DeSantis: Feds Being ‘Scarce’ with Monoclonal Antibody Distribution Is ‘Leading to People Dying’

On Monday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Hannity,” Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said that the federal government hasn’t given Florida the monoclonal antibody treatments it needs and governors can’t get supplies on their own due to the federal government taking control of the supply and the lack of monoclonal antibody treatments “is absolutely leading to people dying.”

DeSantis stated, [relevant remarks begin around 2:15] “I think with the monoclonals, that is absolutely leading to people dying. Because we saw when we put in our sites this summer in Florida to deal with the Delta wave, we kept tens of thousands of people out of the hospital. We saved thousands of lives by providing that treatment. So, that should have been replicated in all these other states, but instead, what Biden and his cronies have done, they’ve seized control of all the monoclonal antibodies. So, yes, when we were in the pinch, I bought some myself. None of the governors now are able to do that because the feds have seized control. So, we’re in a situation where we’ve now asked for 40,000 more every week. Because I have people that I could help, and they are holding onto it and they’re not distributing it in the way we need it to be distributed.”

He added that the federal government has sent Florida “some, but they don’t give us as much as we need. So, we’ve built an infrastructure in Florida, and Sean, we could scale up to two to three times the number of treatments that they’re sending us and we could make those readily available. We’ve asked them to do that. We have sites that will be turned on, additional sites, within less than 24 hours if they send us the medication. And so, we’re asking them to send it to us, we know it will help people. And the fact of the matter is, they’ve had a lot of time to plan for this wave.”

DeSantis concluded, “I think they may have not purchased enough and I think that’s probably the root of why they’re being so scarce with it.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett