Dr. Joseph Ladapo, Florida’s surgeon general, is alleging that the Biden administration is “actively preventing the effective distribution of monoclonal antibody treatments” throughout the United States in a letter Tuesday to Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra.
The letter comes in response to a recent order from the administration pausing shipments of the COVID-19 treatments made by pharmaceutical companies Regeneron and Ely Lilly following claims that they don’t work when used to treat the omicron variant.
The government does, however, continue to supply Sotrovimab, which is a monoclonal antibody manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline because it reportedly is effective against the variant, Fox News reported.
NEW: Florida Surgeon General says Biden Admin is "actively preventing" distribution of monoclonal antibodies by pausing shipments of Regeneron, in letter to HHS Sec.
Feds paused Regeneron bc it may not work against Omicron. FL says it can still be used in existing Delta cases. pic.twitter.com/9mmw5SsuZJ
— Jay O'Brien (@jayobtv) December 28, 2021
In concluding his letter, Ladapo referenced remarks made by Biden on Monday in which he said there is no federal solution to end the pandemic, which has been percolating and spreading for roughly two years.
“There is no federal solution. This gets solved at the state level,” Biden noted during a call with state governors, specifically in response to Arkansas Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson, in which he warned against letting “federal solutions stand in the way of state solutions.”
In September when Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) appointed him, Ladapo, then a researcher at the UCLA School of Medicine, noted that there is “nothing special” about wearing a mask and that vaccines ought to be an individual decision, not mandated by the government.
“He comes to Florida with really a superb background, bringing superb intellect but also I think will bring great leadership,” DeSantis said at the time.
“We’re done with fear, it’s been something that’s been unfortunately a centerpiece of health policy in the United States ever since the beginning of the pandemic, and it’s over here – expiration date, it’s done,” Ladapo said during a follow-on news conference after DeSantis introduced him.
“The state should be promoting good health, and vaccination isn’t the only path to that. It’s been treated almost like a religion, and that’s just senseless, right? There are lots of good pathways to health, and vaccination’s not the only one. So we support measures for good health,” he noted.
“Vaccines are up to the person. There’s nothing special about them compared to any other preventive measure,” he continued, adding that some of those measures include “vaccination, losing weight, [and] eating more fruits and vegetables.”
“We need to respect human rights,” Ladapo said. “People do have autonomy over their lives. It’s not OK, it’s not virtuous and it’s not right to just take away those rights from individuals.”
In an October 2020 column for The Wall Street Journal, Ladapo called masks a “distraction.”
“A hallmark of Covid-19 pandemic policy has been the failure of political leaders and health officials to anticipate the unintended consequences of their actions,” he wrote.
“This tendency has haunted many decisions, from lockdowns that triggered enormous unemployment and increased alcohol and drug abuse, to school closures that are widening educational disparities between rich and poor families. Mask mandates may also have unintended consequences that outweigh the benefits.”
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Jon has over 30 years' worth of reporting experience, as well as an author and U.S. Army veteran. He has a BA in political science from Ashford University and an MA in national security studies/intelligence analysis from American Military University.
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