UPDATE: Florida governor DeSantis demands COVID treatments deemed ineffective by FDA

DeSantis demands COVID treatments deemed ineffective by FDA Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is charging that the White House is withholding a COVID-19 treatment that could save lives in a state that has already lost 64,000 to the pandemic, even though medical experts have deemed the therapy ineffective against the variant currently dominant in the United States. YahooNews

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The White House has countered with a mix of mystification and frustration, pointing out that the treatment in question — monoclonal antibodies, or MABs, manufactured by Regeneron — has been shown to be ineffective against infection with Omicron, the variant that accounts for nearly all new infections across the United States. The Food and Drug Administration has withdrawn approval for monoclonal antibody treatments from Regeneron and Eli Lilly for treatment of Omicron-caused illness, but DeSantis has persisted in his demands.

“Let’s just take a step back here just to realize how crazy this,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Tuesday.

“We’ve seen, unfortunately, from the beginning, in our pandemic response, a range of steps or pushes that have been made through social media platforms, unfortunately from the mouths of elected officials, advocating for things that don’t work even when we know things do work,” Psaki said.

Monoclonal antibodies essentially provide the immune system with extra armaments against the coronavirus, though they are not as effective as the antibodies produced as a result of vaccination. There are also pills produced by Merck and Pfizer that are highly effective against severe or critical illness. Both remain effective against Omicron.

On Monday, Florida was forced to close the Regeneron treatment centers it had opened throughout the fall in response to the FDA decision. The state’s controversial surgeon general, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, criticized the decision, arguing on Twitter and in a press release that the move was not justified.