Gianforte holds press conference to promote COVID-19 treatment, encourages vaccination

Gov. Greg Gianforte held a press conference Thursday to announce the opening of a monoclonal antibody treatment clinic at St. James Healthcare in Butte, one he hopes will be a model for more throughout the state.

Gianforte said COVID-19 hospitalizations continue to rise in Montana, driven by the delta variant which is straining the state’s health care system and endangering Montanans, particularly the unvaccinated who make up almost 90 percent of COVID-19 hospitalizations.

On top of that, he said, Montana has now lost more than 2,200 people to the virus.

“These are our mothers, fathers, grandmas, grandpas, sons and daughters and friends,” he said. “Their loss cannot be captured by numbers or statistics or a tv screen. These are our neighbors and their loss is a reminder of the importance of taking this virus extremely seriously.”

Gianforte said the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services has spent the last 45 days working to allocate thousands of monoclonal antibody treatments to health care facilities across the state as health care personnel work heroically to combat the pandemic.

He said these treatments, which are now available in 41 counties, prevent hospitalization if used early in the virus’s lifecycle and are being used to prevent the most vulnerable Montanans from being hospitalized.

He said the monoclonal antibody treatment clinic being set up at St. James Healthcare will not only save lives, but take some of the strain off the people working there, and he hopes it will be a model for more clinics around the state which he said the state will help set up upon request.

However, he said, the public needs to do what they can to reduce the strain on the system as well, primarily by getting vaccinated.

Gianforte encouraged Montanans to talk to their personal health care providers and get the vaccines which are safe and effective.

“That’s what I did,” he said.

Gianforte said 54 percent of eligible Montanans are fully vaccinated, which is encouraging, but health care workers and those in public health are still working tirelessly to combat the spread of the virus and they need the help of everyone.

He thanked DPHHS, particularly State Medical Officer Dr. Margaret Cook-Shimanek who oversaw the allocation of the state’s monoclonal antibody treatments, and the national guard for assisting health care workers across the state.

Cook-Shimanek said the allocation the state receives from the federal government so far has been enough to fulfill the requests of the state’s health care facilities and more sites with access to the treatment are added every week.

However, she said, these treatments are not a substitution for vaccination which remains the only way to truly fight the spread of the virus.

“They are not a replacement for vaccination,” she said.

She encouraged Montanans to get the vaccine, wear masks, and listen to public health if they ask them to quarantine or isolate.

Cook-Shimanek said public health has been protecting people from the spread of disease since long before the COVID-19 pandemic and they know what they are doing.