After Gov. Ron DeSantis claims “the state was not up to speed” in accelerating more than 1,200 residents of the keys to the affluent Ocean Reef community in January to gain access to the COVID-19 vaccine, both Baptist Health South Florida – which provided the doses. and Monroe County contradicted his claims, saying the distribution was approved by the state.
‘It is our understanding that the Medical Center at Ocean Reef has asked the State of Florida for vaccine doses, and the State of Florida Baptist Health has requested that the doses in our ultra-cold freezer storage be reduced for delivery to the Medical Center in Ocean. Rif, ” said Baptist Health Systems spokeswoman Dori A. Alvarez in a statement to the Herald / Times late Friday.
According to a January 22 newsletter sent to residents of the exclusive Ocean Reef Club and by the Miami Herald, the Medical Center at Ocean Reef reported: “Over the past two weeks, the Medical Center has vaccinated more than 1,200 homeowners who, according to the current order of the Governor of the State of Florida, qualify for individuals who are 65 years or older . We are lucky that we got enough vaccines to secure the first and second for vaccines. ”
The message also acknowledges that doses were scarce: ‘At present, however, the majority of the state has not yet received an allocation of the first doses of vaccines for this week and beyond, and the timing of subsequent deliveries remains unclear. ‘
The governor has been increasingly criticized for establishing himself as the gatekeeper of vaccine distribution in Florida as he selects doses to communities, while his political committee has raised more than $ 3.9 million from donors, some of whom attached to the vaccine sites.
At a news conference on March 4, DeSantis chose his words carefully. He denied that the Ocean Reef was a ‘state yard’, but did not deny that he or the Florida Department of Emergency Management, which distributes vaccines, had a role in allowing it to enter one of the early sites. to be. DeSantis and FDEM declined to disclose the criteria used to select the timing and location of the vaccine distribution.
“It was not a state website,” DeSantis told reporters. “It was not something the state set up. This was done by one of the hospital systems that had vaccine. ”
He added, “my opinion is that if you are 65 years and older, I do not worry about your income group, I do not worry about your age group, because it is the age and not the income that shows the risk.”
Hospital CEO owns house there
But there are still questions about how Ocean Reef was authorized to receive the early doses at a time that was scarce. Baptist Health System president and CEO Brian Keeley and his wife own a home in Ocean Reef, valued at $ 1. 7 million, according to Monroe County property records.
Alvarez, a Baptist Health spokeswoman, declined to comment on whether Keeley was instrumental in getting a pilot program for his neighbors in Ocean Reef in early January to access the doses. On Jan. 19, just three days before the Ocean Reef email to residents, Baptist Health was forced to cancel appointments for hundreds of members of the general public who signed up to get a vaccine because it was no longer available.
Alvarez also declined to comment on whether the distribution of vaccines to Ocean Reef contributed to the shortfall Baptist Health experienced.
“As we have said, our mission is to take as many shots as possible, as safely and quickly as we can, based on state guidelines and the availability of vaccines,” she said.
The inconsistencies forced state Democratic officials to ask the FBI to investigate.
County contradicts governor
Mike Forster, commissioner of Monroe County, also confirmed that the state is responsible for distributing vaccines to Ocean Reef.
‘The true, when and how many vaccines that are shot into the arms of my constituents are first determined at the state level, wherever they are best used and best used, and are also awarded to our department of health, which is run by the state managed, and our emergency management, ” he told the Miami Herald.
Foster said the province was not asked to consider the allocation and distribution of the vaccines, but many people were aware that Ocean Reef was one of the first to receive it.
“I, and I’m probably others, have heard rumors of my voters getting vaccinated in Ocean Reef,” he said. “But I can tell you unequivocally that I have never seen anything facilitated by anyone in the country.”
Compose the words
An FDEM spokesman, who was asked to comment on the finger pointing, issued a statement on Saturday not denying the role of the state, but said the state had never ordered Baptist Health to close the site at Ocean Reef to open.
‘To be clear, the Emergency Management Division or the Department of Health never ordered Baptist Health to open a POD [point of distribution] in Ocean Reef, ” said Jason Mahon, spokesman for both DEM and the Florida Department of Health. “Any statement that is different is false.”
