BUCK: Here’s what’s happening in Florida. If you look at the case numbers, it’s on the other side of the slope. One thing that we have seen about the covid-19 virus all along is that it is seasonal. There are surges; there are declines. This has happened across the country. You heard a lot more about the surge in Texas and Florida this summer — warmer states — which mirrors what happened in the past.
Remember the Sunbelt surge of 2020? It mirrors what we’ve seen in the past. And of course, that was before any vaccinations had happened in the summer of 2020. But you didn’t hear about Oregon or Hawaii which are hitting all-time highs in cases, and there’s a lot of concern about what’s really happening here. Questions should be asked, like, “How long does the vaccine really give effective protection?”
They admit it’s not forever, not even close. It’s six months. Is it more like three or four months? We’ll dive into some of that. But monoclonal antibodies. Clay, remember when monoclonal antibodies were a story that Governor Ron DeSantis was being attacked for in Florida because they said he had some kind of a donor or financial interest?
Meanwhile, everyone agrees that monoclonal antibodies are helpful. Doesn’t mean… It’s not a silver bullet. It’s not a panacea. They’re helpful in treating people who are very sick. Well, all of a sudden… That story, by the way, of a financial interest was total crap. All of a sudden now, people are wondering what the heck was going on. The federal government has stepped in to cut monoclonal antibodies by half.
Here is Newsmax reporter Emerald Robinson asking Psaki about this.
ROBINSON: He promised on September 9th that he was going to send 50% more supply of monoclonal antibodies to states. Yet the Biden administration is cutting supplies in red states by 50%. So, for example, you know, in Florida, they were expecting to get 70,000 doses this week, which they say they need. They’re only getting 30,000 doses. And this is not just for unvaccinated people. In South Florida, half the people who are seeking this treatment are fully vaccinated. So why is the Biden administration cutting these supplies?
CLAY: Yes. It’s a great question. By the way, Buck, I’m in Florida. So as we get ready for the big Alabama-Florida game, I’m down in Jacksonville right now doing the show. And look, I live in Tennessee so it’s not in any way a shock to me. But it is interesting how wide open Florida is and the red states are. Let me give you some data, ’cause you were talking about.
Florida cases — this is according to the New York Times — are down 41% in the last two weeks. To your point on the peak having been reached, we are rapidly approaching the number of infections being down 50%. Hospitalizations are plummeting too. Now, let’s talk about these monoclonal antibodies — and I’m sure, I mispronounced that.
BUCK: Monoclonal, yeah.
CLAY: Monoclonal. Why it’s so significant. Because as we talked about yesterday, the people who are needing this are roughly 50% vaccinated and 50% unvaccinated. Why does that matter? Because we have been told basically since the vaccine started, Buck, that if you can’t… Remember what they initially told us was if you got vaccinated, you didn’t have to wear a mask, you would never die of covid.
You would be basically unable to ever be hospitalized, and you would be… Remember, they told us this. You would be unable to really get or spread the virus. That’s what they told us about the vaccine from the get-go, right? As we are continuing to look at the data — and this is where I would say our show has been among the most forward thinking and honest of anyone in media.
Because look, you and I both wish that this vaccine had been so successful that it led to a Covid Zero universe. That is 100% not true. And already, looking at many things that Dr. Fauci and Rochelle Walensky, the CDC director, said, much of what they said is untrue and factually proven to be untrue now.
So the fact that there are a lot of people out there who are nervous about covid — both vaccinated and unvaccinated — is supported by data. But this is significant. Ron DeSantis, they have moved — and this is important. This is really important, and I want everybody to listen closely.
They have moved, with these monoclonal antibodies, Buck, from saying, “Oh, this is junk science that Ron DeSantis and Florida people are practicing,” to now recognizing how successful these treatments are and restricting those treatments to the state of Florida.
And let me just say this, ’cause this is important too. They are basically acknowledging one more time that Ron DeSantis and Florida are correct. And this is also… I want everybody to listen closely. Remember in the early days of the pandemic when your home city of New York was overrun and most of the rest of the country back in March of 2020 was pretty fine?
If you went and watched the White House press briefings, the media would show up, Buck, and they would drill Donald Trump on whether there were gonna be enough ventilators. “Are we gonna have enough ventilators? Are we going to have to ration ventilators? Are people going to die because they can’t get ventilators?” And we built all of these ventilators, and we didn’t ration the ventilators, right? We overloaded New York with ventilators.
BUCK: There was no need for the rationing.
CLAY: Right.
BUCK: But right now, there is a demand for rationing, Clay, from the federal government. They have stepped in to take over the supply of monoclonal antibodies. You have to wonder what the heck is going on here. And we have a version of it. And that word that should terrify anybody who’s aware of social justice lunacy on the left: “equity,” right?
“Equity” is a fancy way of saying, “We do what we want and say that it’s fair.” Here is Jen Psaki. We had Emerald Robinson of Newsmax ask the question. Here is Jen Psaki saying, “Oh, we’re not cutting access to antibodies for states like Florida. We’re doing it in a more ‘equitable’ fashion.”
PSAKI: That’s not accurate. First of all, we are increasing our distribution this month by 50%. In early August, we were distributing an average of a hundred thousand doses per week. Now we’re shipping an average of 150,000 doses per week. But over the last month, given the rise in cases due to the Delta variant — and the lower number of vaccination rates in some of these states like Florida, like Texas — just seven states are making up 70% of the orders. Our supply is not unlimited, and we believe it should be equitable. … Our role as the government overseeing the entire country is to be equitable in how we distribute. We’re not going to give a greater percentage to Florida over Oklahoma.
