Even though the ultimate goal, of course, is a vaccine and treatment, there are some things happening that actually are going to help those afflicted with the coronavirus here, now. The FDA approved a new drug for treating those with severe cases of the coronavirus, remdesivir. Some of our public hospitals are starting to use this drug to treat those who are suffering.
This drug has decreased hospital stays for those who have utilized it from 15 days to 11 days. Now that may not sound like a lot to you on first blush, but let me tell you, that means four less days of suffering for that patient, four less days of worrying for their family, four days sooner that each patient can get home to their families and continue their recovery. So, it's a big deal.
The company involved, Gilead, donated over half-a-million doses of this drug to the federal government to distribute. So far, however, we've gotten only 4,000 doses for hospitals here in New York City. We need about 10 times that much just to get started. I've reached out to the White House, I've spoken to White House officials to try and speed up the shipment. This is something we need here because, whether we like it or not, we're still the epicenter of this crisis. I am hoping that the White House will hear our plea and quickly get us the additional doses we need.
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