Florida Surgeon General Accuses Biden Administration Of Withholding COVID Treatment

Florida’s surgeon general wrote a letter Tuesday accusing the Biden administration of withholding lifesaving COVID-19 treatments.

Dr. Joseph Ladapo wrote to Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra accusing the federal government of “actively preventing the effective distribution” of monoclonal antibody treatments. The Biden administration recently suspended the distribution of two of the three available monoclonal antibody treatments due to evidence that they might not be as effective against the Omicron variant.

Florida has been a leading distributor of monoclonal antibodies, which was one of the first effective treatments available to treat COVID-19 patients. Sotrovimab, one of the antibody treatments is still being distributed because it is known to be an effective treatment against Omicron.

“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,” Ladapo wrote in the letter. “This shortsightedness is especially evident given that the federal government effectively prohibited states from purchasing these monoclonal antibodies and serving their populations directly.”

Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis previously went clashed with President Joe Biden when the administration cut the supply of monoclonal antibodies to southern states for “equity” reasons. The Biden team essentially accused Florida and some other states of hoarding too many of the treatments when they were needed elsewhere, even though those states were among the first to begin widespread use of the lifesaving treatments.