Florida governor accused of playing politics with Covid vaccine

Florida’s governor was slow to respond to the pandemic and his Covid-19 vaccine distribution plan has been marked by chaos, but critics say he’s been quick to recognize the political gold in those precious doses.

This is factually false.

Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, ignored federal guidelines and prioritized getting senior citizens — one of Florida’s most potent voting blocs — vaccinated first.

When Holocaust survivors and Cuban survivors of the Bay of Pigs debacle — revered members of two other key Florida voting blocs — got their first shots, DeSantis made sure he was there for the news conferences.

Holy fucking shit!

Did you catch that?

“The old Cubans and JOOOOOOOOOSSSSS!!! Are hogging the vaccine.”

The federal guidelines are fucking bullshit.  Let’s make that perfectly clear.

Here are two charts from Business Insider that show why.

Take a look at the three bars on the right of each chart.  The over 65 age demographic gets COVID the most and dies from it at the highest rate.

Logic dictates that the over 65 demographic is who you would focus on vaccinating.  That is exactly who DeSantis did vaccinate, that’s why Florida has a low death rate despite having a higher elderly population than most states.

He literally did the exact opposite of what Cuomo did, which was to commit senicide.

And now the governor stands accused of using the Covid-19 vaccine to reward powerful political supporters and developers by setting up pop-up vaccination sites in planned communities they developed and where GOP voters predominate.

Responding to recent criticism from both Republican and Democrats in Manatee and Charlotte counties, both south of Tampa, where one site was set up last week and another began dispensing doses on Wednesday, DeSantis said local lawmakers should be more grateful

DeSantis said that his “seniors first strategy” zeroes in on retirement communities that are willing to help organize vaccination events and that Manatee County has trailed other parts of the state in getting needles into the arms of residents ages 65 and older.

The governor said the state had set up similar sites at the Kings Point community in Palm Beach County, Sun City Center in Hillsborough County, and The Villages retirement community northwest of Orlando.

DeSantis is setting up vaccination sites in retirement communities to vaccinate the over 65 demographic faster.

MSNBC and Democrats are telling you that he’s doing this because the elderly vote Republican and that his motivations are entirely political.

Go to the most susceptible to COVID demographic, because they have difficulty traveling, and make sure they get vaccinated.

If DeSantis was a Democrat, this would be hailed as the most genius political idea in the history of political ideas.

Since he’s a Republican, they have to attack his plan as selfish and partisan.

There was no response from the DeSantis administration when NBC News reached out for comment, but on Thursday the governor was in Largo in Pinellas County at another hurriedly arranged pop-up vaccination operation.

There DeSantis boasted about vaccinating the 2 millionth senior citizen in Florida, a 94-year-old Korean war veteran named Vern Cummings whose vaccination was broadcast live on FOX News.

How dare the Governor vaccinate somebody’s great-grandfather on FOX news.  What a monster.

Florida, according to the latest NBC News tally, has reported 1.84 million Covid-19 infections and nearly 30,000 deaths due to the coronavirus, some of the worst numbers in the nation.

Most of those infections and deaths came after DeSantis, a staunch Trump supporter, claimed victory over the virus during a White House visit in April and reopened the state over the objections of health experts.

Let us look at some state data, shall we?

New Jersey: 256 per 100,000 people
Population: 8.9 million residents

New York: 236
Population: 19.4 million

Massachusetts: 228
Population: 6.9 million

…

Florida: 137
Population: 21.5 million

Florida is ranked 27th in the nation.  Below the median COVID death rate.

To say that it has “some of the worst numbers in the nation” is factually wrong and can only be given as numbers without context.

Media darling Andrew Cuomo is under state and federal investigation for his elderly COVID death rate and coverup.

DeSantis, having one of the largest elderly populations in the country did a far better job and being attacked for it.

But to be attacked for it while saying that giving old Cubans and Jews the vaccine was done for political expedience is just that much more grotesque.