The governor held events linking selected pop-up vaccine distribution sites in communities linked to wealthy donors, but he also held events in neighborhoods serving primary residents of Black and Spanish, whose vaccination rate is much lower than the average of the state.
Last month, DeSantis selected a leading community that helped develop Republican fundraiser Pat Neal to set up a pop-up vaccination clinic near Bradenton. Only people from two zip codes are eligible to receive the vaccine on the Lakewood Ranch website, and the names were chosen by Manatee County Commissioner Vanessa Baugh, who includes herself on her list of vaccines.
Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried and Senate Democratic leader Gary Farmer on Thursday called on the U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday to investigate whether the $ 3.9 million contributions made to the governor’s political committee since December are related to favorable treatment for the distribution of vaccines.
“If it’s not public corruption, I do not know what it is,” Fried said.
DeSantis and the Florida Department of Health announced a draft vaccination distribution plan written in October, but the governor has since dropped the recommendations, which would give priority to health workers in front of all 65 residents. and older.
Reporters asked the DeSantis administration for two months to disclose the location and criteria for the distribution of vaccines, but it refused and instead suggested that the public trust its word.
The Florida Department of Health has released some documents to the Herald / Times Tallahassee office, but the reports do not provide full details on whether and when vaccines will be distributed. They show, for example, that a quarter of all vaccines went to Publix supermarkets. Although the state did not know in advance where Publix was sending doses, it did learn afterwards and adjust the allocations accordingly.
Public health experts now say the governor is not moving fast enough to get more people eligible for the vaccine, and this has led to an unused stock.
Millions to raise
Meanwhile, disclosure reports for DeSantis’ political committee, Friends of Ron DeSantis, show that the governor has raised $ 3.9 million since December, including $ 2.7 million in February alone when he focused on the pop-up vaccination sites. DeSantis is expected to seek re-election in 2022, but has not formally announced his candidacy.
One Ocean Reef resident, Bruce Rauner, the former Republican governor of Illinois and former chairman of the Chicago-based private equity firm GTCR, wrote a $ 250,000 check on February 25, a week after his 65th birthday, which then eligible for the vaccine in Florida, according to the Chicago Tribune.
At the March 4 news conference, DeSantis indirectly acknowledged the connection. “You know, was he even vaccinated?” he asks, referring to Rauner.
Miami Herald reporter Daniel Chang contributed to this report. Mary Ellen Class can be reached at [email protected] and @MaryEllenKlas
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Transcript of Governor Ron DeSantis’ March 4 news conference
‘Well one, that Miami Herald article was a train wreck. This was not a website we were involved in in the Keys. It was one of the South Florida hospital systems, went to this community and vaccinated a bunch of elderly people.
“I think it’s great. I want seniors to get shots. I think they did it well. We just weren’t involved in it in any way. In the initial couple of three, four weeks, as you recall, the hospitals received most of the vaccine. We had nursing homes. We had hospitals. Some provincial health departments started getting it at the end of December, which you did not even see the big pressure in January.
‘So that was something that one of the systems did. They are on the premises. They did 1,000 to 2,000, though many elderly people. And my opinion is that if you’re 65 years and older, I’m not worried about your income group, I’m worried about your age group, because it’s the age and not the income that shows the risk. And so they could go into a community that is much older and vaccinates people, that’s very, very good.
‘But that the article indicates that it was somehow one of our sites, that’s just wrong. I think it was good that they did. I support the hospitals that do this and are really proactive, and try to reach as many seniors as possible. But it was a hit piece that was really very poorly executed, and what they are trying to do is try to invent fabricated stories, but they do not have the facts to support it, and that is a perfect example of that.
“So it was a big failure, and you know we’m glad the hospitals did it. But again, this was not one of our sites. ”
Asked about a contribution from Ocean Reef resident Bruce Rauner, the former Republican governor of Illinois and former chairman of the Chicago-based private equity firm GTCR, who wrote a $ 250,000 check on February 25th , DeSantis said:
“We had nothing to do with it. The state was not involved. And I do not know, do you know that he has already been vaccinated? Do you know? OK, so I literally mean they were just trying to concede to conspiracy theories, but it was not a state website. The state did nothing. this was done by one of the hospital systems that had vaccine. They thought it made sense to go do 65 and plus, and I think it was a smart decision to do so.
“And they did other things in other parts of the community as well, but it was not a state website, so the article was just wrong.”