Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis hammered the Biden administration for overhauling the distribution of monoclonal antibodies in a way that will severely hamper the treatment's availability in several Republican-controlled states.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) alarmed authorities in several southern, red states – where the antibodies are widely used – after announcing Monday that the agency would be changing how the COVID-19 treatment is distributed.
Previously, distribution sites could order the antibody treatments directly from the supplier. Now, the federal government will decide how many doses each state will receive and leave it to state governments to ration it out among locations.
DeSantis warned that HHS' new equitable distribution plan for monoclonal antibodies (MAB) is "very, very problematic" and warned patients "are going to suffer as a result of this."