Volunteers get supplies to hospitals

Carl Labbe spent Thursday driving 67 boxes of remdesivir, a drug used to speed recovery times for COVID-19, to hospitals across metro Phoenix.

A retired pharmacist, Labbe is one of many volunteers helping ease the load for overburdened healthcare workers struggling with an influx of COVID-19 cases in Arizona hospitals.

Volunteers for the Maricopa County Department of Public Health help transport supplies like PPE, medication, testing kits, food, and “whatever else is needed” across the county, Labbe said.

“Right now, it's like wave after wave after wave of patients. And they're almost getting to the point where docs are going to be making decisions as to 'who's going to live and who's going to die?” Labbe said. “I mean, that’s just hard on your psyche.”

Hospitals in Arizona are struggling with rising COVID-19 caseloads. On Monday, hospitals were given permission by Arizona Department of Health Services director Dr. Cara Christ to use “crisis care standards,” which allow medical professionals to determine which patients receive care if space or equipment run out.

As of Thursday, ICU beds were 91% full, leaving 156 free spaces across Arizona hospitals.

Labbe and his colleagues distributed the rest of the remdesivir load — for a total of 300 cases — among hospitals in Maricopa County.

This is the third time he has helped distribute the drug, he said. But this run was special.

Despite the looming holiday, volunteers and county officials decided to transport the boxes of medication so hospitals would not have to wait over the weekend for the supplies.

With remdesivir, timing matters. Patients are better off if they take the medicine before a “cytokine storm” begins, which is an overload of inflammatory chemicals released into the body because of the virus.

Originally developed to treat diseases like Hepatitis C, the antiviral medication has been used to fight diseases like Ebola, SARS and MERS. Now, it is being used during the pandemic, having been shown to reduce recovery times for patients with the new coronavirus.

However, the price is steep: at $520 per vial, treating one patient who has private insurance costs $3,120 over five days.

Labbe said he's been impressed during his volunteering to see how well agencies, nonprofits and volunteers work together to support hospitals and other COVID relief efforts.

Labbe said he has seen volunteers help ease the load on workers who, before they had extra help, were transporting supplies like food and PPE themselves.