HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Monoclonal antibody treatments have saved the lives of many but that's not why they're a hot topic.
"There's been a lot of talk recently about a change in the way they're distributed, and a cut to the allocation to the state of Alabama," said Vice President of UAB's Clinical Support Services, Dr. Sarah Nafziger.
"Seven states have used 70% of the monoclonal that's available - that's being shipped recently and we wanted to make sure that we have a fair and equitable distribution of monoclonals to go across the country," said White House Vaccination Coordinator, Dr. Bechara Choucair.
Alabama, Florida, Texas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia and Louisiana are those seven states. In order for there to be enough antibodies for everyone, the U.S Department of Health and Human Services is regulating these treatments.
"Level of disease and hospitalization in every state, as well as the utilization of monoclonal of the stuff that's already in those states, and that allocation gets readjusted weekly," said Choucair.
Although the number of allotted treatments is ultimately decreasing, Nafziger says that supply looks good as of right now.
"We understand that the allocation process now will be based on cases in your state. And remember I told you, our case numbers are coming down right now. So our allocation is also a little bit down right now. So right now our supplies are good," said Nafziger. "If that changes, definitely though, we're going to be making some noise about that because we know that that is an effective tool to keep COVID positive patients from becoming critically ill."