Biden Admin Cuts Off 14 More States From COVID-19 Treatment As BA.2 Variant Spreads

President Joe Biden’s administration has ordered 14 additional states to stop using a COVID-19 treatment made by GlaxoSmithKline and Vir Biotechnology. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said March 30 it has paused shipments of the drug, sotrovimab, to the states, bringing the total number of states that are no longer receiving doses to 22. The states are Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin in the midwest; Arizona, California, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington state in the west; and Alaska and Hawaii. Previously, eight states in the northeast U.S. stopped receiving shipments of sotrovimab. The U.S. government purchased millions of doses in 2021 and January and distributed them weekly to states to provide to health care facilities. Sotrovimab, a monoclonal antibody, was granted emergency use authorization for treating patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 who are designated as high-risk for progressing to severe cases. But emerging data suggest the drug does not …  » Read full article