The sick make their way to a Detroit parking lot, unroll the car window, and push up their sleeves for infusions of a medical cocktail to help them recover from a modern scourge, COVID-19.
Monoclonal antibodies are pumped into their arms intravenously at Wayne Health's drive-through clinic on Mack Avenue, staged outdoors to reduce the risk of spreading the virus..."COVID testing and vaccinations remain our pillar, but we're also very heavily engaged in monoclonal antibody infusions, which are a great way to prevent people who do contract COVID — particularly high-risk individuals — from getting sick to the point where they require hospitalization or at risk for dying,"

Dr. Bruce Muma, president and CEO of the Henry Ford Health System Physician Network, is feeling a similar pinch.

"One of our infusion centers expanded their hours to 3:30 in the morning ... because there was a subset of ER nurses who were so concerned about what they were seeing in the ER that they wanted to start doing something to prevent patients from needing to be in the hospital. So they are ... coming in four hours early for this shift."

Detroit-based Henry Ford got about 2,000 requests for treatment in the last week, but was able to administer about 725 infusions.

"By hook or by crook, we're expanding our capacity every week," Muma said.