There are more than three million Florida residents over the age of 70, and Governor Ron DeSantis doesn’t believe they should wait to be protected from COVID. He announced plans to defy CDC guidelines on who should receive priority vaccination treatment and will vaccinate older Floridians before “ essential workers. ”
“In Florida, we have to put our parents and grandparents first and that’s what we’re going to do,” DeSantis told reporters. “And we are going to work very hard to be able to send all vaccines to the elderly who want them.”
It is difficult to argue against that reasoning.
“Essential workers” include mail carriers, emergency responders, supermarket employees, teachers and others, according to the CDC. “We’re not going to put young, healthy workers above our frail elderly population,” added DeSantis.
Orlando Sentinel:
“To us in Florida, we’re making it clear that the executive … is to vaccinate people 65 and older,” Governor DeSantis told reporters during a vaccination demonstration at Ascension Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola. He added that older residents, who are at greater risk of death from COVID-19, should be given priority over younger essential workers.
The injunction obliges first-stage vaccine providers to administer vaccines only to residents and staff of long-term care facilities; those 65 and older; and healthcare personnel with direct contact with patients.
There will be a bottleneck in getting that many doses for everyone who needs and wants it.
DeSantis said the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are already in place in most hospitals, and the county’s health departments could start vaccinating as early as Monday. But he also warned that health departments would have a limited supply on hand.
“We will continue to receive hundreds of thousands of doses of the vaccine,” he said.
According to state data, 68,133 people in Florida have been vaccinated with the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine through Tuesday. Those receiving the first dose should receive a second booster shot approximately 21 days later to be fully immunized.
Some Democratic governors, such as Illinois JB Pritzjer, complain they aren’t getting their share of the vaccines. Since it takes two doses to fully immunize someone, the FBI sent states half the promised number of doses as they prepared to send the other half in a few weeks.
But that didn’t stop Pritzker from growling. With millions of doses on ice in warehouses, the paranoid Pritzker believes the president is punishing him for his harsh criticism.
WITHOUT:
The announcement prompted Pfizer to issue a statement of its own on Thursday morning saying that a reduction in the number of vaccines going to states was not due to problems with the production or delivery of the vaccines. The pharmaceutical company added that it still has millions of doses in warehouses awaiting instructions from the federal government on where to send them.
Pritzker appeared to be throwing his hands in the air at Pfizer’s statement on Thursday.
“I don’t know what to say about that,” said the governor. “I have not had direct conversations with the people who control those doses. Us (Illinois Department of Public Health) talks to the federal government every day and we are not informed why the federal government does not include those vaccines. “
Unlike Pritzker, DeSantis is not complaining, but acting. Maybe Pritzker can learn a lesson from Florida and do the same.