Ocean Reef Club resident and former Illinois governor Bruce Rauner made a massive donation to PAC Friends of Ron DeSantis on February 25, after a vaccination campaign was carried out in January. This donation makes Rauner one of the main PAC donors.
CNN contacted Rauner to comment on the timing of the donation, but did not receive an immediate response.
“We had nothing to do with it,” DeSantis said at a news conference on Thursday morning, refuting claims that he started the campaign. “The state was not involved in this.”
DeSantis went on to claim that it was a South Florida hospital system – which he did not identify – responsible for the vaccination campaign. “They thought it made sense to go and be over 65. I think it was a smart decision to do that,” said DeSantis.
Monroe County spokeswoman Kristen Livengood said she was not aware of the vaccination campaign at the time, but identified the hospital’s system as the Ocean Reef Medical Center.
“They received the vaccines as part of the governor’s program to vaccinate communities with a population over 65 with an association of owners and a local medical center capable of administering the vaccines,” Livengood told CNN in a statement. “The allocations were coordinated through the Baptist (Church hospital system) and the State of Florida, not through Monroe County.”
CNN was unable to confirm how many vaccines were distributed by the Medical Center at Ocean Reef, or whether they were restricted to residents living at the Ocean Reef Club.
CNN contacted Ocean Reef Medical Center for comment.
According to the Florida Department of Health statistics for January 22, vaccinations at the Ocean Reef Club accounted for more than 20 percent of all vaccines in Monroe County, which covers the entire Florida Keys and parts of mainland Florida. These statistics also show that, with at least 1,200 vaccinations reported by the Miami Herald, the Ocean Reef Club had more people vaccinated at the time than eight counties in Florida.
CNN confirmed that there was a vaccination campaign in the community through another edition of the January community bulletin.
The Miami Herald was the first to report the donation and the vaccination campaign, citing a community bulletin that said 1,200 community residents had been vaccinated by January 22.
CNN contacted the Ocean Reef Club for comment, but did not receive an immediate response.
United States Democratic deputy and former Florida governor Charlie Crist asked the DOJ to investigate DeSantis on February 21 and whether the vaccine benefits DeSantis’ political allies and donors.
Meredith Beatrice, director of strategic initiatives at DeSantis, previously sent an email to CNN saying, in part, “The hint that politics plays in Florida’s vaccine distribution is baseless and ridiculous.”