DeSantis touts monoclonal antibody therapy as Florida hospitalizations for COVID decline

With new cases and hospitalizations for COVID-19 declining steadily in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis visited Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale on Thursday to extol the benefits of monoclonal antibodies as an effective treatment for the disease and to lambaste the White House for what DeSantis called an effort to “seize control” of the state’s access to the therapy.

DeSantis launched an effort in August to open state-run monoclonal antibody treatment sites across Florida, including one each in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties. Since then, Florida has opened 25 treatment sites statewide and as of Thursday, the governor said, more than 90,000 Floridians with COVID-19 have received the therapy free of charge at one of the locations.

“The results have been really positive,” DeSantis said. “We’ve seen really, really significant reductions in hospital admissions, in the hospital census, in visits to the emergency department for COVID-like illness.”

Noting that the number of COVID-related hospital inpatients in Florida has declined each of the past 24 days, DeSantis credited his administration’s effort for helping to reduce the disease’s burden on healthcare providers.

“We think having the availability of the early treatment has made a big difference,” he said.

However, the number of Floridians hospitalized with a confirmed or suspected case of COVID-19 remains high — about 10,205 people or nearly 21% of all staffed and occupied hospital beds statewide on Thursday, according to data reported by the Department of Health and Human Services.

In addition, the number of new COVID-19 cases reported in Florida peaked in late August, according to the health department’s weekly reports, and hospitalizations for the disease began to decline soon after.

Speaking at the main campus of Broward Health, the public hospital system for North Broward led by the governor’s former chief of staff, Shane Strum, who is now Broward Health’s chief executive, DeSantis credited his former staffer for helping him to come up with the idea for state-run monoclonal antibody sites.

Strum said Broward Health began infusing patients with monoclonal antibodies on Dec. 14, soon after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration first approved monoclonal antibody therapies for COVID-19 in November.

“A lot of folks were unsure in the beginning of what the monoclonals were or how effective they were or who were using them,” Strum said.

Broward Health now provides monoclonal antibody infusions at each of its four hospitals in North Broward, Strum said.

COVID hospitalizations, deaths cut by monoclonal antibodies, research shows

Dr. Aldo Calvo, a Broward Health physician overseeing the monoclonal antibody infusion sites, said he didn’t see an increase in use of the therapy until late July, as the delta wave took hold across the state.

“When given within the first 72 hours, per the clinical trials, you can really see substantial reduction in hospitalization and death by about 70%,” Calvo said, adding that the therapy boosts immunity “right away” for patients with mild to moderate COVID-19 symptoms.

Calvo urged Floridians to prepare for future resurgences of COVID-19 by getting vaccinated first, and to consider receiving monoclonal antibody therapy if they do come down with the disease because “they work.”

Micha Siegel of Boca Raton, who said he was fully vaccinated, received the treatment at Broward Health after contracting the virus at a child’s birthday party. He said he felt symptom free about 48 hours after an infusion of monoclonal antibodies.

Three-state run sites in South Florida

There are three state-run sites in South Florida, and together they have treated thousands of patients, DeSantis said. The one in C.B. Smith Park in Pembroke Pines, which opened Aug. 18, and the one at Tropical Park in Miami-Dade have provided about 6,000 treatments each. The West Palm Beach site has provided close to 5,000 treatments, he said.

Many of the people who have received monoclonal antibody treatments at one of the state-run sites were fully vaccinated, DeSantis added, including 52% of all patients at the Pembroke Pines site and almost 60% of all patients at the Tropical Park location.

“The message is you do need to have treatment as an important component when you’re dealing with COVID,” DeSantis said. “The bottom line is COVID is a treatable illness.”

But Florida’s supply of monoclonal antibodies may see a reduction soon, DeSantis said, due to a new policy announced by the Biden administration this week to stave off shortages of the therapy, which is now in high demand.

The Department of Health and Human Services said it will take over distribution of monoclonal antibodies and purchase an additional 1.4 million doses. The policy means that HHS will control distribution instead of allowing states, hospitals and doctors to order them directly.

“There’s going to be a huge disruption and patients are going to suffer because of this,” DeSantis said of the HHS policy.

The state-run sites are open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and do not require a doctor’s referral or prescription. Instead, the state’s surgeon general issued a standing order that makes the treatment available to anyone 12 and older with COVID-19 and a medical condition that puts them at risk for severe disease, such as obesity, diabetes or heart disease.

For more information on the state-run sites, visit floridahealthcovid19.gov and to register visit patientportalfl.com.