Tennessee recommends vaccinated residents lose access to monoclonal antibody treatment

[Nevilledog]

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Brett Kelman
@BrettKelman
The Tennessee state government now recommends vaccinated residents be denied access to monoclonal antibody treatment to preserve supplies for those who are unwilling to get vaccinated and remain most vulnerable by their own choice. A new story from me:

Tennessee recommends vaccinated residents lose access to monoclonal antibody treatment
Tennessee health officials recommend medical providers no longer provide monoclonal antibodies to vaccinated residents to preserve supply for the unvaccinated.
tennessean.com
7:05 PM · Sep 20, 2021

Story is paywalled, but here's a thread about it

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1440134938196692999.html

The Tennessee state government now recommends vaccinated residents be denied access to monoclonal antibody treatment to preserve supplies for those who are unwilling to get vaccinated and remain most vulnerable by their own choice. A new story from me: tennessean.com/story/news/hea…

In other words, if you took the responsible step of vaccination to slow the pandemic and protect yourself and others, it may now actually disqualify you from getting one of the most effective treatments for the virus. If you did nothing, you can still get the care.

This new recommendation is a result of the feds capping supplies of antibody drugs. They did it because a few poorly-vaccinated southern states, including Tennessee, were using most the nation's supply.

Who loses out as a result? The vaccinated. tennessean.com/story/news/hea…
To be clear, the state's recommendation is based on guidelines from the National Institutes of Health. A Vanderbilt expert told me this is the right choice to do the most good in a bad situation.

I think the salient question is this: Could we have avoided this bad situation?

One last thing I should add: As my story stays, the state's recommendation does not include vaccinated people who are immunocompromised or immunosuppressed. They would still qualify for monoclonal antibody therapy.

[gratuitous]

1. I'm stumped

Why izzit that legislators make such terrible doctors? Oh, right.

[yonder]

2. How about this instead:

The Tennessee state government recommends unvaccinated residents be denied access to critical care beds and treatment to preserve said care for those who have been responsibly vaccinated and may need that specialized care for UNFORESEEN accidents, surgery and/or illness.

Fixed it for you, Tennessee.

[DURHAM D]

3. The stupid it burns. nt

[hvn_nbr_2]

24. Frankly, this one sounds to me more like vicious and hateful than stupid. nt

[brewens]

4. Unvaccinated should be given a deadline. Give them a month to get vaccinated. After that, they're

at the back of the line for all treatments. I wouldn't even ask a nurse t cut a break short, or work a dimes worth of OT to help an anti-vaxxer if he or she would rather not.

[Corgigal]

5. Tennessee you have some nerve.

You told these poor and uneducated people not to get a vaccine, and played footsie with their anti-crap BS.

[roamer65]

6. Willfully unvaccinated shouldn't receive anything more than food, water and a cot.

Throw in some morphine for pain relief I guess.

[OhioChick]

8. I'm getting bitter here, deny the damn morphine n/t

[Mariana]

23. Nah. Morphine will keep them quiet. nt.

[ZonkerHarris]

7. Actually to motivate people to get the vax you should say unvaxxed are out for the MC treatment

[Demovictory9]

9. wow

[Botany]

10. So people who choose to get the disease by refusing to get the vaccine and there by spreading the ..

... disease to others by becoming a vector for the disease and a living hosts for the virus so it can mutate
to a new variant (not of question of if it will mutate but when will it mutate) get hospital beds and medicine over
those that did the right thing and got vaccinated? "They" really are trying to spread the disease no doubt.

People who refuse to get vaccinated should get a wall tent in a field or a parking lot, a cot and mattress (that
can be made into a body bag/coffin), food, water, and all the pain meds they want. They can only leave their
tent area until they have recovered and produced enough antibodies to keep from spreading the disease or
when they die.

[LisaL]

12. Accident care reserved for drunk drivers.

NT

[Mad_Machine76]

13. This whole pandemic

just keeps getting crazier and crazier. Tennesseans please wake up!

[Hortensis]

14. Demand is currently threatening to outrun supply of monoclonal antibodies.

The federal government, HHS, has changed how they're distributed to help make sure all areas get what they need. This action in TN is obviously a response to potential shortage there.

I read that the crisis standards of care adopted by Idaho and Montana (not TN) do not use vaccination status as a criterion for giving or denying care to patients. The goal is to save as many lives as possible by assessing how likely each patient is to be saved by the investment of the limited care available.

My first response was to be angry at this OP. But it sounds like they're trying to do what's best. If TN's government could choose who deserved to get care, they might choose to favor conservatives with the "right" values. Differing powerful convictions these days about who's deserving and who's not are driving the insanity.

[obamanut2012]

15. Someone will sue and win

This is appalling.

[spanone]

16. My state has gone insane. republicans control house, senate & governorship.

republicans are evil shits. now they want to punish the vaccinated. Jesus.

[Duppers]

17. +100

Former Tennesseean here who, yikes, is moving back.

[milestogo]

18. Why aren't the unvaccinated afraid of monoclonal antibody treatment?

Seems like that would be more of an unknown than the vaccine.

[eShirl]

21. because none of their trusted news sources has bombarded them w/ propaganda about it

(yet)

[BannonsLiver]

20. Yet another sign that America is done.

[Baitball Blogger]

22. Crazy white conservative logic.

Now you know why minorities will be happy to see this entire white conservative nightmare get pushed out of power.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

25. I thought the GOP believed in personal responsibility

Guess not.

[Carlitos Brigante]

26. Sounds like the beginning of a "death panel". nt