Monoclonal antibody treatments ineffective against omicron, doctors say

ATLANTA — The monoclonal antibody infusions that worked so well preventing hospitalizations and death against the delta variant don’t work against omicron.

Georgia hospital leaders say that leaves them without a major weapon to fight the virus.

A new version of the antibody treatments does work against omicron, but is in very limited supply.

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“The monoclonal antibody that we had during delta doesn’t work. In fact, the federal government has pulled it back because it’s not effective,” said Northeast Georgia Medical Center incident commander Dr. John Delzell.

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Georgia hospitals just started receiving the version of the antibodies that does work on omicron on Wednesday, but in very limited amounts.

The Georgia Department of Health says they only have 800 doses of the antibody infusion for the entire state.

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“During the delta surge in September we administered hundreds and hundreds of doses to people that would have been sick enough to be hospitalized and we don’t have that weapon right now,” Delzell said.

Channel 2 Action News has learned that this week the state of Georgia did just receive a new tool to fight COVID-19, it’s very first shipment of the newly approved oral COVID-19 pills, but it’s a very limited supply right now. Just 1620 doses of one brand and 7,500 of the other have been allocated across the state so far.

On Wednesday, Governor Brian Kemp announced $100 million to immediately hire up to 1,000 temporary health care staff to help Georgia hospitals.

In an emergency virtual meeting with Fulton County Commissioners and metro Atlanta mayors, county health leaders said omicron cases have spread even faster than they projected just a week ago.

And it’s translating quickly to problems with local hospital capacity.

“A hundred new patients overnight, COVID patients, in the hospitals, which is more than double any one-night increase,” said Doug Schuster with the Atlanta-Fulton County Emergency Management Agency.

Channel 2 Action News also reached out to the White House. A spokesman said they have contracted to purchase more than a million courses of the effective monoclonal antibody treatments and have provided 100,000 doses to states in the past 2 weeks.

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