Florida: State leaders look for effective COVID-19 treatment

Local and state leaders are discussing the legitimacy of a treatment for COVID-19 the governor is saying could be a huge benefit for hospitalized patients.

Tampa General CEO John Couris said the Monoclonal treatment it effective: “From our perspective, but anecdotally and from a scientific perspective, they work.”

Lenny Curry, the mayor of Jacksonville, says the message needs to get out to the public.

“I don’t think people are very much aware of that, and to your point I think some messaging would be helpful,” Curry said.

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Action News Jax asked a UF Health doctor to break it down: What is the Monoclonal treatment?

“We take serum, blood, essentially, from patients that have been infected, we take those antibodies that they developed, and use some scientific processes to amplify those antibodies and then create, essentially, a treatment out of those antibodies.”

The treatment has no viral particles, so it’s safer to distribute.

“To date, we have seen some positive effects from some of those antibody treatments, but not so strong that we can say for sure, this is the magic bullet.”

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But the treatment must be done early.

“Many people are waiting until they are extremely sick and at that point it’s too late, we can’t do that for them,” Jackson Health Systems CEO said.

Doctors in Jacksonville said they have seen positive results from the treatment so far and will likely continue its use.

“It’s something that we’re definitely hoping the best for... and it’s something we are offering to folks and hopefully we will see even more benefit from in the near future.”

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