As a new Covid-19 treatment arrives, hospitals scramble to solve logistical and ethical challenges
When the federal government started handing out a newly authorized Covid-19 treatment last week, some hospitals weren’t sure they should accept their share. On the surface, it sounded crazy. Decline a medication that might keep patients from getting severely ill? But like so many other pandemic-time medical decisions, this one offered only flawed choices.
The medication is bamlanivimab, Eli Lilly’s monoclonal antibody, and it’s meant for keeping high-risk patients out of the hospital. But its use comes with a Venn diagram of difficulties. Hospitals need to find space and staff to administer it at a time when there’s hardly enough of either to treat those who are gravely sick, build a system to identify eligible patients, and figure out an ethical way to ration it — all without knowing exactly how well the treatment works.
