Regeneron’s Antibody Miracle for Covid-19 :Within two days of receiving treatment, my wife and I had no more symptoms. David Asman
Three weeks ago my wife and I were toasting the New Year and giving blessings for the last. It was a year in which we welcomed our first grandchild, reason enough to be thankful. It was also a year during which we maintained our health, despite living, shopping, working and commuting in the heart of the city with the world’s worst Covid-19 death record. It appeared we were going to skate through the pandemic into the post-pandemic era without getting sick.
Then the coughing began.
After a long day at work, I went to bed early and kept waking up with a hacking cough. I rose the next morning feeling dizzy and achy with a cold sweat. I called my doctor, who got right to the point: “You probably have Covid; that’s the only thing getting through masks these days.”
Since I had a fever, I went directly to NYU Hospital’s emergency Covid ward. Although it was overcrowded, an unexpected calm prevailed. Several of the nurses and aides told me they’d already had Covid. Others had been vaccinated. More important, they said, they now have powerful weapons to use against the virus.
The weapon that interested me most was the antibody cocktail by Regeneron that has emerged from this crisis as a giant-killer. Once my test came back positive, I asked the nurses whether I could get the casirivimab and imdevimab drugs that night. They said it’s only given the day after you’re diagnosed. I also learned that despite Operation Warp Speed’s remarkable achievements in bringing drugs like this to the market quickly, there were still regulatory barriers to its distribution that seemed needlessly bureaucratic.
By the time I returned home, my wife was also developing symptoms. Fortunately my doctor had been working behind the scenes trying to find a place where Regeneron’s drugs could be administered quickly. We received our infusions over the following two days. That’s when the “miracles” began.
In short order my wife and I started feeling remarkably better. Two days after the infusions, our symptoms were gone. We’re three weeks past the infusions now, and we seem fully recovered.
So why in the middle of a Covid surge is it so difficult to get remarkable drugs when indications are that there is an excess of supply? Until the vaccines are universally available, the antibody cocktails are as close as we’re going to come to a silver bullet for slaying the Covid monster.
Last week the Trump administration agreed to a $2.6 billion purchase for 1.25 million new doses from Regeneron. If the Biden administration wants to make its mark on the pandemic, something more than repeating simplistic bromides like mask mandates, it should double down on that contract. Experts like former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb say fortifying supplies of the antibody serums, as well as deregulating their distribution and setting up infusion centers in hospitals, should be a top national priority. My wife and I heartily agree.
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