“They’re going to start rationing it. There’s not a shortage. There isn’t some crisis, but they’ve decided they’re going to start rationing it. This reeks of politics.” – Sen. Marco Rubio
By David Potter
The Biden administration is rationing the supply of monoclonal antibodies to coerce Red states into getting more Covid vaccines. The federal government and the legacy media are pushing a false narrative that there exists a supply shortage of this critical treatment. An anonymous source at Regeneron, a pharmaceutical company that manufactures the synthetic antibodies, stated that “there is no supply shortage of the monoclonal antibodies at this time.” Initially, Biden’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) signaled that there would be no rationing of the antibodies. “The answer is no, we have not transitioned back to an allocation process,” said chief medical officer John Redd. Less than a week later, the department informed states that it now plans to take control over where doses are sent. According to a DHHS spokesperson, “HHS will determine the amount of product each state and territory receives on a weekly basis.” This complete reversal in policy has left some medical professionals and governors anxious about the future.
Red states throughout the south have given their citizens the right to forego the Covid vaccine by offering monoclonal antibodies as an alternative. The antibodies treatment also has been widely used in breakthrough, post-vaccine cases. A control on supply will be detrimental to the states hit the hardest by the Delta variant.
Biden’s Press Secretary Jen Psaki never explicitly stated that there exists a supply shortage, but she used loose, tricky language to imply it. She said the following at a press briefing “Our supply is not unlimited and we believe it should be equitable across states across the country…I think our role as the government overseeing the entire country is to be equitable in how we distribute. We’re not going to give a greater percentage to Florida over Oklahoma.” A “not unlimited” supply is not the same thing as a supply shortage. Covid cases are also not unlimited. Additionally, states are unequally populated, as Florida has a population of 21.4 million while Oklahoma has roughly 4 million.
This is not about equity. This is a veiled coercion aimed at coercing individuals to comply with Biden’s vaccine dictates. Covid antibodies treatments should be distributed to where patients need them- not by means of an arbitrary equity formula. We as Americans should have equal access to medical treatments regardless of where we choose to live and raise our families. The quality of medical care available to you being dependent upon the party of your governor is nothing short of terrifying.
There is a pushback against Biden’s radical, medical policy. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is taking matters into his own hands. “We’re facing a massive, massive cut in monoclonal antibody treatments abruptly. Just after the president said they would have a 50 percent increase, we’re now seeing more than a 50 percent cut for the state of Florida. So we’re going to fight like hell to make sure that our folks get what they need,” DeSantis said. His objective is to negotiate purchase from the GlaxoSmithKline manufacturer of monoclonal antibodies as they do not have a purchase agreement with the federal government unlike Regeneron.
Sen. Marco Rubio is taking a stand against the administration. In a video he posted to Twitter, he discusses knowing a lot of people who received the antibody treatment- some after receiving the Covid vaccine- and that it kept them out of the hospital and potentially saved their lives. He goes on to say “they’re going to start rationing it. There’s not a shortage. There isn’t some crisis, but they’ve decided they’re going to start rationing it. This reeks of politics.” Rationing supply when supply is adequate does reek of politics.
Every day it’s something new with these people in the White House
The decision to ration antibody treatments proves they focused on public health
What they want is power and control pic.twitter.com/UYcFxwJx2D
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) September 16, 2021
Rubio acted by leading the Florida congressional delegation to urge DHHS Secretary Xavier Becerra to abandon this punitive policy. “State Departments of Health cannot develop procedures or plan for problems they are not aware of. In the absence of clear, consistent communication, Florida and other states are now facing a situation where they have been denied the opportunity to develop an equitable, efficient state coordinated distribution system. At a time when Florida’s hospitalization rates are rapidly declining, in part because of the State’s successful mAb deployment infrastructure, this is a dangerous reversal of the Department’s stance” reads the letter.
We applaud Senator Rubio for his courage in leading the charge to take on the overreaching executive branch.
We urge HHS to immediately reverse course on this punitive policy. Americans For Limited Government President Rick Manning said “Joe Biden wants to punish states that don’t bow to his Covid vaccine dictates by making it harder for them to access effective treatments. Biden is rationing health care for his political opponents. There is no shortage of this monoclonal antibodies treatment. This fact directly contradicts the White House basis for restricting access to the antibodies in states such as Florida. Joe Biden is getting between you and your doctor. He has no business there.”
David Potter is Communications Coordinator at American for Limited Government.
