On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki defended the FDA abruptly revoking its emergency use authorization for monoclonal antibody treatments for COVID-19.
Psaki was asked about the Florida Department of Health announcing in a statement, “Unfortunately, as a result of this abrupt decision made by the federal government, all monoclonal antibody state sites will be closed until further notice.”
Psaki responded, “Well, let’s just take a step back here just to realize how crazy this is a little bit.”
“We’ve approached COVID treatments like filling a medicine cabinet, we’re not relying on one type, one brand or treatment,” she said. “We invested in and continue to buy a variety across monoclonal antibodies, pre-exposure prevention therapies, and oral antivirals.”
“What the FDA is making clear is that these treatments, the ones that they are fighting over, that the governor is fighting over, do not work against Omicron and they have side effects,” she claimed. “That is what the scientists are saying. We have sent them twice 71,000 doses of treatments that are effective against Omicron and are effective also against Delta. And they are still advocating for treatments that don’t work.”
Psaki responding to a question from AP's Josh Boak about Florida using monoclonal anti-bodies even though "they don't work against omicron": "Let's take a step back just to realize how crazy this is…The ones…[DeSantis] is fighting over do not work…& they have side-effects." pic.twitter.com/WWbLGootJW
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 25, 2022
The Biden administration began placing restrictions on the allocation of COVID-19 monoclonal antibody treatments in September, a move that disproportionately harmed Republican-led states.
“Federal health officials plan to allocate specific amounts to each state under the new approach, in an effort to more evenly distribute the 150,000 doses that the government makes available each week,” Politico reported. “The approach is likely to cut into shipments to GOP-led states in the Southeast that have made the pricey antibody drug a central part of their pandemic strategy, while simultaneously spurning mask mandates and other restrictions.”
Politico pointed out that the decision was a shift from distribution based on an “as-needed basis.”
“Still, until recently, the administration had shipped the antibody treatments to states on an as-needed basis — with top health officials in early August going as far as encouraging those battling the Delta surge to seek even more supply,” the outlet added. “But demand from a handful of southern states has exploded since then, state and federal officials said, raising concerns they were consuming a disproportionate amount of the national supply. Seven states — Texas, Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, Louisiana and Alabama — accounted for 70 percent of all orders in early September.”
