As a physician, I think it’s incredibly important for patients to have access to as much life-saving information as possible, especially as we still continue to see COVID-19 cases across the country.

In a commonsense move last week, Florida’s surgeon general announced that any Floridian is now eligible to receive monoclonal antibody treatment for COVID-19, without having to deal with the bureaucracy of a doctor’s office. 

Since then, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has opened nearly 15 state-run COVID-19 treatment clinics in an effort to relieve overrun hospitals. These clinics offer access to monoclonal antibody cocktails which are highly effective in treating COVID-19 patients before their condition worsens. The treatment is an IV infusion but is done as an outpatient. 

Rather than follow the lead of DeSantis, our governor in Kentucky continues to only support more mandates with the ever-looming threat of lockdowns as the last line of defense against COVID-19.

For quite a while now I’ve publicly praised the benefits of monoclonal antibodies and urged Kentuckians and Americans to be aware of this remarkable and effective treatment.

While Dr. Anthony Fauci and his friends at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have failed to adequately promote this treatment, that hasn’t stopped me from speaking out about it – both in media interviews and while traveling across Kentucky.

You deserve to have this critical information. 

If you are infected with the COVID-19 virus and begin to have a bronchitis-like cough, and you’re not yet sick enough to be hospitalized but are continuing to get sicker, you should ask your doctor about receiving monoclonal antibodies as a treatment. 

Monoclonal antibodies are designed to block the virus’ attachment and entry into the cell. 

If you have the virus, this treatment could potentially save your life. It helped President Trump, Rudy Giuliani, and Chris Christie when they were battling the disease and it could help you too. 

These antibodies are proteins that mimic the immune system’s ability to fight off harmful antigens that have also been modified to directly fight against the spike proteins of COVID-19. 

At this point in the fight against COVID-19, we have developed many groundbreaking treatments. Unfortunately, Dr. Fauci and the Biden administration continue to downplay monoclonal antibody treatment and promote mitigation strategies such as cloth masks, which peer reviewed studies have shown are ineffective.

Think about it, if there’s a patient in the hospital with COVID, and you ask the doctors and nurses what kind of mask they wear, none of them wear cloth masks when caring for a COVID patient. They all wear an N95 mask, as it’s the only mask that effectively filters out virus particles. 

Every day now we find that immunity is not perfect and breakthrough infections are increasing. Fortunately, the community immunity developed from both natural infection and vaccination has greatly reduced the current hospitalization and death rate. Once everyone becomes aware of the benefits of other treatments such as monoclonal antibodies and corticosteroids even more lives will be saved.

Vaccines and natural immunity are, in my opinion, the primary reason why hospitalizations and death rate have plummeted. To be clear, my opinion on vaccines has not changed. I’m still pro-vaccine, as I’ve always been, especially for those with high risk factors like older age and increased weight. However, I’m also pro-freedom, and in a free country people will evaluate their personal risk factors and are smart enough to ultimately make medical decisions themselves.

So, rather than only offering or promoting one treatment and instituting illogical lockdowns, I urge Gov. Beshear to follow suit of Gov. DeSantis and the people of Florida.

Monoclonal antibodies are an effective treatment for this virus that little attention has been paid to. This has to change. It is another effective tool in the fight against COVID and could help save countless lives.

You can read the Op-Ed HERE.