On NewsTalk 1370 WCOA, State Rep. Alex Andrade discussed how community leaders worked together to get a monoclonal antibody treatment center in Pensacola in a matter of days.
“Our hospital has been telling us for about two weeks that this monoclonal antibody treatment was getting higher and higher in demand,” said Andrade. The demand had gradually increased to the point the three local hospitals were doing about 120 total infusions per day. The nearest state-run treatment center is in Fort Walton Beach.
The lawmaker, who serves on the House Professions and Public Health Subcommittee, began to work with local officials to put together the necessary information to convince the governor’s office to establish a treatment center in Escambia County. Andrade called Escambia County Public Safety Director Eric Gilmore and the county commissioners.
“I asked them, one, to submit an emergency mission order to the Florida Department of Emergency Management, requesting a treatment center,” said Andrade. “And two, start coming up with a plan where if the state doesn’t actually end up funding this, the county and city are prepared to fund it themselves because there’s a need.”
He continued, “Mayor Robinson, the county commission, they both agreed to cover the $30,000 a day, the million dollars a month that it would take to run this. And thankfully, because of all that work, because of the mission order that was submitted to the Department of Emergency Management, the state saw that Pensacola absolutely needed it, and they came through with the funding. I was very excited for Governor DeSantis to come and announce that last week.”
