Florida Democratic Representative Stephanie Murphy urged President Biden to change his plan to distribute vaccines nationwide after discovering “obvious flaws” that could harm states with higher rates of seniors.
“We share the same goal, which is to produce and distribute enough vaccine doses to vaccinate every American as soon as possible,” Murphy said in a letter to the president on Thursday.
But the Florida Democrat went against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ plan to distribute vaccines to states based on the number of residents they have ages 18 and older.
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“This single-factor formula has the advantage of simplicity, but it also has obvious flaws,” she said. “According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Americans 65 and older are responsible for 81 percent of all COVID-19 deaths in the United States.”
Murphy pointed out that one in five Florida residents is at least 65 years old, meaning nearly 21 percent of the state population is considered at high risk for the deadly coronavirus and should be prioritized.
The congressman has asked the government when distributing vaccines to consider states and territories such as Maine and Puerto Rico, which share a large population of the elderly, as the CDC has recommended that people 75 and older be prioritized in receiving vaccinations.
The Florida Democrat noted that the crux of the problem is that when the state tries to send enough vaccines to teachers as schools reopen, along with frontline workers, it still bears the brunt of one of the nation’s largest senior populations.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis praised Florida’s response to senior vaccination and told reporters on Thursday, “We are number one for senior shots.”
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“We now report that about 1.6 million seniors have been injected, that’s about 35 percent of our gigantic senior population,” he added.
Fox News could not immediately reach the White House for comment on Murphy’s request.