He says that even without a pandemic, hospitals that primarily serve low-income patients run on tight margins. Add to that “the decreases in surgeries, as well as the increase in costs from the supply chain and labor, and the unpredictability of the different COVID waves,” and it’s clear why the pandemic has been so rough.
The reduced monoclonal antibody shipments to states this week may also affect health systems and patients. Zaas’ health system has been providing those drugs to patients and even turned an old restaurant in a shopping mall into a COVID-19 infusion center. It’s unclear yet what the supply or cost of these drugs will be going forward, he says, though there’s also uncertainty about whether they’ll be effective against future variants.
The person might also keep going to work in public-facing jobs, like serving food or driving an Uber.