A Coast hospital turned a gym into a COVID antibody treatment center. Get an inside look.

Dwayne Turner of Bay St. Louis wasn’t feeling well at his job as a chemical lab technician on Saturday, tested positive for COVID, and on Monday morning he sat hooked up to an IV at Memorial Hospital’s recently expanded monoclonal antibody infusion center in a former gym.

The 37-year-old hoped he’d soon be rid of his lower back pain and muscle aches from the virus.

He was not vaccinated but felt comfortable getting the infusion — another experimental treatment that has left Memorial with a 2% rate of hospitalization after use — because his friends and family recovered so quickly after they received it.

“I’m not against vaccines, I would just like other people to take them first to see what happens. I’m never the guinea pig,” Turner said. “My buddy, he had [the infusion] done and it worked for him. And family members have had it, and it worked for them. It’s only been a day for one of them and he’s at 80% back to normal.”

In 90 days, when immunity from the short-term infusion treatment is up and when health officials encourage patients to get the vaccine, Turner still doesn’t think he’ll get the shot.

“I would like to know what’s in it first,” he said. “No matter what I put in my body, I want to know what it is.”

Turner said he’s also done research about “what’s in” the monoclonal antibody treatment, but what made the difference for him to receive the infusion was the stories of success he’s heard from friends and family.

Turner then reclined for the rest of his 21-minute IV infusion and then hour-long waiting period.

He was in the south building of Memorial’s Gulfport campus, formerly a gymnasium-turned fitness center for Memorial employees and some members of the public. Forest green exercise equipment pushed into the center of a faded basketball court allows room for 200 chairs and monitors dedicated to monoclonal antibody infusions, which beeped constantly.

Nurse practitioners contracted by emergency management company AshBritt-IEM Health zip around in white PPE suits, administering IVs and checking for side effects.

Opened in early September, it’s the third buildout of a treatment facility that, according to Memorial’s counts, reduces COVID symptoms by 85%.

And unlike lagging vaccination numbers across the Coast, demand for antibody infusions is here. Mississippi is currently a “leader” in monoclonals, according to State Medical Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs.

“I started the antibody infusions back in November 2020, so once we got access to it, we have transitioned from the infusion clinic to an outpatient clinic to a floor in the hospital, and then we got really busy so we contracted with IEM to come in and be able to do everything that we were doing and give us our floor back in the hospital,” said Kristian Spear, nurse practitioner and advance practice manager at Memorial.

The treatment, first popularized after former President Donald Trump received the infusion when he had COVID in October, is not a substitute for vaccination, doctors and health experts say.

Ninety days after the infusion, recipients are encouraged to get their vaccination if they haven’t already. Trump has said he received the COVID-19 vaccine.

But it can reduce hospitalizations and lower mortality rates at a time when the delta variant continues to spread across Mississippi. And on the Coast, where vaccination rates remain lower than the statewide average of 42%, the expansion of this “plan B” treatment, as Dobbs has called it, could save hundreds of residents who remain less skeptical of the emergency authorized drug than the COVID shots.

“There’s really two bullets in the gun in the outpatient arena. There’s the vaccine, and then there are monoclonal antibodies. Outside of that, we have very few true tools in the tool belt to combat the next wave of the pandemic,” said Matt Walker, Memorial’s vice president of clinic operations.

“People are very polarized about the vaccination until they get infected with COVID-19. And then they want everything, including monoclonal antibodies, which are even newer than the vaccines and they’ve got a lot less information out… but that stuff works. I’ve called it the COVID Kool-Aid.”

The state is also expanding its capacity for monoclonal antibody treatment. On a press conference last week, officials said they’ve put in a request for an extension of their current infusion administration teams and an additional nine teams.

Dobbs said that statewide, there is also a lack of hesitancy toward the antibody treatment, unlike the vaccine. Those who have turned down the vaccine don’t seem to have an aversion to the infusion.

“I’m not aware of any specific hesitancy about monoclonals,” Dobbs said.

What is the monoclonal antibody treatment?

Monoclonal antibodies, or mAbs, are made in a laboratory to fight a particular infection, based on natural antibodies against COVID-19, according to the Mississippi State Department of Health. Bamlanivimab, etesevimab and Regeneron are monoclonal antibodies that block the virus’ attachment and entry into human cells.

The Food and Drug Administration has issued emergency use authorizations for monoclonal antibodies to be used within 10 days after the first symptoms of COVID-19 appear. It decreases the likelihood of hospitalization and death from the virus by nearly 98%, according to Memorial and other local hospitals.

The treatment works best when it’s received closest to symptom onset.

“Test early — as soon as you have symptoms or if you know you’ve had exposure. Then call our 5000 line and get scheduled right away. Because [the infusion] works best the first few days of symptoms,” Spear said.

A call to Memorial’s monoclonal antibody line, 228-867-5000, is a quick way to be screened by the hospital and schedule an appointment for the treatment. Some high-risk patients who test positive at Memorial’s testing locations can schedule appointments on the spot.

