State gets OK to test experimental drugs
But even some workers who aren’t directed to quarantine are ill or afraid. At least 15 subway train operators and conductors called in sick Monday morning, according to a source.
Transit union leaders were told by MTA officials on Monday that the agency faces a shortage of protective masks for workers, according to Michael Carrube, president of the Subway Surface Supervisors Association.
“We’re not supposed to get any more masks until some time in May,” said Carrube.
“We didn’t even get out of March yet. You ain’t even going to have a subway system in May at this rate.”
Gov. Cuomo said Monday the state has enough masks for New York’s health care workers, but added he “can’t say” when more would be available for transit workers and people in other fields deemed essential during the crisis.
MTA officials say subways and buses continue to run at full service, even as ridership plummets to historic lows during the outbreak.
Billions of dollars in funding for transit agencies like the MTA have become entangled in tense Senate negotiations on a massive coronavirus stimulus package.
Senate Democrats on Monday shot down a bailout bill from Republicans, claiming it prioritized relief for corporations over working class families. The Republican proposal gave no guarantees of relief for transit systems that are struggling to stay afloat due to plummeting ridership amid the pandemic.
Democrats are pushing for $20 billion to $25 billion to be provided directly to transit agencies — enough to cover the $4 billion New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority requested from the feds last week, according to a source close to the negotiations.
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) Monday held several in-person meetings with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who conceded to give states money to relieve their mass transit networks, according to the source.
MTA leaders desperately need the money to continue to run the city’s subway, bus and commuter rail systems.
Fares account for roughly 38% of the agency’s revenues, but with ridership down by at least 74% on the subway, 61% on buses and as much as 90% on commuter rails since the outbreak began in the city, transit officials have turned to the federal government as their saving grace.
ALBANY — New York has federal approval to move forward with clinical trials of experimental drugs that could help combat coronavirus, Gov. Cuomo announced Monday.
The Food and Drug Administration green-lit the state to begin testing a pair of unproven treatments on a “compassionate care” basis for the state’s sickest patients.
One treatment involves taking plasma from a person who has been infected with the virus and injecting the antibodies made by their immune system into a person who is sick, according to the governor.
“There have been tests that show when a person is injected with the antibodies it then stimulates and promotes their immune system against that disease,” Cuomo said.
“It’s only a trial. It’s a trial for people who are in serious condition, but the New York State Department of Health has been working on this with some of New York’s best health-care agencies and we think it shows promise and we’re going to be starting that this week,” he said.
The state is also moving forward with tests using hydroxychloroquine and a similar anti-malarial drug, chloroquine, to treat coronavirus patients after President Trump expressed interest in the pair, which are used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.
Trump tweeted over the weekend that the drugs could be “one of the biggest gamechangers in the history of medicine,” despite his top medical experts warning that full trials are needed to assess their effectiveness.
All of the state trials will be done on a compassionate care basis, meaning the drugs, while not approved for widespread use, could be tried out on very ill patients.
New York state now has more than 20,000 confirmed cases, with 12,305 in the city.
Cuomo also said the state is working on a serological drug, which tests the antibodies of a person to see if they have already contracted COVID-19 and unknowingly defeated the virus.
“We all believe thousands and thousands of people have had the virus and self resolved,” he said. “If you knew that, you would know who is now immune to the virus and who you could send back to work… so we’re also working on that.”