The U.S. government on March 5 immediately halted all shipments of a COVID-19 treatment to states and ordered health care providers not to use the drug. The actions were taken because of the increasing prevalence of BA.2, a subvariant of Omicron, which is itself a variant of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, also known as SARS-CoV-2, the virus causes COVID-19. Data so far indicate that the drug, a monoclonal antibody called sotrovimab, does not work against BA.2, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Regulators initially told doctors in eight states on March 27 to stop administering sotrovimab to COVID-19 patients. Several days later, the FDA expanded the action, which essentially revokes the emergency use authorization granted in 2021, to 14 additional states. With Tuesday’s move, the monoclonal “is no longer authorized to treat COVID-19 in any U.S. region due to increases in the proportion of COVID-19 cases caused …