A question about a positive Covid diagnosis.

[Desert grandma]

I am confused. Why are the numbers of deaths and hospitalizations with Covid patients so high? I thought that even if someone tested positive and got sick with Covid, we have so many monoclonal antibody treatments that are going UNUSED according to a segment I saw on Rachel Maddow not long ago. Dr. Gupta said the treatments available now can keep a patient off of a ventilator, yet I hear of so many people catching Covid, getting hospitalized, then put on a ventilator and dying. I don't know if some doctors are not aware of these treatments or if the medical profession is so fragmented with the various "networks" that they are not providing this care, because it is costly. It is a disturbing thought.

[mucifer]

1. Monoclonal antibodies work in the earlier stage of the disease and it's an outpatient treatment

so people need to know about it and need transportation for it. It's not like taking a pill. It's an Infusion.

[Desert grandma]

2. I hope they spread the word then.

It seems to me at the first stage of a positive diagnosis I would insist on this treatment. An outpatient infusion sure beats ICU on a ventilator. So sad that it seems this isn't more widely advertised.

[Ms. Toad]

3. I can't find information about Casirivimab and imdevimab

but the cost for my daughter's entyvio (vedolizumab) is $20,000 for the infusion (gettting it into her body) + $8,000 for the medication per treatment.

I've seen some indications that it may be being provided for free - but the process of infusing is the most significant part of my daughter's treatment.

[Desert grandma]

6. Here in NM the treatment with monoclonal antibodies and steroid combination is free.

[Ms. Toad]

7. Both the medication and the infusion?

For most -mab treatments they are billed separately.

[Desert grandma]

9. Yes.

Covid treatment is free. Of course if you have insurance, they will bill it I think.

[Ms. Toad]

12. That's a pleasant surprise. n/t

[Buckeye_Democrat]

4. I suspect that many people don't seek treatment...

... soon enough.

My sister-in-law was infected for something like 10 days before it suddenly became life-threatening to her... ultimately killing her many days later after she finally went to a hospital.

She felt like she was improving, and a full recovery was just around the corner, but then WHAM! She suddenly struggled to breathe one early morning.

Edit: She received a large number of treatments at the hospital, including antibodies, but it all proved to be too late.

[Desert grandma]

5. So sorry for your loss.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

11. Thank you.

It happened back in November, so I've mostly moved on from it already. My brother obviously still grieves about it more than the rest of us.

He later caught it from her, but he never had terrible effects from it like she did.

[Hortensis]

16. I'm so sorry, Buckeye. What a horrible thing to happen.

And horrible disease.

Our DIL, who "never" gets sick, was incredibly more fortunate though she didn't take it seriously and didn't follow our advice to seek antibody treatment. A few months after, she's still feeling seemingly slowly improving long-hauler effects.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

18. Thank you.

And I'm sorry about your DIL too.

If she hasn't been vaccinated yet, it's possible that a vaccine will alleviate the long-hauler issues. At least it was reported several weeks ago, from long-haulers who said the injections made them feel better.

[Hortensis]

19. She has been, thanks, and hopefully she's also having that effect.

Covid turned her from a resister to an accepter.

[LisaL]

8. Antibody infusion is not something you can get in the pharmacy.

So you have to go get infused at the time when you are highly infectious. If you need a ride, I doubt there will be many people willing to take you, since you are highly infectious.
Also, infusion has to be done early in the disease, and many people don't feel bad yet. So they don't think they need it. By the time they make a turn for the worse, it's too late for infusion to make a difference.

[Meowmee]

10. I have news for you

Most hospitals / doctors are still as bad and even worse now, due to covid giving an excuse, as they always were. When my father was exposed to covid by the er and went back by ambulance a week later in terrible condition he was given NO treatments for covid. Except for one day of oxygen when his bp and o2 dropped. This is in a teaching hospital. I kept questioning why are you not treating him for covid. One idiot told me it was a virus, there is no treatment.

It was nearly impossible to get anyone on the phone and we had NO real way of monitoring his care. They are getting away with murder. And many states have given almost complete immunity against any covid treatment lawsuits. When I picked him up in the waiting room the day he was exposed there were at least 50 people there with 0 social distancing. Who knows what happened when he was in the er for several hours. I was not allowed to go in with him.

After nearly a month in the hospitals, he is now incontinent, immobile, has severe mental distress with psychotic like episodes, and has a now stage 4 pressure sore due to negligence and malpractice. And there is more, in addition his gp and several other doctors and the hospital failed to test for and to diagnose chf even though he had swollen legs and other signs. His doctor also abandoned him which is malpractice. And we are having trouble so far finding a lawyer who cares more about correcting a grave injustice than about how much money a case will bring. We will be writing the suit ourselves if no one will help him.

America you fucking suck!!!! You are supposedly the richest country intw and this is how you care for your vulnerable population.

[Desert grandma]

13. I am so sorry. This is terrible!

Was this in the beginning of the pandemic? I had a cousin whose wife caught it last March, in the early days of the shutdown. He took her to Santa Fe because his wife's sister worked at a hospital there that was implementing all of the known cutting edge Covid treatments. She was given the same treatment that former guy #45 had, and she recovered in a week. Another cousin got sick and went to a local hospital here in Albuquerque because of his "insurance". They gave him Remdesavir but nothing else other than supplemental oxygen. He started to improve after a couple of days, but then took a devastating turn for the worst and died. Was it because he went to the hospital too late? Who knows. This particular hospital however,did not prescribe this treatment very often, even when it seems to me that it might have done some good.

[Meowmee]

15. Thanks. I am so sorry about your cousin

My sympathies to you. That is amazing she had those treatments so early on, good thing her husband did that.

No my father had covid this January. I had it early on last April and I received no treatment except some extra inhalers although my doctor thought at first they would give me hydroxychloroquine which they were using then. I was told at the field hospital I would only receive that if I was admitted and I was told not to come back to the hospital unless I was near death basically. Because I am diabetic I always have a Z pack at home and I took that as soon as I started to get severe back pain and lung involvement. I believe that did save my life. But I am still a long hauler now.

There is really no excuse for the crappy treatment people are receiving certainly not a year after as with what happened to my father. Even early on I read posts by people on Twitter about receiving antivirals who recovered within a couple of days. But they had to fight to even get tested and treated then. I believe it is a money issue, they did not want to spend the money giving people all these expensive drugs etc. The medical community / insurers etc. have been given carte blanche basically in many states to do whatever they want via Covid. There was no real preparation for a pandemic which is a major failure. Early on even Fauci was repeating the lie of the CDC that a mask will not protect the wearer which is obviously wrong.

Never forget that the US health system is profit based and you are always fighting / advocating to get proper treatments.

[Hortensis]

17. I've never seen a whole hospital that bad. Individual doctors, yes.

I am sorry for your pain, but medical issues can be difficult to understand. I only mention this because people shouldn't believe as you do that the experience you relate is some kind of normal.

A family member to this day still believes her mother died of malpractice, that "something" could have been done that wasn't, when she actually presented yellow with jaundice and quickly declining health and was discovered to have advanced stage 4 pancreatic cancer, metastatic throughout the liver and many other places. No doubt "more" could have been done in that there are many treatments for pancreatic cancer, but none would have saved her life. And they don't give liver transplants to elderly patients dying of advanced cancer.

Our relative would understand and share your feelings completely, though.

[Meowmee]

20. Please do not assume that I have no knowledge of medical malpractice or medicine

Do not condescend to me. I have a great deal of knowledge from first hand experience. My mother died due to medical malpractice. I nearly died due to it and my father is now a victim of it. It is a lot more common than you seem to think and it very often goes unpunished because the system is set up to protect doctor and hospitals etc. Not to protect the patients. Do some research and educate yourself.

[Phoenix61]

14. Infusion centers have lots of cancer patients

there to receive chemo. There would need to be a completely separate place for covid patients and that just hasn’t happened. Also, the infusion takes about two hours. I read an article about the situation but couldn’t find it to link to.