Florida Governor Ron DeSantis shredded President Joe Biden’s administration over the decision to revoke the emergency use authorization for Regeneron and Eli Lilly monoclonal antibody treatments.
According to the Food and Drug Administration, the treatments are not effective against the Omicron variant. Because the variant accounts for most cases of the coronavirus across the country, leaders of the agency limited its use.
However, DeSantis contends the “abrupt and unilateral action” does not allow residents to decide their own course of treatment.
“Without a shred of clinical data to support this action, Biden has forced trained medical professionals to choose between treating their patients or breaking the law,” said DeSantis. “This indefensible edict takes treatment out of the hands of medical professionals and will cost some Americans their lives. There are real-world implications to Biden’s medical authoritarianism – Americans’ access to treatments is now subject to the whims of a failing president.”
Because of the decision, some COVID treatment sites have been forced to close.
“In our field of medicine, when someone comes to you seeking a treatment that could save their life, it is essential to have treatment options to ensure health care providers can make the best decisions for their patients,” added Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo. “The Federal Government has failed to adequately provide the United States with adequate outpatient treatment options for COVID-19. Now, they are scrambling to cover up a failure to deliver on a promise to ‘shut down the virus.'”
Over the course of the pandemic, DeSantis and Biden have clashed over the use of antibody infusions. Last year, Biden limited the number of treatments distributed to each state, leaving local leaders to ration the supply among various locations.
In response, the Florida governor bypassed the federal government and purchased thousands of the treatments directly from GlaxoSmithKline, a producer of the treatment.
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Cooper Moran is a reporter for the Star News Network. Follow Cooper on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Ron DeSantis” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.
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