Ron DeSantis moves to cash in on monoclonal cutoff

Ron DeSantis. Image via AP.

Urging supporters to “chip in now,” Gov. Ron DeSantis turned his fury over the Food and Drug Administration’s decision to cease monoclonal antibody treatment for COVID-19 into a fundraising appeal for his re-election campaign Wednesday.

“Floridians are now at the whims of a floundering, failing President’s edicts,” DeSantis thundered, claiming as he did at a news conference earlier this week that the Joe Biden administration “pulled the rug out from under Florida” when revoking authorization for the treatments.

Ignoring altogether contentions from the federal government that the treatments don’t work against the currently prevalent omicron variant, DeSantis contended that cutting off the supply was just another act of political violence against Florida. He also tied in Vice President Kamala Harris and Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

DeSantis asserted that “arrogant, Beltway liberals in the Biden-Harris-Fauci administration and their hapless minions chose to blame the summer wave in the Sun Belt on people in our part of the country being uneducated, backwards yokels. This is despite the fact we’ve consistently been above the national average in vaccination rate.”

“Biden has gone above and beyond to deny Florida access to lifesaving treatment. We could be saving tens of millions of dollars and thousands of lives, but Joe Biden would rather extract political revenge on Florida for our fierce protection of freedom,” DeSantis said.

The fundraising appeal eliminates some of the nuance from the Governor’s comments in Crawfordville earlier this week, when he blasted the Biden administration at a news conference but conceded the treatment may not be so effective against omicron after all.

“Even if with omicron it’s half as effective, or even 25% as effective, that’s better than nothing for people,” the Governor asserted in comments that didn’t make the cut for the fundraising pitch.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki offered her own critiques of the DeSantis position Tuesday, calling it “crazy.”

“These treatments, the ones the Governor is fighting over, do not work against omicron and have side effects. That is what the scientists are saying,” Psaki said at her regular briefing.