In a shocking political decision, the Federal Government, through the U.S. Food and Drug Administration revoked the use of some of the monoclonal antibody treatments seemly that have helped so many. The FDA announced on Monday that it is no longer permitting the use of the treatment known as Regeneron.
In the surprise announcement, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration rescinded emergency-use authorizations for two particular treatments for COVID-19 including the widely used Regeneron. This change in policy forced the Florida Department of Health to announce that it is closing all monoclonal antibody treatment sites in the state.
Florida has been a leader in providing these treatments for residents free of charge, this has been going on for months and the results seem to be very positive. However, there had been a dispute with the federal government over the supply of the drugs when the feds nationalized the supply and began cutting the supply to Florida and redirecting supplies to Blue states. As a result, the state found an independent supplier and continued the program without any effect on the supply the federal government had nationalized.
The FDA said that the “data show these treatments are highly unlikely to be active against the omicron variant,” and because omicron is believed to account for more than 99% of current COVID-19 cases, the treatments are no longer authorized. It explained that this was meant to prevent side effects from treatments they do not believe will work.
Florida Deputy Secretary for Health Kenneth A. Scheppke went on the record saying that the state disagrees with the FDA’s decision, particularly regarding Regeneron, noting that it has not been supported by any clinical evidence provided by the FDA.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis blasted the Biden administration for the decision.
“Without a shred of clinical data to support this action, Biden has forced trained medical professionals to choose between treating their patients or breaking the law,” DeSantis said in a statement. “This indefensible edict takes treatment out of the hands of medical professionals and will cost some Americans their lives. There are real-world implications to Biden’s medical authoritarianism – Americans’ access to treatments is now subject to the whims of a failing president.”
HHS pushed back, with a spokesperson claiming that DeSantis is “more interested in promoting medicines that don’t work than urging people to take vaccines that are effective” In response, DeSantis press secretary Christina Pushaw slammed HHS for mischaracterizing the situation.
“Why doesn’t the HHS spokesperson understand that the majority of patients seeking monoclonal antibody treatment, like the majority of Floridians, ARE vaccinated?” she tweeted.
The fact that the vaccines do not seem to work against the Omicron variant. Considering that fact, is it not ridiculous that the agency that is supposed to protect us, is restricting a treatment that has been very successful, yet insisting on the political position to force people into vaccinations regardless of their effectiveness?
Then Feds replied; “In the future, if patients in certain geographic regions are likely to be infected or exposed to a variant that is susceptible to these treatments, then use of these treatments may be authorized in these regions,” the FDA said. This said the FDA will decide who gets the drug not the state or medical professional.
Several people in Mesquite and the surrounding area have received the anti-body treatment and had very good results. This whole issue is political not based on medical science. The bottom line is that people are not important, only control is.
I hope the people are reminded of this communistic move when it comes time to go to the polls. I hope people are beginning to realize the mistake they made in 2020.
Don’t you ever have anything good to say, Mike. You talk like Florida and Desantis ( and your hero trump) are smarter than all the scientists working on this problem. And, you mysteriously forgot to mention the CEO of Regeneron agreed with the FDA and said they were working on a better product. How’d you miss that little detail? Regeneron was on an emergency permit only (not fully approved) and it didn’t work. Period. End of story. You’re just a grouch old complainer Mikey.
Marty, do you think masks or vaccines work anymore? People are getting COVID even if they have had shots but did the FDA restrict their use? No! The FDA claimed that Regeneron was less effective against Omicron, but no studies and Lilly had previously announced they were developing new antibodies that target Omicron directly. Good. The ban comes days after regulators broadened the use of remdesivir (very expensive) to treat more patients. No studies. However, thousands and thousands of cases got Regeneron and I’m one of those who got the anti-body. Helped me and many of my friends got it too. All came out much better, no side effects.
Big fake news, the government has to show they are doing something, anything and masks and vaccines may not work but let’s show the people we are doing something.
