Joseph Ladopo, Florida’s Surgeon General, sent a letter to the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Xavier Becerra, accusing Former Vice President Biden’s administration of “actively preventing the effective distribution of monoclonal antibody treatments in the US.”
In the letter, Ladopo said that Floriday’s Governor, Ron DeSantis in August, “announced a rapid increase in the availability of monoclonal antibody therapy treatments across the state. He also said, “In a matter of weeks, the state had 25 monoclonal antibody sites up and running – leading the nation in widespread early COVID-19 treatment availability.”
The letter went on to say, “By mid-September, the State of Florida provided this life-saving treatment to nearly 100,000 patients. These sites served 5,000 patients a day at the peak and nearly 30,000 per week. Florida pioneered monoclonal antibodies as a statewide solution to prevent severe illness and reduce the strain of COVID-19 on the state’s hospital systems.”
Lapodo then went on to make the shocking claim that the HHS had caused an “artificial shortage,” after 100,000 people were reached with the antibody treatments.
He said DeSantis “announced a dramatic reduction in the number of monoclonal antibodies to be allocated to the State of Florida. Governor DeSantis moved quickly to acquire Sotrovimab from GlaxoSmithKline to help alleviate the artificial shortage caused by this sudden shift from HHS.”
Lapodo went on to claim, “The federal government is actively preventing the effective distribution of monoclonal antibody treatments in the U.S. The sudden suspension of multiple monoclonal antibody therapy treatments from distribution to Florida removes a health care provider’s ability to decide the best treatment options for their patients in this state. This shortsightedness is especially evident given that the federal government effectively prohibited states from purchasing these monoclonal antibodies and serving their populations directly.”
According to Fox News, “The Biden administration recently paused shipments of COVID-19 antibody treatments manufactured by major drug companies Regeneron and Eli Lilly amid claims that such treatments are not effective against the omicron variant of the coronavirus.”
