Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and state health officials are in the cauldron after it emerged that seniors in a wealthy Key Largo enclave received hundreds of coronavirus vaccinations in mid-January.
This gives ammunition to critics who say the Republican governor favors the state’s wealthy over its commoners.
The revelations were the latest example of wealthy Floridians gaining early access to coronavirus vaccines, even as the state is lagging behind in efforts to vaccinate the poorest residents.
DeSantis dismissed the criticism on Thursday, saying that a local hospital, not the state, was behind the vaccinations of more than 1,200 residents of the exclusive Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo, Florida, and that the state was “in no way involved.” . “.
Officials in Monroe County, where Key Largo is located, said the wealthy club’s medical center, which is a subsidiary of Baptist Health Hospital, has received vaccines through the hospital as part of the governor’s program to help communities with populations of 65 years of age or older.
County spokeswoman Kristen Livengood said the assignments were coordinated through Baptist and the state of Florida.
The Miami Herald was the first to report the vaccination of Ocean Reef residents.
The unequal distribution of COVID-19 vaccines is becoming a public relations problem for the governor.
Of the 3.2 million people who have received one or two doses of the injections, less than 6% are black, while they represent 17% of the total population.