The controversial ’60 Minutes’ report by the Florida Government, Ron DeSantis, R., on a so-called ‘pay-for-play’ vaccination scheme has also toppled the Republican for prioritizing seniors in his state’s COVID vaccination .
The CBS News program is facing intense setbacks because she misleadingly had a DeSantis altercation with “60 Minutes” correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi over a story she insisted on claiming the grocery store chain Publix was rewarded with the distribution of vaccines after contributing $ 100,000 to his campaign. However, it appears that the report also condemns his decision to vaccinate the elderly in his state due to younger frontline workers.
Alfonsi went even further by questioning DeSantis’ reasoning behind the decision, which was that the elderly were the most vulnerable to the virus.
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“The onset of Florida started out pretty typical. The first doses were given to health care workers and nursing home residents in early December,” Alfonsi began. ‘But a few weeks later, Governor Ron DeSantis, who violated the CDC guidelines, announced that he would not vaccinate teachers and essential workers next time, but instead appoint seniors so that someone 65 and older could be considered. for the vaccine, the first in the country. to do it.”
“DeSantis said seniors are at the greatest risk,” she added, alluding to the fact that it was an unsubstantiated allegation by the governor, rather than following the science that showed a significantly higher death toll among older Americans.
Recent demographic data from the Centers for Disease Control show that about 80 percent of coronavirus deaths were between 65 and older, and 95 percent were among those over 50.
The report further suggested that DeSantis was blamed for Florida’s 4.5 million seniors “competing” against each other to get the vaccine and that the state’s health service phone numbers “failed” and websites “crashed.”
Later in the segment, Alfonsi confronted DeSantis at a press conference in March over her claim that Publix paid his way to get the vaccine first.
“As you know, Publix donated $ 100,000 to your campaign,” Alfonsi began in the track. “And then you rewarded them with the exclusive rights to distribute the vaccine in Palm Beach -“
“First, what you say is wrong,” DeSantis interrupted.
“How can it not be paid for playing?” Ask Alfonsi.
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“This is a false story,” DeSantis replied. “I met the mayor of the country, I met the administrator, I met all the people in Palm Beach County and I said, ‘Here are some of the options: we can do more throughput, we can do more to hospitals, we can do the Publix. “And they said, ‘We think that would be the easiest thing for our residents.’
Alfonsi then told that Melissa McKinlay commissioner of Palm Beach County claims that DeSantis never met her about the Publix agreement.
“The criticism here is that pay for game, governor,” Alfonsi told DeSantis.
“And that’s wrong, that’s wrong,” the governor shot back. “It’s a fake story. I just deprived you of the story. And you do not care about the facts. Because of course I explained it to you in an irrefutable way.”
DeSantis’ complete response to Alfonsi’s questions was mostly omitted from the air report.
Conservative writer AG Hamilton noted that the CBS program “cut out a few minutes” from the governor’s comments explaining what led to the deal with Publix.
‘First the first pharmacies that had [the vaccine] were CVS and Walgreens and they had a long-term care mission, and therefore they were to the long-term care facilities. “They got the vaccine in mid-December, they started going to the long-term care facilities in the third week of December to do LTCs,” DeSantis told Alfonsi. So that was their mission, it was very important and we trusted them to do it. With the start of January, we wanted to expand the distribution points.
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“So yes, you had the provinces, you had a few drive-through sites, you had hospitals that did a lot, but we wanted to get it more in communities. That’s why we reached other retail pharmacies: Publix, Walmart, of course CVS and Walgreens had to complete the mission and we said we would use you as soon as you were done with it, “DeSantis continued.
He further said Publix is the ‘first one to raise their hand’ and said it was ready to distribute the vaccine. It rolled out the vaccine on a “trial basis” in three provinces, which was received with a “100% positive” feedback from seniors.
DeSantis later added that although Palm Beach County initially “struggled” with its distribution among the elderly, nearly “75 percent” of the elderly were vaccinated, and that the distribution of vaccines “expanded” with CVS and Walgreens after their long-term care. (LTC) mission.
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“They literally cut him out and explained the whole process, including who was responsible for LTCs (not Publix), how Publix raised their hand as [CVS/Walgreens] was working on LTCs, how they had a trial to test it, why it worked, and how CVS / Walgreen’s are now used, ‘Hamilton tweeted.
CBS did not respond to Fox News ‘question as to whether ’60 Minutes’ was behind the edited exchange.
Publix called the notion that it receives special access absolutely false and offensive.
“The irresponsible suggestion that there was a link between contributions to Governor DeSantis and our willingness to join other pharmacies in support of the state’s vaccine distribution is absolutely false and offensive,” a Publix spokesman told Fox News said. “We are proud of our pharmacy staff because they have so far administered more than 1.5 million doses of vaccine and worked with other retailers in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia to do our part. to help our communities emerge from the pandemic. “