Biden Claims GOP Governors Undermining ‘Life-Saving Requirements’ While He Limits Antibody Treatments

 Democrat President Joe Biden demonized Republican Governors Greg Abbott (TX) and Ron DeSantis (FL) during a press conference on Thursday, claiming that they were undermining “the life-saving requirements” that his administration is pushing.

The move comes as the Biden administration is now moving to restrict the distribution of monoclonal antibody treatments to states after a slew of predominately Republican-led states in the South have seen a surge in demand for the treatments amid a rise in cases.

“The governors of Florida and Texas are doing everything they can to undermine the life-saving requirements that I’ve proposed,” Biden said, later criticizing the governor of Mississippi for opposing Biden’s mandate of vaccines.

“This is the worst kind of politics,” Biden continued, “because it’s putting the lives of citizens of their states, especially children, at risk and I refuse to give into it.”

“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.”

A spokesperson for HHS said in a statement:

HHS will determine the amount of product each state and territory receives on a weekly basis. State and territorial health departments will subsequently identify sites that will receive product and how much. This system will help maintain equitable distribution, both geographically and temporally, across the country — providing states and territories with consistent, fairly distributed supply over the coming weeks.

Donald Trump Jr. responded to the news by saying that Biden was restricting the treatments as a form of punishment against his political rivals.

“Americans will die because of Biden’s despicable decision to punish his political enemies in red states by restricting their ability to secure life-saving monoclonal antibody treatments for all that need them,” Trump tweeted. “Their blood is directly on Joe’s hands.”

“Antibody treatments aren’t a substitute for vaccines But they have prevented thousands of hospitalizations including in breakthrough cases,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) added on Twitter. “Now in a move that reeks of partisan payback against states like Florida, the Biden administration is rationing these treatments.”

“We were happy to see that Biden’s COVID plan announced last week included a 50% increase in monoclonal antibody deliveries to states this month,” DeSantis Press Secretary Christina Pushaw told The Daily Wire in a statement. “So it’s surprising and deeply disappointing that the Biden Admin would break this promise just a week later and cut MAB allocation to Florida, so they aren’t even providing half of the doses of life-saving treatment that COVID patients in Florida will need. But Governor DeSantis is committed to ensuring that everyone who needs the treatment will be able to get it, even if we can’t count on the Biden Administration.”