As we reported earlier, the Biden administration announced this week that they are effectively taking over the distribution of monoclonal antibody treatments used in the treatment of the Wuhan virus, a move that has understandably angered some southern state governors who have touted the benefits of its use in people who are in the early stages of battling the coronavirus, specifically in how it significantly reduces the chance of hospitalization.

A statement from Biden’s HHS department noted that the rationale behind the decision was to make distribution more “equitable” to states beyond those that are currently requesting the most quantities:

“HHS will determine the amount of product each state and territory receives on a weekly basis. State and territorial health departments will subsequently identify sites that will receive product and how much,” the spokesperson said. “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.”

Read their full statement here:

HHS has said the change back to a pre-vaccine distribution process is all about fairness. Officials laid out their rationale in a lengthy statement this morning saying: "This system will help maintain equitable distribution, both geographically and temporally, across the country" pic.twitter.com/01nct5IRnu

— Forrest Saunders (@FBSaunders) September 16, 2021

White House press secretary Jen Psaki confirmed the “equitable” plan during today’s press briefing while denying treatment supplies were being cut for Florida:

REPORTER: "Why is the Biden administration cutting" antibody treatments in Florida?@PressSec: "That is not accurate… Our supply is not unlimited and we believe it should be equitable… We're not going to give a greater percentage to Florida over Oklahoma." pic.twitter.com/K8P41ZTnRc

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) September 16, 2021

Most notably, the DeSantis administration came out swinging after learning the news, with spokeswoman Christina Pushaw putting the administration on blast and countering critics who have bizarrely done an about-face on the need to do whatever is necessary to save people infected with the coronavirus:

Florida’s @GovRonDeSantis not happy with @POTUS’ decision to take over distribution of monoclonal antibodies. Statement from DeSantis press sec @ChristinaPushaw below. pic.twitter.com/1ksYdwSvPG

— Forrest Saunders (@FBSaunders) September 15, 2021

As it turned out, Pushaw noting that DeSantis was “committed” to making sure his state’s residents could get the treatment “even if we can’t count on the Biden administration” was a preview of what was to come later, as DeSantis announced just a few hours ago that he was trying to work with another provider – GlaxoSmithKline – in hopes of being able to purchase the antibody treatments directly, doing an end-run around the Biden administration:

“What I am doing though, is we’re going to try to cover the bases. I had a call yesterday with GlaxoSmithKline executives about their new monoclonal antibody… Sotrovimab was given EUA, I believe in May. So the Eli Lily one, which is kind of now coming back, but the Regeneron, that was at the end of 2020. Sotrovimab was given EUA in May. The clinical data on that was even better than the clinical data on the Regeneron, 85% reduction in hospitalizations.

It is not approved for subcutaneous injection, so if we get it and we use it at our sites, we’d have to expand the amount of IV treatments that are available, which we’re going to be willing to do. Now they do not have a direct purchase agreement with the federal government, federal government’s bought all the Regeneron. They just upped it for another shipment. Honestly, that should have been done many months ago.

But we are not able to buy it directly from Regeneron. Given that, we do think we can potentially order sotrovimab and we will do that if we can. It has been — the clinical data’s great on it. And so we would be able to potentially use that to meet any of the shortfalls. This is something that, when you have something that has worked you should want to continue doing that.”

Watch:

Florida's @GovRonDeSantis confirming this– saying today he will seek to buy monoclonal therapies directly from GSK, circumventing the HHS process. pic.twitter.com/YX8MKBxAEd

— Forrest Saunders (@FBSaunders) September 16, 2021

The war of words between the Biden administration and the DeSantis administration on vaccines and the antibody treatment distribution issue is especially fascinating when you consider the accusations from Biden’s team over the last several months that DeSantis has been playing politics with the virus and is putting lives at risk by pushing back on mask and vaccination mandates.

Yet here Biden goes more or less rationing the life-saving treatment southern states like Florida need under the guise of “equitable” distribution – just days after saying he was going to up shipments to states by 50%, proving that it’s them and not DeSantis who have been playing politics with the virus – and people’s lives – all along.

Flashback –>> Analysis: Media Attacks on Ron DeSantis Over Vaccines and Regeneron Are About One Thing Only