DeSantis Administration Pushes Back on ‘Irresponsible’ AP Hit Piece Linking COVID Treatment to Donor

Florida governor Ron DeSantis’s administration is accusing the Associated Press of politicizing his efforts to promote a lifesaving COVID-19 antibody treatment, alleging the news agency intentionally wrote a hit piece that could discourage people from getting the treatment.

On Wednesday, the AP published a story noting that DeSantis “has been flying around the state” promoting a monoclonal antibody treatment known as Regeneron. The AP’s headline emphasizes that one of DeSantis’s donors is the CEO of Citadel, a Chicago-based hedge fund that has $15.9 million in shares of Regeneron Pharmaceutical.

That donor, Ken Griffin, has donated $10.75 million to a political committee supporting DeSantis — $5.75 million in 2018, long before the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, and another $5 million last April, when the pandemic was just beginning.

That’s all true, but DeSantis’s team argues that the way the story was framed makes it appear that DeSantis is touting the Regeneron treatment simply to benefit a wealthy donor. Christina Pushaw, a DeSantis spokeswoman, said that’s not the case at all.

In an email to National Review, Pushaw said the governor began aggressively promoting Regeneron after he had a call a couple of weeks back with hospital CEOs to discuss the surge of the delta variant in Florida. DeSantis learned during the call that most of their hospitalized COVID patients were not receiving Regeneron treatments, which can cut rates of hospitalization and death by about 70 percent, a point the AP acknowledges in its story.

“Some patients weren’t aware it was an option for them or perhaps weren’t aware of the need for early treatment,” Pushaw said. “Governor DeSantis made it his mission to raise awareness and expand access to this clinically-proven lifesaving treatment. It has nothing to do with any ‘donor.’”

Pushaw noted that Citadel isn’t even a top Regeneron shareholder, and is a larger investor in Moderna and Pfizer, which manufacture COVID-19 vaccines. The investment firm BlackRock, which primarily donates to Democrats – including President Joe Biden – is a much larger Regeneron shareholder, Pushaw said, a point the AP acknowledged in its story. Biden also has encouraged the use of monoclonal antibody treatments.

“No one would write a hit piece about that – nor should they!” Pushaw said. “This isn’t a political football, and it’s irresponsible for the AP to misrepresent the story for a political angle.”

The AP also reported that a Regeneron treatment costs $1,000, compared to a vaccine, which costs about $25. But that’s the cost to the federal government, not to patients, Pushaw said. Both Regeneron and vaccines are free to patients. Pushaw argues that some people could be confused, thinking they would have to pay $1,000 for the treatment.

“Vaccines and Regeneron aren’t mutually exclusive, but can be complementary,” Pushaw said. “Both are recommended by the governor for different reasons – prevention and treatment.”

Former president Donald Trump received Regeneron treatment after he contracted COVID last fall.

Brendan Farrington, the AP reporter who wrote the story, tweeted Wednesday morning that he’s received “death threats and hate messages” about the story. “For your sake I hope government doesn’t threaten your safety,” he wrote. “I’ll be fine. I hope. Freedom. Just Please don’t kill me.”

Democratic activists have accused DeSantis on social media of promoting Regeneron to benefit his donor. One wrote that DeSantis and Texas governor Greg Abbott are “doing everything they can to make sure as many people catch COVID as possible.”

Another accused DeSantis of “hawking” Regeneron “to help his donor profit (off) the virus.”

https://twitter.com/KaivanShroff/status/1427999320209567746?s=20

This isn’t the first time DeSantis has been accused of using his power as governor to benefit wealthy campaign donors. In April, 60 Minutes implied that DeSantis picked Publix grocery stores to distribute COVID vaccines as part of a “pay to play” scheme.

That story also fizzled, in part because Jared Moskowitz, a Democrat who was then the state’s emergency management director, said it was he – not DeSantis – who first recommended Publix stores as the state’s first pharmacy vaccination sites. Moskowitz told National Review at the time that he had first reached out to Walmart, which has a bigger presence in rural parts of the state. But Walmart wouldn’t have been ready to distribute the vaccines for three weeks, whereas Publix was ready in three days.