As the region’s healthcare system continues to feel the weight of the latest surge in COVID-19-related hospitalizations, health experts are encouraging local residents who have not done so to consider vaccination after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration fully approved one version of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Earlier this week, the FDA fully approved the Pfizer/BioNTech version of the COVID-19 vaccine, and health experts have suggested that full approval for the Moderna version could be within weeks.
Dr. Beverly Zavaleta, physician adviser at Valley Baptist Medical Center-Brownsville, said she is hopeful that such approval will give those who remain unvaccinated against COVID-19 additional encouragement to choose to protect themselves from the virus through vaccination.
“I’m relieved that the FDA has fully approved the Pfizer COVID vaccine and I’m hopeful that many more people will now get vaccinated,” she said. “If you delayed getting vaccinated because you felt nervous that no vaccine had full FDA approval, now you can feel reassured that it is time to go get a Pfizer vaccine.”
Zavaleta indicated that the FDA’s full approval is additional confirmation regarding the safety and efficacy of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine that has been available since late 2020.
“I want to restate that even before the full FDA approval of the Pfizer COVID vaccine; researchers have shown that COVID vaccines are safe and effective. For example, after exposure to the more-infectious COVID Delta variant, your risk of becoming infected is cut in half if you are vaccinated,” she said. “If you do become ill with COVID, your symptoms will be fewer and mild if you are vaccinated. Most importantly, if you are vaccinated against COVID, your risk of being hospitalized or dying of COVID is greatly reduced. To look at it another way, if you are unvaccinated you have a 25 times higher risk of dying of COVID.”
While vaccination remains the most effective means to prevent both COVID infection and hospitalization due to severe COVID-related illness, another treatment has helped the region’s healthcare system manage the strain of the latest surge in COVID activity.
Infectious disease specialist and UTRGV School of Medicine faculty Dr. Jose Campo Maldonado, explained how the treatment – called monoclonal antibodies – can help those who test positive for COVID-19 avoid serious illness and hospitalization.
“For clarity, I will use the words defenses and immune system interchangeably and the words attack and defense to describe the actions of the virus and our immune system. Antibodies are proteins that our body produces to protect us from infections and poisons, and they can help other parts of our defenses to recognize what ‘doesn’t belong,’” he said. “Our bodies naturally produce antibodies. When we think about therapy with monoclonal antibodies, we can think of those proteins protecting us from infections and having a similar function to antibodies we could produce in our body after vaccination or infection, but these proteins are made in a laboratory to target or interfere with the COVID-19 virus (SARS-CoV2).”
Campo Maldonado said that researchers have gone to great lengths to make the proteins have a very specific target as they assist the body’s natural immune system.
“The monoclonal part has to do with the fact that these proteins have a unique target, which can be part of the virus, or they can target a binding site that the virus uses to get into our cells. These proteins cause interference and can make the virus less effective when it comes to causing infection and disease.”
There are a number of locations throughout the Rio Grande Valley offering monoclonal infusion therapy for COVID-positive patients who meet a variety of medical criteria, one of which being within the first 10 days of the onset of COVID-related symptoms.
While Campo Maldonado said the results of monoclonal antibodies therapy can make a difference in the region’s fight against COVID, vaccination remains the most effective means of protection against the virus.
“Vaccination is the most important intervention we have to prevent severe illness, hospitalization, and death. I see monoclonal antibodies as a backup for those who end up getting infected and have high risk of disease progression but present in time to get a benefit from this therapy,” he said.
MORE INFORMATION:
MONOCLONAL INFUSION THERAPY LOCATIONS in Cameron County currently:
>> My NuRx Pharmacy/Pan American Clinical Research — Contact (956) 230-5565 with services available in Harlingen and Brownsville;
>> Emergence Medicine — Contact (956) 616-5225 with infusion services offered in Harlingen and South Padre Island;
>> Smith Family Medicine — Contact (956) 689-5506 with infusion service offered in Raymondville;
>> Regional Infusion Site — Contact (956) 247-3650 with infusion service offered in Harlingen at the Ronald McDonald House located at 1720 Treasure Hills Blvd.
