After Gov. Ron DeSantis claimed that “the state was not involved” in getting more than 1,200 Keys residents in the wealthy Ocean Reef community to have accelerated access to the COVID-19 vaccine in January, both from Baptist Health South Florida – which provided the doses – and Monroe County contradicted his claims, saying the distribution was authorized by the state.
“It is our understanding that the Ocean Reef Medical Center asked the State of Florida for doses of vaccine, and the State of Florida asked Baptist Health to receive the doses in our deep-frozen freezer for delivery to the Ocean Reef Medical Center,” he said. Dori A. Alvarez, a spokesman for Baptist Health Systems in a statement to Herald / Times on Friday.
According to a January 22 newsletter sent to residents of the exclusive Ocean Reef Club and obtained by Miami Herald, the Ocean Reef Medical Center reported: “Over the past two weeks, the Medical Center has vaccinated more than 1,200 homeowners who qualify under the current Order of the Governor of the State of Florida for individuals 65 years of age or older. We are fortunate to have received enough vaccines to guarantee the first and second vaccinees. “
The message also acknowledged that the doses were missing: “At the moment, however, the majority of the state has not received an allocation of the first doses of vaccines for this week and beyond, and the timing of any subsequent deliveries remains uncertain.”
The governor has been increasingly criticized for establishing himself as the guardian of vaccine distribution in Florida, by targeting doses to selected communities, while his political committee raised more than $ 3.9 million from donors, some of whom are affiliated with the locals. vaccination.
At a news conference on March 4, DeSantis chose his words carefully. He denied that Ocean Reef was a “state site”, but he did not deny that he or the Florida Emergency Management Division, which distributes vaccines, had the role of authorizing it to be one of the first locations. DeSantis and FDEM declined to publicly disclose the criteria used to select the timing and locations of vaccine distribution.
“That was not a state website, ” DeSantis told reporters.“ It was nothing that the state created. It was done through one of the hospital systems that had a vaccine. “
He added: “My opinion is that if you are 65 or older, I am not concerned with your income bracket, I am concerned with your age bracket, because it is age, not income that shows the risk.”
The hospital’s CEO owns a house there
But there are still doubts about how the Ocean Reef was allowed to receive the first doses at a time when the offer was scarce. Baptist Health System President and CEO Brian Keeley and his wife own a home on Ocean Reef, which is valued at $ 1.7 million, according to Monroe County property records.
Alvarez, a Baptist Health spokesman, declined to comment on whether Keeley was instrumental in getting a pilot program in early January so that his Ocean Reef neighbors had access to the doses. On January 19, just three days before Ocean Reef’s e-mail to residents, Baptist Health was forced to cancel appointments for hundreds of members of the general public who had signed up to get the vaccination because it was over.
Alvarez also declined to comment on whether the distribution of the vaccine for Ocean Reef contributed to the shortage experienced by Baptist Health.
“As we have already said, our mission is to get as many vaccines as we can, in the safest and fastest way possible, based on the state’s guidance and the availability of the vaccine, ” she said.
The discrepancies led the state’s top Democratic officials to ask the FBI for an investigation.
County contradicts governor
Monroe County Commissioner Mike Forster also confirmed that the state was responsible for distributing the vaccine to the Ocean Reef.
“Where, when and how many vaccines injected into the arms of my constituents are decided first at the state level where they determine that it is the highest and best use, and are also allocated to our Department of Health, which is administered by the state, and our emergency management, ” he told the Miami Herald.
Foster said the county was not asked about the allocation and distribution of vaccines, but many people were aware that Ocean Reef was one of the first to receive them.
“I, and I’m sure of others, have heard murmurs about my constituents at Ocean Reef receiving vaccines,” he said. “But I can say unequivocally that I never saw anything that was facilitated by anyone in the county.”
State analyzes words
Asked to comment on the accusation, an FDEM spokesman issued a statement on Saturday that did not deny the state’s role, but said the state “never ordered” Baptist Health to open the site at Ocean Reef.
“To be clear, neither the Emergency Management Division nor the Department of Health instructed Baptist Health to open a POD [point of distribution] on Ocean Reef, ” said Jason Mahon, a spokesman for the DEM and the Florida Department of Health. “Any claim to the contrary is false.”
