A Washington lawmaker said he's in El Salvador with a 'bad bout' of COVID-19 and asked his colleagues to send him monoclonal antibody treatments
AP Photo/Ted S. Warren
- A Seattle lawmaker said he was stranded in El Salvador with a "bad bout" of COVID-19, The Seattle Times reported.
- State Sen. Doug Ericksen had fiercely opposed vaccine mandates, and it's not clear if he'd been vaccinated, the report said.
- In a letter to his Republican colleagues, Ericksen asked if anyway was able to send him monoclonal antibody treatments.
A Washington state lawmaker said he contracted COVID-19 and was "fighting a bad bout" of the illness while he was in El Salvador and asked his GOP colleagues if they could send him monoclonal antibody treatments.
According to a Friday report from the Seattle Times, State Sen. Doug Erickson, a Republican representing the city of Ferndale, made the announcement that he had contracted the disease during an appearance on KIRO radio.
In an email sent to his GOP colleagues in the Seattle House and Senate on Thursday, Ericksen said he had a doctor who was willing to administer monoclonal antibodies but said the treatment was not available in the country, the Seattle Times reported.
"I took a trip to El Salvador and tested positive for COVID shortly after I arrived," he wrote, according to a copy of the email obtained by the Seattle Times. "I cannot get back home, and it's to the point that I feel it would be beneficial for me to receive an iv of monoclonal antibodies (Regeneron). I have a doctor here who can administer the iv, but the product is not available here."
According to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), "monoclonal antibodies are laboratory-made proteins that mimic the immune system's ability to fight off harmful antigens such as viruses."
The treatment first received FDA authorization in 2020.
Notably, President Donald Trump last year received monoclonal antibodies when he contracted COVID-19.
"Do any of you have any ideas on how I could get the monoclonal antibodies sent to me here," Ericksen asked in his Thursday email, according to the Seattle Times. "Ideally, I would like to get it on a flight tonight so it would be here by tomorrow."
One GOP senator told the Seattle Times that lawmakers were "looking into it."
Insider's request for comment to Eriksen's office was not immediately returned Saturday morning.
It is not clear whether Ericksen had been vaccinated for the disease. Ericksen had been a strong opponent of Washington Gov. Jay Inslee's efforts to curb the pandemic, according to the report, and earlier this year sponsored legislation "protecting the right of every Washington 2 resident to decline an immunization or vaccination for COVID-19."
State workers in Washington state were required to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by October 18 or face the risk of termination, as the Associated Press reported. About 1,800 state workers were fired, resigned, or retired after the mandate, according to state data reported by AP.
It was unclear why Ericksen had traveled to El Salvador, though it wasn't his first time in the country. As the Associated Press previously reported, Ericksen missed numerous votes in the state Senate earlier this year when he was on a trip there.
Ericksen in 2019 registered with the US Department of Justice as a foreign agent to lobby on behalf of the Cambodian government as part of a $500,000 contract with the country, the Seattle Times reported.
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