Houston Healthcare prepares for new COVID treatment

As America heads into yet another holiday season, it should be noted that unprecedented times, are now very much precedent, at least in regard to COVID-19. This time last year, doctors were preparing for a massive peak in COVID-19 cases, as the vaccine was not available until mid-December, and individuals across the country traveled for the winter holidays to see family and friends – creating a massive number of super spreader events. Hospitalizations and death due to COVID were higher than anything we had seen then, or that we have seen since. In the days since, 57% of the American population has been vaccinated according to the CDC, three vaccines have become available to the major public, and a monoclonal antibody treatment, titled REGEN-COV, has been developed as a post-infection treatment for dealing with the worst symptoms, especially for those who are immunocompromised, or are immune deficient. As the winter holidays come once again, another post-infection treatment may become available to the public.

Merck’s Molnupiravir treatment is a post-infection treatment meant to reduce symptoms and reduce the possibility of contagion. This treatment has not yet been approved for emergency use by the FDA; however health professionals expect and hope it will be approved for use before the winter holidays.

Dr. Larry Stewart is the Vice President of Medical Affairs and Chief Medical Officer at Houston Healthcare. Stewart earned his Doctor of Medicine in 1979 and has practiced and taught medicine ever since. He reached out to The Journal to shed some light on the new treatment.

“I’m anticipating a fifth wave,” Stewart explained, “probably toward the end of the year, first of the new year. I think we’ll be right back at it. It will be very nice to have a drug we can give to out-patients that you can take by mouth that can help prevent hospitalizations and deaths. That will be a big addition to our armamentarium.”

Merck’s treatment may be considered by many of the public to be more inviting in comparison to REGEN-COV. Rather than the several shots to the abdomen that the REGEN-COV treatment employed, Merck’s treatment is a simply two pills, twice a day, for five days. It is currently unknown to local physicians the exact dosage or milligram amount that these pills will be.

Merck’s treatment was very recently in its testing phase but Stewart explains that after showing great promise in its effectiveness for reducing symptoms and contagiousness, the treatment was put forward for emergency approval with the FDA. “That’s always a good thing,” Stewart said. “When the safety people call up, there’s only two reasons why they’ve called: one would be, ‘the drugs really caused a lot of harm and we need to stop giving it right away,’ or ‘the drug is so good that there’s no need for patients to be assigned to a placebo when it’s obvious that the drug is superior and doing a great job of helping people.’ That was the case with molnupirovir.” Shortly after emergency approval is granted, the treatment is expected to be ordered nationwide.

“I’m hopeful that we can substantially blunt the next wave,” Stewart said. “If we can blunt the next wave, and even knock it down to 40 or 60 patients, which is still a huge number of sick patients to deal with, we can also, maybe, decrease some of their acuteness where not everybody is on a ventilator in the ICU. That will be huge, huge for us. That will benefit us greatly.”

With less COVID patients in the hospital, Houston Healthcare will be able to continue services they’ve had to postpone during each of the major COVID spikes, such as optional surgeries and maintaining a pediatric wing.

Although the development of another treatment for COVID-19 shows promise in the world, making COVID a concern of yesterday, Stewart maintains that the best solutions for preventing COVID-19 and limiting its spread as much as possible is to be vaccinated. The Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson vaccine are available at most pharmacies and clinics, and are typically free. Pfizer has received full FDA approval, and it is expected by many in the medical realm that Moderna And J&J will receive the same approval in the near future.

The state of Georgia currently has a population that is 49% fully vaccinated, and Houston County follows closely behind with 42%. To reach a herd immunity status, Stewart explains that a given population must reach approximately 80% immune – either through vaccination or the antibodies from fighting off the disease.

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