FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Gov. Ron DeSantis lambasted the federal government’s decision to control the distribution of monoclonal antibody treatments for COVID-19, replacing the system under which a small number of states — including Florida — were gobbling up large shares of the supply.
DeSantis criticized the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and each time he mentioned the agency he mentioned President Joe Biden.
“There’s going to be a huge disruption, and patients are going to suffer as a result of this. And so we’re going to work like hell to make sure that we can overcome the obstacles that HHS and the Biden administration are putting in,” DeSantis said at a news conference Thursday at Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale.
In announcing the policy on Monday, the Health and Human Services Department said it was acting to ensure availability for current and future patients “in all geographic areas of the country.”
DeSantis described it differently. The federal action, he said, was “seizing control” of the supply of monoclonal antibody treatments.
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., was even more scathing in his attack on the Biden administration. “This is ridiculous. This is outrageous. People see it for what it is. These people are completely out of out of control. … This stuff needs to stop. These people are bordering on tyranny. And it’s outrageous. It has to stop,” he said in a video he posted to Twitter.
Early treatment with monoclonal antibodies — the main one is Regeneron — has been known to radically reduce the chances of being admitted to the hospital.
The system for distribution of the monoclonal antibody treatments, which cost $2,100 a dose paid for by the federal government, had been wide open.
As a result, states like Florida that had seen a surge in COVID-19 cases fueled by the delta variant consumed an enormous share of the supply.
Usage has been heavily promoted in Florida, where the governor has been a major champion of monoclonal antibody treatments, appearing at opening of treatment sites across the state and holding events at which people who received the treatments and recovered from COVID-19 tout its effectiveness.
DeSantis has urged people who test positive, especially those at high risk for severe illness, to seek monoclonal antibody treatment as early as possible. He did so again at Thursday’s appearance at the hospital in Fort Lauderdale, best known to many people by its former name, Broward General.
The Washington Post and Politico reported that 70% of the doses had been going to seven Southern states. All but Florida have relatively low vaccination rates.
As the overall supply tightens, the U.S. Department of Human Services is controlling allocations to the states based on hospitalization and case rates and ordered more doses from manufacturers. Previously states and medical providers have ordered what they wanted.
The new system allows states to allocate their supplies as they see fit.
Nationally, 158,580 doses were available this week. The Department of Health and Human Services allocated 30,950 of them to Florida, more than any other state.
DeSantis’ press secretary, Christina Pushaw, said Wednesday that Florida clinics and private providers have been ordering about 72,000 doses a week. “Part of the reason we have used a lot is I have made it a priority in the in the state of Florida. It had not been a priority at the federal government level for months and months and months,” DeSantis said at Thursday’s event.
The state-run sites have administered 90,000 doses of monoclonal antibody treatments, DeSantis said. Of those, he said 6,000 were administered at C.B. Smith Park in Pembroke Pines, “close to 5,000” at Westgate Park in West Palm Beach, and 6,000 at Tropical Park in Miami.
Rubio said the supply of monoclonal antibodies is being cut because the administration wants to punish Florida for the way it is “handling vaccines and not forcing people to do it” and for not imposing other COVID-19 mandates. He didn’t offer any evidence for his assertion of Biden retaliating against Florida.
“There’s not a shortage. There isn’t some crisis. But they’ve decided they’re going to start rationing it,” Rubio said.
The Biden administration position is it’s considering the national picture. Criticizing a president by charging state will be hurt by a federal policy is politically useful for any governor or U.S. senator of the opposite political party.
DeSantis and Rubio have consistently criticized Biden on many fronts.
The governor was a strong ally of former President Donald Trump and many of his policies are the kinds of things that appeal to base voters in the Republican Party. Besides running for reelection next year, DeSantis is widely seen as a leading candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. Going after Biden can only help him in both of those pursuits.
DeSantis took credit for increasing awareness of monoclonal antibody treatments in other states. He said his office has heard from grateful people outside of Florida who said they were unaware of the availability until they saw one of his news conferences.
Rubio is also seeking reelection in 2022.
Public health experts want DeSantis and Florida to take a more proactive approach to preventing people from becoming infected in the first place. They want stepped up campaigns to get people vaccinated and more mask-wearing.
Dr. Mona Mangat, an immunologist in St. Petersburg, said Thursday in a video news conference arranged by the left-leaning Committee to Protect Health Care that DeSantis needs to do more to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in Florida. “It’s not too late for the governor to take this pandemic seriously [and] begin to lead in a way that inspires confidence among Floridians,” she said. “We urge the governor to put patients above politics.”
DeSantis opposes mask mandates and so-called vaccine passports, which some states use to ensue people going into public places are vaccinated. At the end of his press conference, DeSantis was asked why he didn’t wear a mask when he wasn’t speaking even though all the other people who spoke at his event wore masks when they weren’t at the mic.
He pulled one out, summed up his criticism of the Biden administration’s move, and put on the mask as he left.
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(Orlando Sentinel staff writer Skyler Swisher contributed to this report.)
