A woman seen on the floor of a Duval County, Florida Regeneron antibody clinic is speaking out amid allegations that she is a “crisis actor.”
A photo taken by another patient, Louie Lopez, at a temporary Regeneron clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, went viral on Reddit.com on Friday.
Toma Dean told ABC News she is “extremely sick” and she decided to lay down on the floor because she was “out of breath.”
She said she has been in and out of emergency rooms for the past two weeks, and was extremely sick when she arrived in Jacksonville for Regeneron monoclonal antibody treatment on Wednesday.
Dean said there were no chairs at the makeshift treatment center, so she made the decision to lie down on the floor to rest until her appointment.
The viral photo sparked rumors that the two people seen on the floor were dead or dying. But others on social media said the two people were crisis actors.
Dean denied being a crisis actor or faking her illness to scare people into taking the vaccines.
“My choices were to stay in and run out of breath and not be able to [receive] the treatment, or sit down on the floor and patiently wait for the line to go through and be able to get the treatment that I need. So I chose to lay down on the floor, and make it through this line. If I had chosen to stand up in line, I’d never make it to the treatment. I’d have been back at an ER. So I laid on the floor, until they got wheelchairs over to assist us.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis opened several Regeneron monoclonal antibody clinics in the state, including one in Lakeland in Polk County.
Regeneron monoclonal antibodies are human-made proteins that simulate antibodies in the human immune system.
According to Regeneron, REGEN-COV was designed specifically to fight infection by SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
The center in Jacksonville has ordered more wheelchairs to accommodate the long lines of people waiting for the antibody infusions.
Dean said her Regeneron treatment took four hours and it was “not a fast process.” She thanked the facility’s staff for being very supportive.
“The picture that’s going around online — it looks terrible, yes, but they were great there. The facility was great,” Dean said.
