On Thursday November 25th, I asked the Minister of Health why her government has been so slow to approve the use of two monoclonal antibodies (MAbs)which have been shown to the very effective in reducing hospital and ICU needs and reducing deaths from COVID-19. These monoclonal antibodies have been approved for use and have been used for the last three months in Ontario, and have been similarly approved for use in British Columbia and Alberta. The use of these monoclonal antibodies have the potential to reduce the need for ICU beds from COVID and to reduce deaths. Their use could potentially have decreased the need for ICU beds sufficiently that we would not have needed to transport patients hundreds of kilometers away from their homes in order to free up hospital space. My question and the Minister's response is below (from Hansard).
MAbs
for Early COVID Treatment
Approval for Use in Manitoba
Hon.
Jon Gerrard (River Heights): Madam
Speaker, two monoclonal antibodies, casirivimab and imdevimab–colloquially
called mAbs–are remarkably effective in the early treatment of COVID,
decreasing the number of people having to go to the ICU or dying by up to
70 per cent. These mAbs are now widely used in BC, Alberta and
Ontario, including in Sioux Lookout and Thunder Bay, but not in Manitoba,
because this Province has not acted with the urgency needed.
Why is the Province hesitating to approve these mAbs when they save lives and
decrease ICU use and can enable Manitoba to return to elective surgeries and
address the enormous backlog which we have now?
Hon.
Audrey Gordon (Minister of Health and
Seniors Care): I thank the member for–from River Heights
for the question.
Our government continues to seek the advice and listen to the experts at
Public Health, as well as the national advisory council on immunization. The
best defence we have against COVID‑19 is for individuals to get vaccinated.
When new drugs become available, once again, we seek the advice of public
health experts.
As you know, Madam Speaker, earlier this year, I also changed regulation to
make it easier for us to add new drugs to the formulary, and I look forward to
hearing more from Public Health as new drugs come to the market.
In addition to the question above, I commented on two other occasions on the failure of the government to quickly approve the use of the mAbs in Manitoba. These comments are below:
From my Comments
on the Throne Speech – Thursday November 25th
The
COVID pandemic continues and now is in the middle of the fourth wave. The
projections from our chief public health officer, Dr. Brent Roussin, are
that it will get worse.
Already, many surgical and diagnostic procedures are being postponed.
Postponed is a government euphemism for cancelled, to be rescheduled at some
unknown future date. It means the backlog of surgeries and diagnostic tests
will grow.
It did not have to be this way. I have, for example, already written repeatedly
to the Minister of Health to allow the use of two monoclonal antibodies, mAbs.
These two are, specifically, casirivimab, and imdevimab, and their use early
in the course of COVID‑19 infection has been shown to reduce deaths and to reduce
the number of individuals who need ICU care by up to 70 per cent.
The reduction in the need for ICU care would be sufficient that surgeries would
not have needed to be cancelled in the way they were. It's really unfortunate
that Manitoba has been so slow to approve the use of mAbs. Currently, these
mAbs are being used widely in Ontario, in Alberta and BC. Indeed, it's shocking
that these mAbs can be used in Sioux Lookout and Thunder Bay, but can't be used
in Winnipeg.
Bob Dylan had a song, when will they ever learn. One wonders whether the
current government will ever learn.
From my Comments on a resolution calling from a Public Inquiry into the conduct of the Pandemic on Thursday December 2.
In
June 2021, Health Canada approved the use of two monoclonal antibodies,
colloquially called mAbs, with the specific names casirivimab and
imdevimab. These have been shown in rigorous scientific work to be very effective
when given early in the course of a COVID infection in a person who is not
vaccinated. They reduced the need for hospitalization and for ICU care. The
results are very impressive with as much as a 70 per cent reduction
in some cases.
I wrote on October 11 and again on October 22nd to the Minister of Health to
urge her to approve the use of these mAbs and then asked in QP last week.
Ontario, BC and Alberta have already been using them for some time, including
in Sioux Lookout in rural Ontario. But in Winnipeg, a hub of expertise in
infectious diseases, we still can't use them. Ouch. I dread to consider
how many people in Manitoba have died when they could have been saved if
these agents had been approved here much more quickly, as they were in Ontario.
Just because some in Manitoba have not got vaccinated doesn't mean they shouldn't be helped. These people may be misinformed but they are not bad people. They should be helped. They should not die when we can prevent it
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