MIKE; again you are spot on. in regard to Ron DeSantis he was just on 60 minutes; below is what they failed to say about him, again for people like Marty; JUST DA TRUTH !!!
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> WHO IS RON DESANTIS, THE GOVERNOR OF FLORIDA?
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> Of course, 60 Minutes had a hit piece on DeSantis – the Governor of Florida – but failed to disclose these facts.
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> Ronald Dion DeSantis was born on September 14, 1978, in Jacksonville, Florida, the son of Karen (née Rogers) and Ronald DeSantis.
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> [1] He is of Italian descent.
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> [2] His family moved to Orlando, Florida, before relocating to Dunedin, Florida, when he was six years old.
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> [3] In 1991, he was a member of the Little League team from Dunedin National that made it to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
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> [4] After graduating from Dunedin High School in 1997, DeSantis attended Yale University. He was captain of Yale’s varsity baseball team and joined the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity.
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> [5] On the Yale baseball team, DeSantis was an outfielder; as a senior in 2001, he had the team’s best batting average at .336.
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> [6] He graduated from Yale in 2001 with a B.A. magna cum laude in history.
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> [7] He then spent a year as a history teacher at the Darlington School.
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> [8] DeSantis then attended Harvard Law School, graduating in 2005 with a Juris Doctor cum laude.
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> [9] DeSantis received his Reserve Naval officer’s commission and assignment to the Judge Advocate General’s Corps (JAG) in 2004 at the U.S. Naval Reserve Center in Dallas, Texas, while still a student at Harvard Law School.
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> [10] He completed Naval Justice School in 2005.
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> [11] Later that year, he received orders to the JAG Trial Service Office Command South East at Naval Station Mayport, Florida, as a prosecutor
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> [12] In 2006, he was promoted from lieutenant, junior grade to lieutenant. He worked for the commander of Joint Task Force-Guantanamo (JTF-GTMO), working directly with detainees at the Guantanamo Bay Joint Detention Facility.
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> [13] In 2007, DeSantis reported to the Naval Special Warfare Command Group in Coronado, California, where he was assigned to SEAL Team One and deployed to Iraq with the troop surge as the Legal Advisor to the SEAL Commander, Special Operations Task Force-West in Fallujah.
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> [14] DeSantis returned to the U.S. in April 2008, at which time he was reassigned to the Naval Region Southeast Legal Service.
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> [15] The U.S. Department of Justice appointed him to serve as an Assistant U.S. Attorney at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Middle District of Florida.
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> [16] DeSantis was assigned as a trial defense counsel until his honorable discharge from active duty in February 2010.
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> [17] He concurrently accepted a reserve commission as a Lieutenant Commander in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps of the US Navy Reserve.
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> [18] He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal, the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, and the Iraq Campaign Medal.
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> [19 He represented Florida’s 6th congressional district in the US House of Representatives from 2013 to 2018.
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> Obviously, with these qualifications, he is NOT qualified to be a Democrat, or serve in a senior political position in our nation’s capital when one considers and compares the credentials of Pelosi, Schumer, Harris or Biden.
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> So…Anyone who criticizes him – I have a request of you – can you please post your education and service to our country in a resume so we can compare and put your bulls#@t opinion in perspective?
I oppose Deathsantis. I graduated from college with a degree in accounting. I served as a naval officer during the Vietnam war on two different deployments. I have a Masters in Taxation and am a CPA. Is that good enough for you?
No, it is not. You are anti-anything American.Whatever it is that made you that way has poisoned you.
Thank you Dave. The whiners like Young never have anything good to say and were never in the military.
John Thompson, Thank you for an enlightening response. Mr. DeSantis is the epitome of the definition “True American”. I would be proud to have him as my President.His strength and fortitude would return America to the great country it should be.Unlike the current administration, Mr. DeSantis strongly believes in the Constitution Of The United State of America.
It does not work for the new variant! It does not work for the new variant! You are politicizing Covid again. Stop it! You are misinforming people which will lead to their deaths. Your crack about diverting to blue states is an outrageous lie. Stop believing all the crap on Fox News.