Local

Demand for monoclonal treatments growing in Jacksonville

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. —

The monoclonal antibody treatment has been freely available to people in Jacksonville for nearly two weeks. Since then, the number of people taking advantage of the service has steadily increased.

At this main site two weeks ago, less than 100 people showed up. Yesterday nearly 300 people received treatment.

Brian Pfiefer was waiting in his car for his wife. He said he thinks it’s a great resource for Jacksonville.

“I think it’s a tremendous benefit to the city. I’m glad that we have and it’s available and I think more people should take advantage of it if they can,” Pfiefer told Action News Jax.

I asked those who were getting treated today how they felt before the treatment.

“She still had some symptoms so we decided to come down here and get it once the symptoms showed up,” Pfiefer said.

One mother said she felt bad but not as bad as she expected COVID to feel.

“Not terrible, I just thought I had a cold. I didn’t have a fever so that was my biggest concern. I did not even think I had covid, then I tested positive and I’m not feeling any different yet but I wasn’t feeling terrible beforehand. I just didn’t want symptoms to get worse.”

They said the symptoms were what drove them to come.

“It was more like a mild flu or bad cold. but we wanted to be proactive and get ahead of it,” Pfiefer said.

“I tested positive yesterday, I’ve been symptomatic for three days so I decided to come in pretty quickly,” the mother said.

The entire process takes about an hour and a half with an appointment and slightly longer for walk-ins.