Hey, Rand Paul is up for re-election and has to get headlines somehow. However, spewing conspiracy theories on OANN seems low, even for him.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis used monoclonal antibodies as his "trump" card against Covid infections. He could denounce Covid vaccine mandates because there was the "cure."
Then omicron came. Omicron is resistant to that treatment, and the FDA and the drug companies themselves made it clear they should not be used to treat omicron.
As usual, Republicans like Rand Paul turn this into a conspiracy theory that the FDA is killing Republicans and Florida because apparently, the FDA doesn't like them?
On OANN, Senator Paul said, "People who think we're a bunch of rubes in flyover country, have utter disdain for us. These are the people who actually limit our access to treatment for Covid," Paul said.
Paul continued, "They are, right now, as we speak, limiting monoclonal antibodies being sent to Florida. Too many deplorables, too many Republicans, too many conservatives are getting sick, and so their way to punish us is by not sending treatments, and I think it's abominable."
This is out and out lunacy.
Steve Benen rightly points out, "
The FDA announced this week that the monoclonal antibody treatments from Regeneron and Eli Lilly should no longer be used. The drugs had received emergency-use authorizations, but because they don't work against the omicron variant, and omicron accounts for 99.9 percent of all Covid infections in the United States, federal health regulators decided revoking the authorization was the obvious move. Both drugmakers endorsed the policy change, agreeing that the infusion treatments aren't effective against omicron, so their continued use no longer makes sense.
You will also notice that Republicans like Sen. Paul almost always spread the most despicable conspiracies and misinformation on right-wing outlets like OANN and Newsmax only. But they understand in time, these connivances will slowly percolate up through the underbelly of Rumble, and other Republican fever swamps, until it becomes certified by Fox News.
Digby also figured out DeSantis' scheme gone wrong.
"After all, DeSantis clearly thought he figured out a cunning way to avoid pushing the vaccines and angering the GOP’s rabid anti-vax base while still pretending to offer some solution to the raging pandemic. His entire COVID response has been based upon the idea that the monoclonal antibody treatments are the answer. The fact that vaccines offer the best protection against serious disease in the first place was never of interest to DeSantis. Neither was the fact that monoclonal antibody treatments cost around $2,100. Vaccines, meanwhile, cost about $20-$40. For supposed fiscally conservative Republicans, that’s quite a waste of government money.
