Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

  Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/Qdxd29SFRZ0   Those CoVid positive patients with chronic medical conditions that could land them in the hospital on a ventilator or worse did not receive the relatively scarce outpatient antiCovid monoclonal antibodies that would protect them from those fates.  Public health investigators at Harvard’s and Dartmouth’s medical schools draw this conclusion from their studies of Medicare claims data for services between November 2020 and August 2021.     Data analysis revealed that the likelihood of receiving this vital preemptive therapy was a relatively robust 23% for those without any complicating medical issues compared with about 6% for those with 1-5 chronic conditions and a shameful 4.7% for those with 6 or more chronic conditions.  Those receiving these cutting edge therapies were also less likely to be black or on Medicaid.   The investigators suggest that those most in need had difficulties navigating the the multiple steps necessary to obtain these infusions and had less ac