Jimmy Patronis blasts ‘heartless’ FDA decision to stop monoclonal therapy

Florida’s Chief Financial Officer is calling the decision by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to withdraw authorization for monoclonal antibody treatments “heartless” and questioning its logic.

“Without warning, the (Joe) Biden administration yanked these lifesaving treatments from Florida. This is heartless. They’re so vaccine and mask obsessed. But people are still getting COVID,” said CFO Jimmy Patronis. “I just don’t understand. Why fight the early treatments now?”

Presented with the FDA position that monoclonal treatments are highly unlikely to be effective against the omicron variant, Patronis stood his ground, saying this was yet another political gambit from the Biden White House.

“This was a unilateral decision by the FDA. To me, they’re not being transparent. But this is nothing new from this administration. Playing games with Florida. One thing I’ve learned over the last year is that political science wins over real science all the time,” Patronis asserted.

Patronis made the comments on Fox and Friends First.

The CFO’s comments echo high dudgeon from DeSantis, who has communicated outrage since Monday night about the decision to halt use of monoclonal antibody treatments, which have been key to the state’s COVID-19 treatment and messaging strategies for months.

The Governor rejected the premise that the treatments don’t work against omicron, saying Florida proved differently and that patients had the right to “try” the treatment despite changing federal guidance.

“We have had people use it, and we have had good results. It’s not 100%, we understand that. But you also don’t know when someone goes in whether it’s omicron or delta. Yes, mostly in Florida it’s going to be omicron at this point,” DeSantis conceded. “But it’s really a reckless decision.”

“Even if with omicron it’s half as effective, or even 25% as effective, that’s better than nothing for people,” the Governor added.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Tuesday addressed the latest flap with Florida directly.

“Let’s just take a step back here just to realize how crazy this is,” Psaki said during a press briefing. “These treatments, the ones that they are fighting over, that the Governor’s fighting over, do not work against omicron and they have side effects. That is what the scientists are saying.

“We have sent (Florida) 71,000 doses of treatments that are effective against omicron, and also effective against delta. And they are still advocating for treatments that don’t work. We have seen, unfortunately from the beginning, unfortunately from the mouths of elected officials, people advocating for things that don’t work,” Psaki added.