Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) addressed a "hit piece" from the Maimi Herald which seemed to suggest the governor's office had given a wealthy-favored gated community in Key Largo priority for COVID-19 vaccines in exchange for political donations.
DeSantis said his office was not involved in the vaccine being administered in the Ocean Reef Club and "I’m not worried about your income bracket, I’m worried about your age bracket."
"Well, one, the Miami Herald article was a trainwreck. That was not a site that we were involved in in the Keys. What that was one of the South Florida hospital systems went and went to this community, vaccinating a bunch of seniors," DeSantis explained. "I think that’s great. I want seniors to get shots. I think they did a good job doing that. We just weren’t involved with it in any way, shape, or form."
DeSantis noted in the first few weeks of the COVID-19 vaccines being distributed, "the hospitals were getting the lion’s share of the vaccine. We had nursing homes, we had hospitals, some of the county health departments started to get them at the end of December."
"And so if they were able to go in a community that is heavily senior and vaccinate people that’s very, very good. But for that article to suggest that somehow that was one of our sites, that’s just factually wrong. I think it was good that they did it, I support the hospitals doing that and really being proactive in trying to reach as many seniors as possible, but it was a really, really poorly executed hit piece," DeSantis added.
.@GovRonDeSantis' #SeniorsFirst plan has protected millions of lives while keeping our state safe, open, and free. pic.twitter.com/KMW6RU3Nfh
— Florida GOP (@FloridaGOP) March 4, 2021
Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, the top Democrat in the state, has called for the FBI to investigate DeSantis for his supposed "red carpet vaccine distribution for political contributions" scheme.
If red carpet vaccine distribution for political contributions isn’t public corruption, I don’t know what is.
— Nikki Fried (@nikkifried) March 4, 2021
It's time for the @FBI to step in. pic.twitter.com/hN1qzVLoBS
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