Many Service Members Refusing Vaccine

[OnDoutside]

28. That's terrible, but I got the understanding that these therapeutics will be for those who will be

recovering from the ravages of the illness in the months to come. At the moment, there isn't much can be done when he is at this stage.

Dr Vin Gupta has spoken about giving people (already medically challenged) therapeutics as soon as they test positive, which is what Trump got, but other than that it is like Russian Roulette to see who dies and who survives.

'Help lessen the load'

A common approach to treating viruses is to give treatments as early as possible, when there's a lesser amount of virus in the body, making it easier for drugs to vanquish it. It's why, for example, the antiviral drug Tamiflu is meant to be given within 48 hours of a person's coming down with the flu.

But drugs like this — which could prevent people from being hospitalized in the first place — are in very limited supply for Covid-19.

Although progress has been made on therapeutics — with one authorized drug, the steroid dexamethasone, shown to help severely ill hospitalized patients, and another, Gilead's remdesivir, which has been approved by the FDA, which may shorten hospital stay — the FDA has authorized just two therapies designed to keep Covid-19 patients out of the hospital.

The treatments — monoclonal antibodies from drugmakers Regeneron and Eli Lilly — are meant to mimic the body's immune response to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, and are authorized for patients at high risk of getting much worse and needing hospitalization.

Regeneron executives have said the company has 80,000 doses ready now to distribute and will ramp up to 300,000 doses in January. Eli Lilly expects that it will supply the U.S. with 350,000 doses of its monoclonal antibody treatment by the end of the month.

But the supply of either treatment so far is not enough to meet demand.Over the past week, the average number of daily cases has surpassed 200,000. And the treatments must be given early, before a patient is sick enough to require hospitalization. That means testing must be readily available, with results delivered quickly.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/help-way-how-u-s-will-turn-tide-pandemic-2021-n1250353