DeSantis should learn lessons from antibody debacle | OPINION

If you believe that brazen false piety is a major transgression, you really have to marvel that lightning bolts aren't constantly singeing the ground around Gov. Ron DeSantis’ feet as he continues to rage, sputter and fume over the federal government’s decision to lower access to two monoclonal antibody treatments – which in turn has forced DeSantis' administration to close sites that had been using them to treat COVID.

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“Part of it is I think there's politics at play,” DeSantis bemoaned at one point regarding the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's move to pull emergency use authorization for monoclonal antibody treatments from Eli Lilly and Regeneron (whose treatment regimen in particular has been openly championed by DeSantis as the key to fighting COVID-19 and its latest iteration, the omicron variant).

Grandiose moping about “politics” being “at play”?

From a governor who has gleefully rushed to politicize wearing masks, requiring COVID-19 vaccinations, teaching school curriculum, respecting home rule, exercising the right to vote, practicing free speech and much, much, much – did we say “much” – more?

Clearly one lesson DeSantis should learn from the federal government's swift action is that accusing others of playing politics while actively reveling in doing so is always a bad optic – and never a good look.

And here are two more worthwhile lessons that the governor should take from what's happened:

1. It’s never too late to do the right thing, and DeSantis should reverse course and finally do more to get more Floridians to become vaccinated.

Let's not lose sight of why the federal government took forceful action on the two monoclonal antibody treatments: neither has been very effective in combating the omicron variant, which is now the cause of nearly all new COVID infections in Florida and across the country.

But what has been proven to lower the chances of contracting omicron in the first place?

It’s going out and getting COVID vaccine shots. It’s becoming fully vaccinated against COVID. And it’s taking the extra step of getting the widely available COVID booster shot.

Instead of acting like a carnival barker whose silver-tongued con . . . er . . . pitch has left hordes of Floridians with their noses forlornly pressed against the windows of now-shuttered monoclonal antibody treatment sites, here's what DeSantis should have been doing all along:

He should have been relentlessly exhorting Floridians to simply bare their arms and get their COVID vaccine shots. He should have been tirelessly urging Floridians to boost our state's still-underwhelming vaccination rate.

DeSantis still can do these things – and he should.

2. Even when it’s overseen by a president who’s not wildly popular, the federal government is not a beast you should be spoiling to fight in needless, endless fashion.

So let's just say DeSantis hadn’t spent the last year looking for every opportunity to challenge and defy various federal agencies specifically and the federal government in general.

Let's just say DeSantis hadn't spent the past 12 months (and counting) seeking any opening to alienate and antagonize President Joe Biden – even to the point of signing an anti-vaccination requirement bill in Brandon as a nod to the “Let’s Go Brandon” slogan that's actually code for an obscene anti-Biden insult.

Let’s just say the governor hadn’t spent so much energy doing all of that.

Do you think DeSantis might have received the courtesy of an advance word from the feds regarding the affected monoclonal antibody treatments – instead of seemingly learning about it when Brandon in, well, Brandon did, too ?

Probably so.

These are all teachable moments that DeSantis would be wise to take from the debacle over the targeted monoclonal antibody treatments.

Indeed if nothing else, they are teachable moments about humility – and Lord knows our governor could do with more than a few of those.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Antibody treatment debacle is a lesson in humility for Gov. DeSantis