From the beginning of the pandemic that's killed more than 700 thousand Americans, Republican officials at the state and federal levels have worked to undermine basic safety guidelines and peddle deadly disinformation regarding its spread.
This continues today, and especially targets lifesaving vaccinations, which have been proven safe and effective at containing the spread of the virus..
The Republican governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, issued an executive order on Tuesday banning all vaccine mandates in the Lone Star State.
Right-wing media and elected officials have repeatedly spread conspiracy theories designed to sow distrust in vaccines, all the while comparing vaccine mandates or any federal effort to encourage vaccinations as a federal overstep amounting to the atrocities of Nazi Germany.
Even officials who are hospitalized with the virus can't disavow the vaccine hysteria within the GOP, if comments from far-right Texas gubernatorial candidate Allen West are any indication.
In a Twitter thread, the unvaccinated West notified his followers that he and his wife were receiving monoclonal antibody infusion therapy and that his oxygen levels were low.
But he only doubled down on his opposition to vaccine mandates.
5/ I can attest that, after this experience, I am even more dedicated to fighting against vaccine mandates. Instead of enriching the pockets of Big Pharma and corrupt bureaucrats and politicians, we should be advocating the monoclonal antibody infusion therapy.
— Allen West (@AllenWest) October 10, 2021
West went on to call the shot "dangerous" and boasted that he now has natural immunity. Absurdly, he claimed that we should fight the virus with monoclonal antibody infusion therapy instead of "enriching the pockets of Big Pharma".
There's just one problem.
The "enriching the pockets of Big Pharma" argument here is particularly bizarre. For a dose of vaccine, the government pays Pfizer $20. For a dose of monoclonal antibodies, the government pays Regeneron $2,100.https://twitter.com/AllenWest/status/1447195963542679552\u00a0\u2026— Andrew Egger (@Andrew Egger) 1633897713
Who does he think creates the monoclonal antibody therapies? Antibody fairies? That treatment costs far more than the vaccine, so you're just lining the pockets of a different company.https://twitter.com/AllenWest/status/1447195963542679552\u00a0\u2026— Dr. Tara C. Smith (@Dr. Tara C. Smith) 1633887457
As everyone knows, monoclonal antibody treatments are made by mom-and-pop shops that do it at cost out of love of producing therapeutics.https://twitter.com/AllenWest/status/1447195963542679552\u00a0\u2026— Philip Bump (@Philip Bump) 1634050250
Big pharma chronically underinvests in vax development because often it is much less profitable to prevent disease than to treat it. GOP culture war against vaccines has been a giant gift to pharma that they'll be cashing in on for years to come https://academic.oup.com/jlb/article/7/1/lsaa026/5838028\u00a0\u2026 https://twitter.com/AllenWest/status/1447195963542679552\u00a0\u2026pic.twitter.com/iG2o36nYuU— Colin McAuliffe (@Colin McAuliffe) 1633919938
Monoclonal antibody treatments instead of vaccines would be the absolutely best way to enrich Big Pharma.— Lazy Bot (@Lazy Bot) 1633888830
You mean the monoclonal antibody therapy that enriches the pockets of regenoron big pharma? The super expensive therapy that is costing the gov\u2019t billions and is in such short supply that we have to ration it? That donates bigly to republicans, is that the one?— MakeAmericaSane....laurie \ud83e\udd84\ud83d\udc95\ud83c\udf0a \ud83d\udc99\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8\ud83d\udc99 (@MakeAmericaSane....laurie \ud83e\udd84\ud83d\udc95\ud83c\udf0a \ud83d\udc99\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8\ud83d\udc99) 1633877301
West's comments received an onslaught of backlash.
\u201cOur bodies are our last sanctuary of liberty\u201d said without a shred of irony to self reflection.https://twitter.com/allenwest/status/1447195966684205059\u00a0\u2026— Bhavik Lathia (@Bhavik Lathia) 1633888476
Republicans: Our bodies are our last sanctuary of liberty and freedom.\n\nAlso Republicans: Even if you were raped, we want to force you to carry to term the pregnancy against your will.https://twitter.com/allenwest/status/1447195966684205059\u00a0\u2026— Miranda Yaver, PhD (@Miranda Yaver, PhD) 1633884233
YOU NITWIT WE HAVE SO MANY AND HAVE FOR YEARS WTF IS WRONG WITH YALLhttps://twitter.com/allenwest/status/1447195965606273035\u00a0\u2026— Stephen Gawking \ud83d\udca6 (@Stephen Gawking \ud83d\udca6) 1633997192
Yikes.
