The Biden administration is taking steps to change how antibody treatments are distributed to the states, sparking intense backlash from leaders across the country who advocate for the life-saving treatments.
As reported by Fortune, “Hospitals and other care providers will no longer be able to directly order monoclonal antibody therapies from distributors, according to a Sept. 13 update posted on the Department of Health and Human Services website.”
“Instead, the U.S. government will determine what quantity of the drugs to ship to each state and territory based on Covid-19 case numbers and use of the treatments locally. State health departments will then determine how to distribute the antibody therapies to hospitals and other sites, according to the HHS update,” the outlet added.
“Federal health officials plan to allocate specific amounts to each state under the new approach, in an effort to more evenly distribute the 150,000 doses that the government makes available each week,” Politico reported. “The approach is likely to cut into shipments to GOP-led states in the Southeast that have made the pricey antibody drug a central part of their pandemic strategy, while simultaneously spurning mask mandates and other restrictions.”
“Still, until recently, the administration had shipped the antibody treatments to states on an as-needed basis — with top health officials in early August going as far as encouraging those battling the Delta surge to seek even more supply,” the report added. “But demand from a handful of southern states has exploded since then, state and federal officials said, raising concerns they were consuming a disproportionate amount of the national supply. Seven states — Texas, Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, Louisiana and Alabama — accounted for 70 percent of all orders in early September.”
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said on its website on Monday:
HHS will determine the weekly amount of [monoclonal antibody (mAb)] products each state and territory receives based on COVID-19 case burden and mAb utilization. State and territorial health departments will subsequently identify which sites in their respective jurisdictions receive product as well as the amount each site receives.
Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) tweeted a video discussing the move by the Biden administration as several other prominent figures came out against the decision.
Rubio tweeted along with the video:
Every day it’s something new with these people in the White House
The decision to ration antibody treatments proves they focused on public health
What they want is power and control
The senator put out an earlier tweet with a message along the same lines, writing:
Antibody treatments aren’t a substitute for vaccines
But they have prevented thousands of hospitalizations including in breakthrough cases
Now in a move that reeks of partisan payback against states like Florida,the Biden administration is rationing these treatments.
In his video, Rubio said, “[The people in the Biden administration] literally want to punish and control everybody that doesn’t do what they want them to do.”
He added, “Do you know how many people I know, including vaccinated people, that got COVID and were able to get an antibody treatment? And as a result of the antibody treatment, it kept them from getting really sick, it kept them from out of the hospital?”
He said he personally knows dozens of people who have gone through this experience and had a successful antibody treatment, arguing that the Biden administration doesn’t like how states like Florida have decided to address the coronavirus pandemic. Florida has offered antibody treatments to people who get COVID while promoting vaccination.
He said, “There’s not a shortage. There isn’t some crisis. But they’ve decided they want to start rationing it. This reeks of politics. Let me tell you what this is. This is the Biden administration punishing Florida.”
“This is ridiculous. This is outrageous. People see it for what it is. These people are completely out of control,” he added, saying they are bordering on tyranny.
The senator added that while he doesn’t know what Congress can do about it, he will look into it to see what can be done to stop this kind of treatment of states by the federal government.
“It has to stop,” he concluded.
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