Nearly all seniors living in an exclusive Florida Keys community were vaccinated against COVID-19 in mid-January as the rest of the state struggled to get vaccines, the Miami Herald reports.
A community bulletin obtained by the Herald showed that most people 65 years of age or older living in the Ocean Reef Club community had received vaccines at the beginning of the new year.
The exclusive Key Largo community is home to many political donors, most notably members of the Florida Republican Party who have given money to the governor. Ron DeSantis
The enclave of Ron DeSantis Florida Keys, home of political donors, received the COVID-19 vaccine while the rest of the states fought against CVS pharmacies in Florida to vaccinate teachers under the age of 50 despite age limits. ‘State. The candidacy for Tanden falls MORE, points out the Herald.
In the bulletin, the leadership of the private community wrote that in a period of two weeks, more than 1,200 owners were vaccinated who qualified according to the state order.
The bulletin also acknowledges the discrepancy between access to the vaccine for residents of the Ocean Reef Club community and that of other people age 65 and older in the state.
“We are fortunate to have received enough vaccines to insure both the first and second for vaccinations,” the bulletin says, according to the Herald.
“At this time, however, most of the state has not received an allocation of first doses of vaccines for this week and beyond, and the timing of subsequent deliveries is still unclear.”
DeSantis has been the subject of a study on its vaccine distribution plan in recent months. He has been accused of granting certain communities better access to the vaccine by allowing them to go through community organizations, including Ocean Reef Medical Center, rather than through local or state registration systems, according to the Herald.
According to reports, the governor of Sunshine State denied having given special treatment to specific communities.
“There are some people who are more upset with me for vaccinating seniors than in other governors whose policies have killed seniors, and that’s a joke,” DeSantis said, according to the Herald.
He has also defended the lack of a clear vaccine deployment plan in his state.
“If you notice, many of these [states] they adopted plans and then they had to change them, “DeSantis said last week.” We didn’t. “
The DeSantis office and the Ocean Reef Club did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment.