A number of Republican governors are pushing treatment options for the coronavirus while ignoring or downplaying preventive measures that could reduce infections and hospitalizations in more effective ways, including vaccinations and wearing masks.
Politico reports that tens of millions of dollars are being invested by Govs. Ron DeSantis (R-Florida), Mike Parson (R-Missouri) and Greg Abbott (R-Texas) for monoclonal antibody treatments for those who have tested positive for COVID-19. One of the governors, DeSantis, has been touting the treatment across his state, while another, Abbott, is receiving the rare treatment himself after recently testing positive for the virus.
These types of treatments are effective means for preventing hospitalization and even death from the virus — up to 70 percent more effective than not getting the treatment, studies have shown — but they are more costly and less effective than precautionary vaccines in terms of reducing the need for hospitalization if infected by the virus.
The costs of either the treatment or the vaccinations are not being passed on to those seeking them. Rather, governments have largely been absorbing the costs of both. But while the Regeneron version of the monoclonal antibody treatment costs around $2,100 per dose, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for protection against coronavirus costs less than $20 per shot.
And while monoclonal antibody treatments are 70 percent effective in reducing hospitalizations, getting vaccinated reduces the chances of contracting the virus in the first place. Additionally, 95 percent of those who are vaccinated but still contract COVID will not require hospitalization, studies have demonstrated.
Some local officials have said that the focus on treatment rather than prevention is the wrong path to take.
“You’re having this discussion about [infusion] centers that can be avoided if we get people vaccinated,” Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said.
While the three governors have not directly discouraged people from getting vaccinated, they have not been promoting vaccinations as strongly as many had hoped, especially given that the vaccination rates in all three states are below 21 other states, including Washington, D.C. Two of the governors, DeSantis and Abbott, have imposed bans on local governments, including school districts, from implementing rules on facial coverings to reduce the spread of the virus, while Parson has been vocal in his opposition to local mask mandates in his home state.
Taken together, the three states represent a high proportion of the nation’s daily coronavirus infections being reported. On August 17, for example, more than 259,000 new COVID cases were reported in the United States. Case counts in Missouri, Florida and Texas accounted for nearly 50,000 of those, just shy of the one-fifth mark for all new cases seen across the nation on that day.
Reporting from The Associated Press this week highlighted the potential conflict of interest that one of these governors may have in promoting the antibody treatment while downplaying the vaccines and masking. DeSantis has received more than $10 million in campaign support from a CEO of a hedge-fund that has also invested more than $15 million in Regeneron.
“Experts agree that keeping people out of the hospital is a top priority, but say vaccines — not treatments for people after they get sick — are the best way to do that,” journalist Brendan Farrington wrote.
After The AP report from Farrington, DeSantis’s press secretary Christina Pushaw targeted the journalist on Twitter, telling him she was putting him “on blast” for producing an article she said was misleading, although nothing in Farrington’s piece appeared to be inaccurate. Her multiple tweets against Farrington, however, including one where she allegedly told her followers to “drag” him, resulted in supporters of DeSantis threatening the journalist’s life.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment. We’re presently working to find 1500 new monthly donors to Truthout before the end of the year.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy