Dr. James Lawler of UNMC on Covid-19 Vaccine, Treatment and Testing

This morning, on the local talk radio station KFAB, Dr. James Lawler, Associate Professor of the University of Nebraska Medical Center, was interviewed about Covid-19. He mentioned the progress on the vaccine front, saying that the drug companies are now compiling data on the tens of thousands of subjects who took the vaccines or placebo to judge safety signals based on the adverse events. He said the efficacy rates for these vaccines look to be higher than expected.

For current treatment options, Dr. Lawler said that this involves basic supportive care and high flow oxygen or mechanical ventilation when needed. He also said a new, monoclonal antibody product with good efficacy in the out-patient setting will be rolled out across the state. He emphasized that out-patient treatment like this therapy is preferred.

When asked about false negatives in testing, he said that the virus has an incubation period of up to 14 days after exposure. A person getting testing in the early part of the infection might test negative, so the advice is to test after 3 to 4 days from exposure, and then tested again later.

UPDATE: I did get confirmation from UNMC that the monoclonal antibody Dr. Lawler is referring to is bamlanivimab, which has just been approved for emergency use authorization (EUA) by the FDA.

I have another post with more detail on bamlanivimab.