Last week, Florida Senator Marco Rubio (R) criticized President Joe Biden (D) for his decision to enact tighter control over Monoclonal antibody treatments in the state of Florida. The treatment is something that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) has supported, and lawmakers like Florida Rep. Darren Soto (D) have also used it while recovering from COVID-19. Over the weekend, Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried (D) directed a letter to the President, addressing his announcement and asking him to “maintain current monoclonal antibody allotments until COVID-19 rates decrease further in Florida.”
After the Biden Administration announced its efforts to hold a tighter control over the treatment, Senator Rubio took to Twitter with a video, commenting on the issue. He called it “a move that reeks of partisan payback against states like Florida,” adding that it was an attempt of the Biden Administration to gain “power and control.”
While not criticizing the Biden Administration over its decision, Commissioner Fried did stress the importance of the treatment in a letter directed to the President while also launching criticism at the Governor.
I’m asking the White House to maintain current #monoclonalantibody allotments until #COVID19 rates decrease further in Florida.
Let me be clear: vaccinations remain the #1 way to protect against serious illness, hospitalization, and death — supported by science. pic.twitter.com/vRLcCaPH76
— Commissioner Nikki Fried (@NikkiFriedFL) September 17, 2021
“As you know, Governor Ron DeSantis has made fighting teachers, schools, parents, children, doctors, businesses, and state and federal law his priority while the virus rages across our state,” Fried wrote. “For those who unfortunately test positive for the virus, monoclonal antibody therapy may help reduce symptoms and hospitalizations risk when treated early."
Fried added that “federal health officials have set Florida’s allocation of treatment doses at 30,950,” but the Commissioner is “concerned that more residents may need to avail themselves of this therapy than doses will be available, given our state’s long delay in implementing this therapy.”
Because of this, Fried asked the Administration “that time be extended before altering our current dose allotments, giving our state time to further reduce COVID-19 cases from their recent peaks.”
DeSantis recently said that “Florida demonstrated leadership as we were the first state in the nation to focus on early treatments for COVID-19 by setting up 25 treatment sites for monoclonal antibody treatments across Florida.” However, “instead of acknowledging Florida was right to raise awareness about early treatments and to make these treatments more readily available,” DeSantis lamented that “Biden has decided to make this about politics even if it means lives lost.”
What the Governor believes Biden is doing is “punishing Floridians and residents of other Republican-led states because we refuse to bend the knee to Joe Biden’s ridiculous unconstitutional edicts.”
