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Ron DeSantis Responds to Critics at Press Conference Announcing Monoclonal Antibody Treatments

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  January 03, 2022 8:45 PM

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) on Monday responded to critics who claimed that he was "missing" over the past few weeks. The governor quipped that "I guess I should’ve been at the beach in Delaware, right, and then they would have been really happy with that," referring to President Joe Biden who was walking his new German Shepherd puppy wearing a mask despite being fully vaccinated and alone with his wife, First Lady Jill Biden.

The governor also reconfirmed what his staff has been saying, sharing his schedule about meetings he has had.

DeSantis also addressed Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez vacationing (D-NY) in Florida while New York City, where her district is located, experiences a record surge in COVID cases.

"If I had a dollar for every lockdown politician who decided to escape to Florida over the last two years, I'd be a pretty doggone wealthy man, let me tell you." DeSantis said to laughter. "I mean congresspeople, mayors, governors, I mean you name it." DeSantis also pointed out that "it's interesting, you know, the reception that you know some of these folks will get in Florida, because I think a lot of Floridians say 'wait a minute, you're bashing us because we're not doing your draconian policies and yet we're the first place that you want to flee to to basically be able to enjoy life,' and so I'm not surprised to see that continued to happen."

As of Monday night, AOC has not tweeted from her personal account since her Happy New Year message from January 1, but she had tweeted a bizarre rant of a thread about how people criticizing her amounted to "sexual frustrations" and Republicans "are mad they can’t date me." She was also filmed on Sunday going maskless at a densely crowded bar in Miami by Brendon Leslie of Florida's Conservative Voice who called the congresswoman out for her hypocrisy. 

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Gov. DeSantis made these remarks while at a press conference detailing his plans to focus on treatment, during which he called out the federal government to allow the state to purchase more monoclonal antibody treatments. "We're past the point now where we're able to get it directly from any of these companies," DeSantis lamented. "The federal government has cornered the entire market. They basically took control of the supply in September."

DeSantis has been warning the Biden Administration about treatments, as has Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, who sent a letter to Health & Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, as Sam Dorman reported for Fox News.

It's not just Florida, though. Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), as I reported last month, has sent multiple letters to Sec. Becerra about such treatments running out and being no longer available for purchase. His letters have gone unanswered, however. 

Lapado spoke at Monday's press conference as well, about the need to "unwind" from the "testing mindset."

And, The Atlantic, also on Monday, published a piece from Dr. Benjamin Mazer, who wrote "Stop Wasting COVID Tests, People," suggesting that tests be saved for those at high risk who need the tests the most. 

Not only has the federal government indeed prioritized testing, they've failed spectacularly at it, with the plan to send 500 million tests to people falling apart already since the infrastructure is not in place to do so. While President Joe Biden made the announcement close to the holidays, they would not have arrived until mid-January. Katie also highlighted that Biden was offered the opportunity for a testing production plan in October but rejected it. 

Experts have also indicated, especially with the highly transmissible but more mild Omicron variant, that the case number should no longer be the "major metric," but rather hospitalizations and deaths. The Omicron variant, according to multiple studies in several countries, is less likely to result in hospitalizations than the Delta variant. Recent data from South Africa, where the variant was announced in November, also showed that the surge passed with few deaths.