New AZ monoclonal antibodies cocktail approved by FDA for prevention

This is a very important step that PF members like @557 and me were asking for: the FDA has approved a monoclonal antibodies cocktail made by AstraZeneca to be use for prevention of infection, by the immunocompromised or people allergic to the vaccines.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/u-fda-authorizes-astrazenecas-covid-203016708.html

Two infusions provide protection for one year. It cuts the risk of developing any Covid-19 symptom by 77%.

It's called Evusheld.

I'm glad that we are developing more and more therapeutic (molnupiravir, Paxlovid, monoclonal antibodies by Ely Lilly, Regeneron, and GSK/Vir) and preventative (the vaccines, Evusheld) tools to fight off this coronavirus. Science is providing real answers. Of course, anti-vaxxers, denialists, and conspiracy theorists do their best to stop scientific progress, but it advances anyway.

On another piece of good news, GSK/Vir's monoclonal antibody sotrovimab was shown to be effective against all 37 mutations in the Omicron spike protein.

https://www.reuters.com/business/he...rks-against-all-omicron-mutations-2021-12-07/

 

Finally!

A little less efficacy than what Regeneron showed in trials but I suppose they don’t want to cut into the Regeneron supply used for therapy. Also it looks like they may be throwing Astra a bone since we didn’t approve their vaccine.

Definitely a HUGE win for the immunocompromised. Will definitely save lives compared to endless boosters for people who can’t benefit from them.

Just think, if we would have referred to monoclonal antibodies as the passive vaccines they are from the start and used them instead of current vaccines for high risk and immunocompromised individuals, we could claim 90% of hospitalizations are unvaccinated and not be telling a flat out lie.

But I will try and be thankful for the living who now have better options instead of mourning for the dead who died in vain waiting for “public health” bureaucracy to pull their heads partway out of their nether regions.

Thanks for the heads up CF. And all you high risk PF members who are seniors and/or high risk, if your life and Heath are more important to you than doing what you are told, please take a hard look at this option. It could save your life.

 

I wonder how long it will take before it is disparaged?

 

It’s been disparaged by progressives here on PF since I started advocating for their use as passive vaccines here in June. You are way late to the party.

 

Yes, it's quite crazy that right-wing people seem to be against the vaccines and left-wing people seem to be against the monoclonal antibodies. It shows the silly, crazy, or better said, frankly stupid divisiveness and politicizing around this virus. Both the vaccines and the monoclonal antibodies are great biological tools we can all (left-center-right) use to bring down this dangerous virus.

Without the political divisions we would have probably saved hundreds of thousands of lives; we didn't need to be in the 800,000 thousands. But no, we have to engage in these silly behaviors instead of thinking, independent of ideology, "oh, there's a virus, that's a disease, so let's see what doctors and scientists come up with; yay, they came up with extremely safe and decently efficacious vaccines although not 100% efficacious, and they came up with monoclonal antibodies that work pretty well for those who can't take the vaccines, so let's follow the doctors' advice - like we do when they tell us to take metformin for our diabetes or losartan for our hypertension or a tetanus shot, without making a political point out of it."

So, Trump took the Regeneron cocktail and DeSantis recommended it, so leftists are against it.
Biden pushes for the vaccines so rightists are against them.

I would like SO MUCH to see politicians out of it, from the beginning!

If we had a president who simply said, "America has some of the best doctors and best medical scientists in the world; I'm not a doctor or a scientist so I'll stay largely out of the specifics of what people should or should not take, and will just encourage people to get what doctors and scientists recommend; the one thing my administration can do is to provide support (financial and logistical) for whatever the doctors and scientists think is worth researching, developing, approving, and distributing."

So, no promotion of hydroxychloroquine... no vaccine mandates... and not even promotion BY A POLITICIAN of something that does work like Regeneron. Even the things that do work, I think politicians should not promote. They should always say "whatever the doctors and scientists conclude is efficacious and safe, we all should take." Then, if a politician does take it too, I think it's OK to say "given that it was recommended by my doctors, I took it." No secrets about it but no over-promotion either.

This way, the issue of prevention and treatment of Covid-19 wouldn't have been politicized to start with, and people on both sides of the political spectrum would be making good decisions and taking good care of themselves.

Sure, antivaxxers would continue to spew their nonsense... but the issue not being driven by politics, their conspiracy theories and junk science wouldn't be embraced by either side, and would continue to be fringe like it has always been.

Vaccines = autism (a huge pile of BS) did not generate a huge national division with one side of the political spectrum backing it and the other opposing it. In the past, we used to see crazy anti-vaxxers coming from all sorts of ideological backgrounds, but remaining as a tiny minority. Now, thanks to the intense politicizing of this virus (to a degree I've never seen in my long professional life) we see the anti-vaxxers embraced by a large chunk of our ideological spectrum, and it is sad to see that another good tool, monoclonal antibodies, are being criticized by the other side.