A Fox News-like reporter accused the administration of cutting monoclonal antibodies to the Red States. Jen Psaki did not allow her to get away with it.
Jen Psaki laid out the facts on monoclonal antibodies, vaccines, & the Red States
Here is the backstory as reported by the Washington Post.
The Biden administration moved this week to stave off shortages of monoclonal antibodies, taking over distribution of the critical covid-19 therapy and purchasing 1.4 million additional doses.
The policy change that went into effect Monday is all but certain to result in cuts of the medication to some states, especially seven in the Deep South with high infection rates that have been using about 70 percent of the national supply.
Soaring demand for the therapy represents a sharp turn from just two months ago, when monoclonal antibodies were widely available and awareness of them was low. Consumers, doctors and states, amid little government promotion, were obtaining just a fraction of the available supply.’
Since then, however, word of the highly effective therapy — which is free to patients — has spread, with federal officials and Republicans, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, urging their use. Now the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will, at least temporarily, set the rules for distribution of monoclonal antibodies instead of allowing states, medical facilities and doctors to order them directly.
“HHS will determine the amount of product each state and territory receives on a weekly basis,” an HHS spokesman said. “State and territorial health departments will subsequently identify sites that will receive product and how much.” The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe new procedures that are still being explained to communities throughout the country.
“This system will help maintain equitable distribution, both geographically and temporally, across the country, providing states and territories with consistent, fairly distributed supply over the coming weeks,” he added.
Florida and the other Red States have ridiculously high infection rates because they do not mitigate the disease. They should not get any more monoclonal antibodies proportionally than any other state, especially states doing the right thing. It is time for these states to vote out the politicians that are getting them killed.