BUCK: Listen to the maniacal reliance here on “equitable.” What does it even mean? If there are more cases in certain states, you need to get them more monoclonal antibodies! Clay, two theories here. I want to know which one you think is more likely or if you got a third, by all means. Florida is being punished by the federal government because now they know, “Uh-oh!
“The Northeast, we’re gonna start having cases rising up here and the whole Florida-is-the-bad-guy storyline goes away.” So they want to punish Florida — which means, by the way, people are gonna die because of the federal government decision — and/or they want to hoard them for some of the blue states that are now in their seasonal upswing. They know it’s coming.
CLAY: I think it could be both, Buck, and what I want to build on that. Imagine if Donald Trump had said, “We’re not gonna send enough ventilators to New York to satisfy the demand because we want to make sure that we take care of red states, which may have a demand in the future.” To me, anybody logical out there would say, “You send the treatment where the demand is most significant because that is where the most lives can be saved and or assisted right now.”
And I think both of your strategies are true. I think, one, it’s a punishment. I think they need for Ron DeSantis to be the villain to Joe Biden’s hero. That’s what they’re trying to set up, and anything that can make him or the state of Florida… You heard her specifically reference Florida and Texas. Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis are the villains, and I also think the Biden administration is afraid now that they know this.
Remember, initially they were saying, “Oh, this treatment is lunacy. It doesn’t make any sense.” They now see that it works, and what they’re afraid of, Buck, is as the blue states — all over the Midwest you’re starting to see this tick up; all over the Northeast, Vermont — which is like 88% vaccinated — covid skyrocketing in the number of cases that they have.
Joe Biden doesn’t want to disappoint his blue state brethren if they don’t have enough of this treatment. He doesn’t want to be the bad guy. It’s amazing how quickly this has moved from, “It’s an irrational treatment,” to, “Let’s make sure — thanks to the experiment that we’ve seen in Florida — that we have enough of this for our blue state brethren.”
BUCK: There’s no way that they can explain away a surge in the blue states this winter. It’s not possible. They’re finally backed into a corner here. If you see surging caseloads in New York, they’re gonna try to say, “Oh, but there’s still some unvaccinated people.” I’m sorry.
CLAY: It doesn’t pan out.
BUCK: We’ve been told this too many times. It doesn’t wash. We all know this is bull. They told us they figured it out. They know what’s going on. Clay, I think there’s a real anxiety at the very top level of the government. I think in the Oval Office, I think Biden and the people around him that actually make the decisions are thinking, “How will we explain it to the American people if there’s some rush for boosters, which may very well be coming in the wintertime?
It’s not a silver bullet, but it is useful. This is not like oh, people say vitamin C or zinc or something. You know, that’s always good for your immune system. But the point is, they were playing politics it with it, and I don’t think they have a way out of it. But Ron DeSantis, by the way, we should come back to. He wants to fight back on this.
CLAY: Yeah, he wants to fight back on it. And, Buck, I think we need to hit the data again. And I think we also need to point out that all Florida schools are back in session, and we were told, “Oh, my God. If these kids go back to school and they’re not wearing masks, the cases are gonna skyrocket.”
The exact opposite has happened as Florida has returned, which also threatens the story that the Biden administration wants to tell. It’s a big deal, and this is a significant, clarion case that challenges much of what they have been arguing for a long time.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
CLAY: I am in the great state of Florida right now doing my show live from Jacksonville. And I’m proud to be in this state because it is one of the states in the nation where a governor is actually standing up for freedom. And Ron DeSantis is willing to fight for the people of Florida and stand up to the Biden administration.
When it feels like so many are just rolling over and acquiescing meekly to whatever the unconstitutional demands and mandates are from this administration. Here is Ron DeSantis saying he’s going to fight against this idea of taking away the monoclonal antibodies that are saving lives in the state of Florida right now.
DESANTIS: We’re facing a massive, massive cut in monoclonal antibody treatments abruptly. Just after the president said they would have a 50% increase, we’re now seeing more than a 50% cut for the state of Florida. So we’re gonna fight like hell to make sure that our folks get what they need.
BUCK: Can we just say, Clay, that in one month’s time the Democrat corporate media has gone from, “Ron DeSantis is reckless for promoting monoclonal antibodies and lining his pockets…” Just like they did, by the way, with the vaccines. So another lie from CBS News on that, which fortunately got blown away by DeSantis. But now they’re actually going not just in the direction of monoclonal antibodies are good. They’re trying to hoard them for other places. What does “equitable” contribution between if not “we get it to the places with the sick people’?
Now, the positive is here — and I want to keep hammering this home. It’s probably the only place you’re gonna be hear it. Cases are plummeting in Florida. And to your point, Buck, we saw this last summer. The Florida, the South in general, has their main — at least so far, based on the data we have, has their main — pop in the summer earlier than other parts of the country.
BUCK: Their summer surge is over. And, Clay, to the data, it’s migrating north.
CLAY: Yes. Yes. Yes.
BUCK: We’re seeing exactly that. D.C. is actually getting hit pretty rough right now with caseloads. So is West Virginia. Oregon is still hit hard. Some parts of Nevada are getting hit pretty hard. Once this spreads out to the bluest of the blue, which is likely to happen, that’s gonna be an interesting conversation for the Biden administration to have.
CLAY: A massively interesting conversation because what you’re seeing right now is the overall tide, the surge, is moving into the Midwest, right? Look at the numbers in Ohio. I know we got a lot of listeners in Ohio. It’s likely to hit Ohio and Michigan and then spread on into Wisconsin and Minnesota, all the Big Ten states.
BUCK: I think our friend Alex Berenson told us this would happen about a month ago. Remember that? And it is happening.
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