WATCH: Rubio Blasts Biden Administration On Rationing Antibody Treatments, ‘Punishing Florida’: ‘It Has To Stop’

 Secretary Of State Blinken Testifies Before Senate Foreign Relations Committee WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 14: Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) questions U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, September 14, 2021 in Washington, DC. Blinken was questioned about the Biden administration's handling of the U.S. withdraw from Afghanistan. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) Drew Angerer / Staff

The Biden administration is taking steps to change how antibody treatments are distributed to the states, sparking intense backlash from leaders across the country who advocate for the life-saving treatments.

As reported by Fortune, “Hospitals and other care providers will no longer be able to directly order monoclonal antibody therapies from distributors, according to a Sept. 13 update posted on the Department of Health and Human Services website.”“Instead, the U.S. government will determine what quantity of the drugs to ship to each state and territory based on Covid-19 case numbers and use of the treatments locally. State health departments will then determine how to distribute the antibody therapies to hospitals and other sites, according to the HHS update,” the outlet added.

“Federal health officials plan to allocate specific amounts to each state under the new approach, in an effort to more evenly distribute the 150,000 doses that the government makes available each week,” Politico reported. “The approach is likely to cut into shipments to GOP-led states in the Southeast that have made the pricey antibody drug a central part of their pandemic strategy, while simultaneously spurning mask mandates and other restrictions.”

“Still, until recently, the administration had shipped the antibody treatments to states on an as-needed basis — with top health officials in early August going as far as encouraging those battling the Delta surge to seek even more supply,” the report added. “But demand from a handful of southern states has exploded since then, state and federal officials said, raising concerns they were consuming a disproportionate amount of the national supply. Seven states — Texas, Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, Louisiana and Alabama — accounted for 70 percent of all orders in early September.”The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said on its website on Monday:

HHS will determine the weekly amount of [monoclonal antibody (mAb)] products each state and territory receives based on COVID-19 case burden and mAb utilization. State and territorial health departments will subsequently identify which sites in their respective jurisdictions receive product as well as the amount each site receives. 


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