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Floridians embrace COVID-19 antibody treatment - Tampa Bay Times
Oct 16, 2021 1 min, 19 secs
It isn’t just people who are unvaccinated using Florida’s 25 monoclonal antibody treatment clinics, according to Florida officials.

About 45 percent of the more than 135,000 people who have received the COVID-19 treatment were fully vaccinated, state officials estimate.

But do vaccinated people with breakthrough cases and mild symptoms need to get monoclonal antibody treatment?

Patients should talk with their doctor, but people who are fully vaccinated and otherwise healthy do not benefit much from getting the treatment if they develop a breakthrough case of COVID-19, said Michael Teng, a virologist at the University of South Florida.

Although people can still get sick, the COVID-19 vaccines have been highly effective in protecting against serious disease and hospitalization, he said.

The treatment is lifesaving for at-risk people who aren’t vaccinated, reducing the chance of hospitalization by as much as 70 percent, Teng said.

People who are vaccinated but have conditions affecting their immune system, such as being in cancer treatment, also benefit immensely, he said.

Under the drug’s emergency authorization, people 12 and older who are at high risk of severe disease are eligible to receive the treatment if they have been infected with or exposed to COVID-19.

For instance, unvaccinated people make up about 10 percent of Miami-Dade’s population but 40 percent of the patients at the Miami treatment site.

If antibody treatment is in short supply, the National Institutes of Health recommends it be given first to unvaccinated and partially vaccinated people along with people who have been fully vaccinated but are not expected to mount an adequate immune response, including people who are 65 years and older.

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