Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Slammed For Placing COVID-19 Clinics In Wealthy Areas

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has faced bipartisan criticism from his state legislature for organizing COVID-19 vaccine clinics in affluent Florida suburbs. The two vaccine sites in Manatee and Charlotte counties will allow those 6,000 majority white, wealthy residents to receive vaccines before the vast majority of Floridians.

When confronted about issues of political favoritism, DeSantis told critics, “If Manatee County doesn’t like us doing this, then we are totally fine with putting this in counties that want it … It wasn’t a choice about zip codes, it was a choice about where’s a high concentration of seniors where you could have communities provide the ability for them to go on.”

Florida Democratic Party Chair Manny Diaz condemned the governor’s statement saying he “must stop playing politics with the vaccine distribution here in Florida.” The chair added, “Threatening retribution and less vaccine access for communities that criticize the vaccine roll-out for its problems is shameful and inhumane.”

Meredith Beatrice, the governor’s director of strategic initiatives, wrote an email to reporters saying, “The insinuation that politics play into vaccine distribution in Florida is baseless and ridiculous.”