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Most Americans are receiving coronavirus vaccine to fight against the deadly virus. A St. Louis Hospital is also using an experimental drug to treat COVID-19 patients and it’s keeping them out of the hospital. Point to be noted that former President Donald Trump was hospitalized with the coronavirus last year. He recovered after being treated with a special experimental monoclonal antibody cocktail. The vice president of BJC Healthcare and chief quality officer, Dr. Bruce Hall said, “While I believe in this therapy, I don’t know I would call it a game-changer. Right now it is probably the only therapy we have for this kind of patient, a patient early in the disease who is at risk of getting worse”.

Hall added, “We’ve treated more than 400 patients now and we’ve seen very, very few who need to be admitted to the hospital afterward that’s the main thing to watch for right because that’s what we’re trying to prevent. For every 15 patients that we can get in and get treated, we’ll be able to prevent one of them from getting into the hospital so that is the measure of effectiveness, and we believe that means the therapy is really worth doing”. Pharmaceutical companies Regeneron and Eli Lilly also said the cocktail shows promising results when used in patients 65 and older and in those at high risk who are in the early stages of infection. BJC in St. Louis has been using the drug under emergency authorization with positive patient outcomes.

However, there is evidence that it could possibly be used for preventive care, but not definitive. Hall also said, “That’s a great question. There is some early evidence that it can be used for people who have been exposed and who might not be sick yet”. It is noteworthy that the monoclonal antibody therapy is still undergoing clinical trials and is not yet available to the general public. The CDC also issued new guidelines for Americans traveling in the US using public transport. All US airlines have already established their own mandatory mask requirements for passengers and banned more than 2,700 passengers for violations of mask policies and other disruptive behavior since May. Biden’s executive order met with praise from an organization representing flight attendants.