Other providers around the state can also administer the infusion. MSDH has published this list of contacts, which include additional local health systems like and Singing River and Ochsner Health.

‘If you need the infusion, you can get it fast’

“What [the expansion] has allowed us to do is patients can go through the COVID line and they can get in the same day. There is no wait anymore. If you need the infusion, you can get it fast,” said Spear.

Pass Christian resident Rachel Campbell, 54, tested positive for COVID on Monday morning in Memorial Hospital’s drive-thru testing location and was getting her monoclonal infusion on Monday afternoon.

“This process has been very impressive,” she said. “I tested negative on Friday, but my symptoms worsened and I tested positive today... My husband tested positive last week and got his infusion, and within 24 hours it was like he’d never been sick.”

Almost all COVID-positive Mississippians can receive the infusion — qualifications include having a wide array of preexisting conditions or having a body mass index of over 25. The FDA also recommends the treatment as a preventative for immunocompromised people who had exposure to the virus.

The hospital has administered about 30 infusions for high-risk patients who have had exposure to COVID. Two-hour blocks of time are sectioned out every so often for these patients to get isolated infusions.

Memorial started ramping monoclonal antibody offerings at the same rate the hospital’s testing was yielding more positives over the past few months.

“In late July, we were somewhere in the monoclonal antibody capability at 46 a day, and then went from 46 to 60. And then we went from 60 to 100. And then we went from 100 to 150. And now we’re at 200. And all of that is been in a very short window of time,” Walker said.

Numbers of infusions have gone down slightly since the hospital’s “peak” right after Hurricane Ida, said Spear, who noted Memorial is seeing about 100 patients a day at the new facility.

It’s too late to get the infusion after the first 10 days of symptoms, or if a patient is hospitalized because of COVID or requiring oxygen because of COVID. Don’t wait on a recommendation for the infusion, health officials warn, it could decide the fate of a patient toggling between life and death.

Becky Clemens, an unvaccinated Singing River Operating Nurse, passed away in August from COVID. When she visited a Singing River emergency room on a Friday, the overwhelmed health care system was too full to admit her, according to her husband, but sent her home with orders to get a monoclonal antibody treatment the following Monday. By that time, her symptoms were too severe to receive the infusion.

“It was bad luck on timing, it was a weekend, we could have got the infusion the next day,” her husband Jonathan Clemens said. “Monday she was a lot worse. And they said it was too late to get the infusion because she was too bad already…That’s one thing I kind of took away from this, it’s kind of a balancing act, COVID. If you’re real early and you get to go back home and not sick enough, go get the infusion.”

Antibodies free for MS residents, cheaper for hospital

The treatment is free to Mississippi residents.

According to the Mississippi State Department of Health, insurance covers the cost of treatment, and if uninsured, health care providers will be reimbursed from federal funds. FEMA pays for Memorial’s infusions, according to Spear.

Dobbs has touted the cost-effectiveness of monoclonal antibodies compared to the treatment of COVID patients in Mississippi hospitals.

In Mississippi, the average charge for a COVID admission is $72,000, according to Dobbs, while drug infusion rates average $450.

“Based on the current Medicare outpatient infusion rate for the drugs, $450, every dollar spent on the infusion of monoclonal antibodies save $9. Or, for every 16 infusions we could save $64,800 based on charges,” said Dobbs in a tweet.

Antibody treatments popular among unvaccinated

Recipients of the treatment at Memorial are pretty evenly split between those vaccinated and unvaccinated, Spear said.

“It’s really strange, you know, people are disinterested until they actually have COVID, and then they want everything. It’s almost it’s this weird fog,” said Walker.

“Maybe there’s just not as much negative information about the monoclonal antibodies as there is with vaccines. But I can tell you, the vaccine works, and monoclonal antibodies work.”

Most patients Memorial is seeing for the infusion are in the 20-50 age group, Spear said, which is also the most unvaccinated group.

“If I’m somebody who is healthy and young and didn’t get the vaccine because I think I’m going to be fine if I get COVID, and then I get it and don’t feel good, then I want to do something,” said Spear. “Now I have a problem. I’m feeling bad.”

Turner wasn’t the only unvaccinated patient receiving antibodies on Monday.

Daniel Widener, a 40-year-old from D’Iberville, had not yet been vaccinated but was planning on receiving it this week, before testing positive for COVID on Saturday.

But a number of vaccinated patients were also receiving treatment. Long Beach resident Henry Schepens, 59, was vaccinated with his first shot in January and got his second in February. He received the infusion treatment after testing positive at the Gulfport Memorial testing site earlier Monday morning.

“The COVID test went smoothly and this was fine here too. Easy stuff,” said Schepens. “My sister did tell me that one of her friends had COVID and he took it and within a couple days he was fine. I’m hoping this will put me back on my feet.”

This article and live event is supported by the Journalism and Public Information Fund, a fund of the Gulf Coast Community Foundation.

This story was originally published September 15, 2021 at 5:50 AM.

Isabella Murray

Sun Herald

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