West Virginia officials discuss COVID-19 treatments
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CHARLESTON -- West Virginia health officials on Friday hailed reports on the effectiveness of a new COVID-19 pill as good news, while Gov. Jim Justice suggested Washington might be "playing politics" with the distribution of an existing treatment.
Dr. Clay Marsh, the state's coronavirus czar, described the oral medication developed by drugmaker Merck as "another exciting tool that we may very well get in our tool box."
According to the Associated Press, Merck will soon seek authorization for the medication, molnupiravir, from health officials in the U.S. and abroad. A study showed patients who received the drug within five days of showing COVID-19 symptoms experienced half the rate of hospitalization and death of subjects who received a placebo, AP reported.
But Marsh and James Hoyer, director of the state's joint interagency task force on vaccines, emphasized the treatment should not be considered a replacement for getting vaccinated against the virus.
"This new drug maybe helps you 50 percent of the time, but we know the vaccine works," Hoyer said.
Monoclonal antibody treatments decrease the risk of hospitalization by 80 percent, Marsh said. State officials wanted to ramp up the availability of antibody treatments like Regeneron, but the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently changed the distribution method after seven states with low vaccination rates reportedly accounted for 70 percent of all orders in early September.
"We continue to ask for and we have demonstrated the demand for 3,000 doses," Hoyer said.
But last week, the state received 1,368 doses of Regeneron, he said. They were supposed to get more than 1,500 this week but had only received 156 as of Friday.
A member of the media asked Justice at the end of the briefing whether he thought the federal government was "playing politics" with the distribution, noting the seven states in question -- Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas -- are considered "red," Republican, and West Virginia has moved that direction in recent elections.
"What else do those people in Washington do?" Justice said. "It's all politics."
Asked to clarify whether the politics comment referred to the change being made because so-called red states had ordered so much or red states getting fewer doses because of their political allegiance, Justice talked about the narrowly averted government shutdown and ongoing debate over a proposed $3.5 trillion infrastructure bill supported by President Joe Biden and many Democrats. Justice said some of the social programs he and others argue don't belong in the legislation are important, but holding up the infrastructure piece for those is "typical, nasty politics."
"That is nothing but a money giveaway beyond belief, because we're concerned with the midterm election," he said.
"And if you think for a second that we won't play politics with red states versus getting the antibodies or whatever, I mean if you think that we're above doing that, I've got some great oceanfront property in the middle of Kansas that I'd like to sell you," Justice said.
Discussing vaccinations, Justice noted just over 80 percent of West Virginians age 50 and older had received at least one dose, compared to 64.7 percent when those 12 and older were factored in.
"The shortfall's with our young people. We've got to bump it up," he said.
And while most people hospitalized in the state are unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated, Justice noted the percentage of those who have been fully vaccinated but wind up in the hospital with COVID "continues to creep up just a little bit." He urged those who received the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine more than six months ago to get a third booster.
"If you're 18 and above, get with it. Go get that booster shot," he said.
A third shot of the Pfizer vaccine has been approved for eligible individuals, which Justice noted can include a wide range of people. While not recommended for everyone 18 and older, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists eligible individuals as those 65 and older or 18 and older with underlying medical conditions ranging from cancer to obesity and those living or working in high-risk settings, from health care facilities to grocery stores.
Evan Bevins can be reached at ebevins@newsandsentinel.com.
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Do It For Babydog Sweepstakes
CHARLESTON -- Registration for the Do It for Babydog vaccination sweepstakes final prize drawing in West Virginia was extended to encourage more vaccinations, state officials announced on Friday.
The deadline was extended to 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, Gov. Jim Justice said. Residents with at least one shot of the two-shot Pfizer or Moderna vaccines or the single-shot Johnson and Johnson can register at DoitforBabydog.wv.gov.