Ag Commissioner Nikki Fried joins Ron DeSantis’ fight to keep antibody treatments

A day after Gov. Ron DeSantis pledged to “fight like hell” to maintain Florida’s supply of monoclonal antibody treatments for people with COVID-19, Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried asked President Joe Biden to hold off on changing Florida’s allotment of the therapeutics.

Fried, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for governor in 2022, asked for planned changes to the national distribution of antibody drugs to be delayed until the COVID-19 caseload is “further reduced” in Florida.

“While federal health officials have set Florida’s allocation of treatment doses at 30,950, I am concerned that more residents may need to avail themselves of this therapy than doses will be available, given our state’s long delay in implementing this therapy,” Fried, Florida’s only statewide elected Democrat, wrote in a letter to the White House Friday. “While we certainly understand the frustration at the inequitable distribution of this treatment to just a handful of states, I would respectfully ask that time be extended before altering our current dose allotments, giving our state time to further reduce COVID-19 cases from their recent peaks.”

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