Nebraska COVID-19 cases are back on the rise, with the number of cases last week reaching the highest level in three months.
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How the availability of COVID-19 treatments has changed throughout the pandemic
January 2020: SARS-CoV-2 sequence is made public
The world first learned about the coronavirus in late 2019, as the disease spread through Wuhan, China. Within weeks of the first documented COVID-19 cases, a group of scientists—including those in China and international collaborators—published the virus’ sequence on an open-access site. Virologist Edward Holmes shared a link to the sequence on Twitter, enabling researchers around the world to begin studying the virus.
That early research included vaccine development at Moderna and BioNTech, a German biotechnology company that would soon partner with Pfizer on clinical trials. As both of these companies had previously been working to produce vaccines based on genetic sequences, they were able to quickly adapt their work to the coronavirus. Moderna’s first clinical trial for its vaccine started in March 2020, just two months later.
May 2020: Emergency authorization for antiviral drug remdesivir
Remdesivir was another early drug that received Emergency Use Authorization in spring 2020. This antiviral drug, made by the biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences, was shown to shorten COVID-19 patients’ recovery time in a trial run by the National Institutes of Health. After its emergency authorization, the federal government purchased about 500,000 treatment courses of remdesivir to distribute to U.S. hospitals between June and September 2020.
Later, in 2020, hospitals started working directly with Gilead to purchase the drug. It has remained one of the most widely used antiviral drugs for hospitalized COVID-19 patients and was fully approved by the FDA—a more rigorous process than emergency authorization—in October 2020.
November 2020: First monoclonal antibody treatment receives authorization
Pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly was the first to begin testing a monoclonal antibody treatment for COVID-19. In these treatments, patients receive infusions of lab-made immune system proteins that are designed to fight off the coronavirus. The treatments effectively give a boost to the immune systems of patients who are particularly vulnerable to severe symptoms.
Bamlanivimab, Eli Lilly’s monoclonal antibody treatment, received Emergency Use Authorization from the FDA in November 2020. A similar treatment made by Regeneron received Emergency Authorization later that month. Both treatments were initially only available for high-risk patients in hospitals but became more widely distributed in 2021.
December 2020: Pfizer, Moderna vaccines receive authorization
Less than a year after Chinese scientists publicly shared the coronavirus’ genetic sequence, two mRNA vaccines designed from this sequence received emergency authorization from the FDA. Many scientists and health experts considered this quick timeline a “miracle,” as no vaccine had ever been produced so fast in human history.
The Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines were able to progress so quickly because both BioNTech and Moderna, along with the National Institutes of Health, had been working on coronaviruses and genetic sequence-based technology for years before COVID-19 hit. In addition, the Trump administration poured billions into vaccine development and production through “Operation Warp Speed,” allowing the COVID-19 vaccines to move through bureaucratic hurdles more efficiently.
The U.S. vaccine rollout started on Dec. 14, 2020, with a New York City critical care nurse receiving the nation’s first dose. Healthcare workers and nursing home residents were first in line for doses, followed by seniors and other immunocompromised and otherwise vulnerable Americans.
Summer 2021: Politicization of monoclonal antibody treatments
As the COVID-19 vaccine rollout progressed in 2021, vaccination became increasingly polarized: As of January 2022, 91% of people who identify as Democrat have received at least one dose of vaccine compared to 63% of people who identify as Republican, according to polling by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Republican politicians who are hesitant to alienate their bases by encouraging vaccination have instead turned to monoclonal antibody treatments as an alternative option for reducing COVID-19 deaths. During the summer 2021 Delta surge—which primarily hit Southern, Republican-led states where mask mandates also served as a political tipping point—governors in Florida, Texas, and other nearby states set up monoclonal antibody clinics where residents could receive these treatments for free.
By mid-September, just seven states were accounting for 70% of monoclonal antibody orders from the federal government, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. The HHS responded by taking control of monoclonal antibody distribution, making it similar to the distribution system for remdesivir in 2020.
August 2021: Pfizer vaccine receives full FDA approval
Eight months after Americans started receiving the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine under Emergency Use Authorization, the FDA fully approved this vaccine. “The public can be very confident that this vaccine meets the high standards for safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality the FDA requires of an approved product,” Acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock said in a statement at the time.
Some public health experts hoped that the full FDA approval would help to convince vaccine-hesitant Americans—concerned about the rapid timeline for COVID-19 vaccine development—that Pfizer’s vaccine was entirely safe and effective. However, polling and data analysis afterward found that the full approval had a limited impact on vaccine uptake. Vaccination rates went up slightly in late August 2021 but fell again in September.
