Jason Delgado
Hours after Sen. Marco Rubio tweeted about a remdesivir shortage in several Florida hospitals, Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters he suspects some hospitals may be using it longer than suggested.
DeSantis stopped short of pointing fingers at any specific hospital, but he described the issue as the “number one thing” discussed yesterday with Vice President Mike Pence.
“We did have some treatments of it where you were going beyond the five days which obviously uses up more vials.” DeSantis said. “Basically, I think the White House’s view is, scientifically, we think the five day regimen can be beneficial. They don’t have much evidence that going beyond that tends to be beneficial.”
According to the Food and Drug Administration, remdesivir is an intravenously administered drug that “may shorten the recovery time” for COVID-19 patients by “decreasing the amount of the coronavirus in your body.”
DeSantis noted the importance of the drug and told reporters the drug shipment has been expedited.
“I spoke with the White House, the Vice President, and so the recent shipments were expedited,” DeSantis said.
On Twitter, Rubio also warned of a “bad disconnect” between the federal and state government, later citing the potential impact of drug shortages to the state’s availability of hospital beds.
“Shipments are coordinated by the federal govt & we have a bad disconnect between what they think we need & what we really need,” Rubio said, adding: “These numbers will get much worse if discharges slow down due to not enough doses of Remdesivir,” Rubio tweeted. “We can’t wait until July 27th for next allocation.”
The Governor disagreed with Rubio’s claim of a disconnect.
“I wouldn’t say there is a disconnect in terms of them understanding that this is something a lot of physicians are prescribing now,” DeSantis said, adding: “I think as this has come online, it’s kind of defaulted to the standard of care. So as people come in I think they are tending to get prescribed the remdesivir so we obviously want to help with that.”
DeSantis also noted a change of shipping procedures between the state and federal government.
Initially, Florida served as a middle-man for shipments. Now, however, shipments are delivered directly to hospitals.
“We want to get it as soon as possible,” DeSantis said. “I believe giving the doctors all the tools that are available is really what we need to do.”
4 comments
S.B. Anthony
July 16, 2020 at 6:56 pm
Thank you, Dr-Wanna-Be De Santis. Why don’t you stick to pretending to govern and let doctors do their job saving lives? You are an unparalleled joke.
Harriet N BRINKER
July 16, 2020 at 9:55 pm
Hello: I am a nurse consultant who would like to share research that I have been doing on cures for the coronavirus-19 in comparison to the leading drug that has shown proof of helping many patient’ recover in a short amount of time, taken orally and cost factors affordable. We know about HCQ and so far most of those affected have been reported with good results. The cost is cents and has been used decades on the medical market for other diseases as well.
Ramdesivir (RDV) is under investigative and not approved in any country for any use. The side effects. There is reported only one radomized control trial for RDV conducted during the last Ebola outbreak. This study was stopped before it was concluded because of a significant increase in mortality in patient’ taking this drug and it did not help those Ebola patient’ as well. Rather strange this medication is suddenly back on the market at a cost in the field of over $1300.00 a dose. Being that this drug is not through investigation aspect should it not be “FREE”? The side affects are not good and now I would wonder how many more patient’ will expire due to the side affects of this medication? Oh! yes. It is political/money why else. I would never take this drug when HCQ is the safer drug proven to take. Besides experts have informed that a blood test prior to testing should be taken first. The blood factors such as iron, hemoglobin, could be corrected with blood and oxygen and the first blood test is Vitamin D-3 levels in the blood. Remember the oxygen flows to the heart and lungs first. Throwing a patient on a ventilator only promotes a poor outcome, and Dr. Stephen M. Smith. (respected disease infectious specialist) calling HCQ treatment recommendation. Dr. Judy Mikovits. Dr. Delores Cahill and Physician Dr. Sherrie Tenpenny from Ireland. Specialists in various degrees. Vaccines are not necessary recommend they contain mercury to help decline the immune system what a way to control people are we at the beginning?
Tjb
July 16, 2020 at 11:16 pm
FDA cautions against use of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ). The overwhelming consensus of medical professional is HCQ is not a effective treatment for COVID 19. Simply put, the risk is greater than the benefits.
Sonja Fitch
July 17, 2020 at 5:36 am
Speaking of a SUSPECT, duffus Desantis is criminally negligent and just plain old lies! Facts Facts as best known. Stupid duffus Desantis!
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