Feds May Stop DeSantis From Loading Up On Monoclonal Antibody Treatments Ineffective Against Omicron

They really don’t help against Omicron.

Republicans have always loved to complain about "tax and spend" liberals, but the fact is, both parties like to spend — Democrats just usually like to spend money in ways that benefit regular Americans and Republicans like to spend money on things that either benefit rich people or involve messing with other countries in some capacity. When they do want to spend money on things that supposedly help people, those things are traditionally the least effective way to reach a particular goal. Taking funds from struggling schools in order to partially pay for a few kids to go to private school is not a particularly constructive use of tax dollars. Tax breaks for rich folks don't do a ton to stimulate the economy. Let's not even get started on trying to spend money on border walls when planes exist.

And yeah. It is completely ridiculous to spend as much money as we do on defense when we don't have universal healthcare. Like we have to spend 40 percent of the entire world's military spending to "protect American lives," supposedly, even when no one is trying to attack us, but we're totally fine if people die because they can't afford health care. I'd say this makes no sense, but I suppose it does make sense if you only care if rich people live or die.

Speaking of health care — Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has gone balls to the wall when it comes to monoclonal antibody treatments. This initially made a little bit of sense, despite the high price tag, given that these treatments are the only treatments that are known to be both effective and accepted by the kind of people who would elect Ron DeSantis to do anything.

Alas — the treatments are not effective for Omicron. Tests have shown they're not effective against Omicron. Regeneron, the company that makes them has been saying for several months now that they are not effective against Omicron. 

Despite this, 13,000 monoclonal antibody treatments have been given in Florida over the past two weeks, and the state plans to open up even more monoclonal antibody treatment centers in the coming days. However, it's possible that he may not be able to keep this up, as federal authorities are considering limiting the amount of monoclonal antibody treatments being given out, due to the fact that 99 percent of US COVID cases are Omicron and the treatments won't do anything for that.

Via CNN:  

Federal regulators are considering limiting the authorization of certain monoclonal antibody treatments that have not proved effective against the Omicron variant of the coronavirus , a source familiar with the decision-making told CNN.

The US Food and Drug Administration could decide in the coming days to take steps to curb the use of antibody treatments produced by Eli Lilly and Regeneron, the source said, pointing to the growing body of evidence that shows their monoclonal therapies don't effectively neutralize the virus' Omicron variant.The National Institutes of Health had recently updated its guidelines to advise clinics against using these treatments on patients with mild to moderate Covid-19 due to their diminished effectiveness against the Omicron variant.

This, clearly, makes the most sense. Otherwise it's the "the food was terrible, and in such small portions" treatment of the pandemic.

Of course, DeSantis probably can't backtrack now, and will likely insist that the treatments are effective, while claiming that the federal government is trying to murder Florida by not letting the state have all of the monoclonal antibody treatments — because that is what he does. And the people who vote for him in Florida will believe him, because, again, they are the kind of people who would vote for Ron DeSantis to begin with.

Stephen and I will be back with the Sunday livestream around 12pm Pacific/3pm Eastern, so come hang out with us!

[ CNN ]

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