The governor held events highlighting selected vaccine distribution locations in communities linked to wealthy donors, but he also held events in communities in neighborhoods that serve black and Hispanic primary residents, whose vaccination rate is much lower than the state average.
Last month, a sophisticated community that Republican fundraiser Pat Neal helped develop was chosen by DeSantis to host an instant vaccination clinic near Bradenton. Only people from two CEPs were eligible to receive the vaccine at the Rancho Lakewood site, and the names were chosen by Manatee County Commissioner Vanessa Baugh, who was included on her vaccine selection list.
Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried and Senate Democratic leader Gary Farmer on Thursday asked the United States Department of Justice to examine whether the $ 3.9 million in contributions made to the governor’s political committee since December were linked. favorable treatment for vaccine distribution.
“If this is not public corruption, I don’t know what it is,” said Fried.
DeSantis and the Florida Department of Health released a draft vaccination distribution plan written in October, but the governor abandoned these recommendations, which would have given priority to frontline health care professionals, above all residents aged 65 or over. most.
For two months, reporters asked the DeSantis government to disclose the location and criteria used to distribute the vaccines, but he refused, suggesting that the public takes his word for it.
The Florida Department of Health released some documents for the Herald / Times Tallahassee office, but the records do not include full details of whether and when vaccines were distributed. For example, they show that a quarter of all vaccines went to Publix supermarkets. Although the state did not know in advance where Publix was sending the doses, it learned later and adjusted allocations based on that.
Public health experts now say the governor is not acting fast enough to make more people eligible for the vaccine, and this has led to an unused supply.
Raising millions
Meanwhile, disclosure reports to DeSantis’ political committee, Friends of Ron DeSantis, show that since December the governor has raised $ 3.9 million, including $ 2.7 million in February alone, when he was focusing on the sites. pop-up vaccination. DeSantis is expected to seek re-election in 2022, but has not formally announced his candidacy.
An Ocean Reef resident, Bruce Rauner, former Republican governor of Illinois and former president of GTCR, a Chicago-based private equity firm, signed a check for $ 250,000 on February 25, a week after his 65th birthday, the that made him eligible for the vaccine in Florida, according to the Chicago Tribune.
At the March 4 news conference, DeSantis indirectly acknowledged the connection. “You know, has he been vaccinated yet?” he asked, referring to Rauner.
Miami Herald reporter Daniel Chang contributed to this report. Mary Ellen Klas can be contacted at [email protected] and @MaryEllenKlas
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Transcript of Governor Ron DeSantis’ press conference on March 4
“Well the Miami Herald article was a train wreck. This was not a site that we were involved with in Keys. What used to be one of South Florida’s hospital systems, went and went to this community and vaccinated a bunch of elderly people.
“I think this is great. I want veterans to have injections. I think they did a good job doing that. We were simply not involved in this in any way or form. In the first three or four weeks, as you remember, hospitals were receiving most of the vaccine. We had nursing homes. We had hospitals. Some county health departments started receiving them in late December, which you really didn’t see the big push for even in the counties until January.
“So that was something that one of the systems was. They went to the scene. They did 1,000 to 2,000, but many elderly people. And my opinion is that if you are 65 or older, I am not concerned with your income bracket, I am concerned with your age bracket, because it is age, not income that shows the risk. And then they were able to go to a community with a lot of elderly people and vaccinate people, this is very, very good.
“But for that article to suggest that it was somehow one of our sites, this is just wrong. I think it was good that they did that. I support hospitals by doing this and being really proactive, trying to reach as many elderly people as possible. But it was a very, very poorly executed hit, and what they’re trying to do, they’re trying to invent manufactured narratives, but they don’t have the facts to back it up and that’s a perfect example of that.
“So it was a huge failure, and you know that we are happy that hospitals were doing this. 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 president of GTCR, a Chicago-based private equity firm, that issued a check for $ 250,000 on February 25, DeSantis said :
“We had nothing to do with it. The state was not involved in this. And I don’t know, do you know that he has already been vaccinated? Do you know? OK, so I mean literally that they are just trying to get into conspiracy theories, but that was not a state website. It was nothing created by the state. it was done through one of the hospital systems that had a vaccine. They thought it made sense to go and do 65 and over, and I think it was a smart decision to do that.
“And they did other things, I’m sure, in other parts of the community as well, but it wasn’t a state website, so that article was totally wrong.”