Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker said Wednesday she feels “almost 100%” after being diagnosed last week with COVID-19 and credited antibody treatment for her quick recovery.
"I feel almost like myself,” Parker said in a Zoom interview. “Almost 100%, frankly, which is a huge blessing."
Mayor Mattie Parker has been working from home and attending meetings virtually, after coming down with the symptoms last week and testing positive for the virus.
"Other than about 48 hours of misery, I've been very fortunate,” she said.
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Her misery was cut short by monoclonal antibody treatment, she said.
She received an hour-long IV infusion of the drug Regeneron.
"They said within 36 hours you will start to feel the effects,” Parker said. “I felt them within six hours honestly. I went back to sleep and napped that afternoon and woke back up and I could tell a remarkable difference."
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Parker said she received the vaccination in April and has a breakthrough case of the virus.
A number of infusion centers are now available in North Texas.
Most, but not all, require an appointment.
Experts say the best advice is simply to ask your doctor if antibodies might work for you and where you can go.
Dr. Angela Self, president of the Tarrant County Medical Society, said the treatment is providing great results.
She said it works by attaching onto cell receptors in place of the virus.
"We have these receptors on our cells, on our cell membranes,” Self explained. “The virus itself will attach to those receptors and do damage on those cells, damaging mostly the lung tissue. So the antibody will attach itself to the receptor. It occupies it, like ‘there's no vacancy here.’"
If all continues to go well, the mayor says she'll end her quarantine on Saturday -- 11 days after her first symptoms.
"The key for me was anti-body treatment,” she said. “It made a huge difference in my recovery."
Parker said her husband David also tested positive for the virus and also is recovering well.
Their 5-year-old and 10-year-old sons have both tested negative – twice, she said.
