{"id":16857,"date":"2021-11-07T14:16:57","date_gmt":"2021-11-07T19:16:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=16857"},"modified":"2021-11-07T14:17:06","modified_gmt":"2021-11-07T19:17:06","slug":"florida-to-close-half-its-monoclonal-antibody-sites-including-lakeland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2021\/11\/07\/florida-to-close-half-its-monoclonal-antibody-sites-including-lakeland\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida to close half its monoclonal antibody sites including Lakeland"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They closed the Lakeland site Friday evening<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Florida to close half its monoclonal antibody sites\" width=\"1110\" height=\"624\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/S0zLNa0LhQE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Florida is closing half its monoclonal antibody therapy sites, forcing COVID-19 patients to seek free treatment at state-run sites further away or go to nearby hospitals and medical centers where the treatment can be costly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Amid a sharp decline in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in Florida, at least 12 of the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/floridahealthcovid19.gov\/monoclonal-antibody-therapy\/mab-locator\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">state\u2019s 25 sites<\/a>&nbsp;are slated to close less than three months after Gov. Ron DeSantis&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.flgov.com\/2021\/08\/12\/governor-ron-desantis-announces-expanded-monoclonal-antibody-access-in-florida-with-new-monoclonal-antibody-centers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">opened the first site<\/a>&nbsp;in Jacksonville on August 12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In an email obtained, a consultant for the Florida Department of Health lays out which sites will modify their operations over the next several weeks since \u201c<strong>demand for&nbsp;monoclonal&nbsp;treatment has significantly decreased<\/strong>,\u201d wrote Cindy Dick, Director of Public Health and Policy for&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/cdr-em.com\/our-management-team\/cindy-dick\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">CDR Maguire<\/a>, the contractor providing the treatment at some of the sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Seven state sites were closed or targeted for closure by Friday, November 5, including Tampa, Lakeland and Sebring.<\/strong> The spreadsheet lists \u201cno operational change\u201d for the sites in Clearwater and Hudson. Operational adjustments for the Bradenton site are to \u201cReduce Operating Hours to Tuesday \u2013 Saturday &amp; Monitor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The closures of so many sites is significant because it makes it harder for patients to get the treatment for free, an element Gov. Ron DeSantis constantly touted as he traveled the state opening these sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The governor and his office&nbsp;attacked&nbsp;an Associated Press story, and its reporter, for examining&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wfla.com\/community\/health\/coronavirus\/explainer-reports-on-florida-gov-ron-desantis-regeneron-explained\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">whether there were links<\/a>&nbsp;between DeSantis\u2019 promotion of monoclonal antibodies produced by Regeneron and investments into the company by his largest political donor. DeSantis\u2019 press secretary Christina Pushaw also corrected news stories and reporters on&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ChristinaPushaw\/status\/1453491985856270338?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Twitter<\/a>&nbsp;that did not make it clear the treatment was free at state-run sites.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>They closed the Lakeland site Friday evening Florida is closing half its monoclonal antibody therapy sites, forcing COVID-19 patients to seek free treatment at state-run sites further away or go&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16858,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[1648],"class_list":["post-16857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-florida-to-close-half-its-monoclonal-antibody-sites-including-lakeland"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}