more side-effects, and could not be administered at a public health level required to significantly deny the coronavirus room to grow and spread — but they certainly do save lives. On Sept. 3, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis gave a press conference to highlight MATs as a frontline treatment for COVID-19. While he said nothing, one way or the other, about vaccines, anti-vaxxers quickly picked up on the “brand new breakthrough” which the federal government had hidden from them, and pressure has greatly increased upon doctors to prescribe MATs. On Sept. 14, the government contracted for 1.4 million more kits.
