DeSantis reverses position on vaccines
Gov. Ron DeSantis flipflopped on COVID vaccinations Tuesday as he continued his feud with the White House over Florida’s 1.3 million unused shots.
The governor, who three weeks ago threatened to withhold doses from hospitals that hoarded vaccines for second doses, explained Florida’s backlog of unused shots partly as an attempt to do the same thing. He said Florida needed to make sure the second doses were there when seniors needed them.
“We’re not going to divert second doses away from seniors,” he said at a news conference Tuesday in Vero Beach. “Seniors want it, we’re going to do it .... If the White House is suggesting that we shouldn’t be doing that, I think that that’s not a good suggestion.”
It’s unclear whether the governor’s statement Tuesday reflected a policy change or just an attempt to deflect the criticism of the White House.
At a news conference Monday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki answered a question about DeSantis’ attack on President Biden’s vaccine distribution plan by noting that Florida has administered only about half the shots received from the federal government.
“I will note, because we’re data first here, facts first here, they’ve only
distributed about 50% of the vaccines that they have been given in Florida,” she said. “So clearly they have a good deal of the vaccine. That supply will need to continue to increase as they are able to effectively reach people across the state.”
Florida administered about 51% of the 3.1 million doses received so far from the federal government, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. But this is typical of other states, with some doing better than Florida, others doing worse.
As of last week, Florida did not hold half the doses for the booster shots. At least that’s what the governor said at news conference in Key Largo.
“There is no major warehouse of vaccines sitting around,” he said. “The Department of Emergency Management keeps a small cache because what we don’t want to have happen is there be a situation where someone all of a sudden needs 200 doses for second doses or maybe they have people that are waiting in line and they just miscalculated. So we have a small amount just to be able to troubleshoot, but there’s not massive amounts. The feds hold back the second dose, but we don’t hold back the second dose. They send the second dose the week that it’s going to be due, and that’s when it’s done.”
DeSantis had previously threatened to reduce the number of vaccines sent to hospitals that held back doses, saying the second doses would be provided when they were needed.
“I want to be very clear on one important point: Hospitals that do not do a good job of getting the vaccine out will have their allocations transferred to hospitals that are doing a good job in getting the vaccine out,” he said at a Jan. 4 news conference in Miami. “We do not want a vaccine to just be idle at some hospital system.”
Asked to explain the contradiction between the governor’s two statements on whether or not the state was holding second doses in reserve, his spokeswoman Meredith Beasley did not address the question.
Instead, she provided this statement: “Governor DeSantis is putting Seniors First and is working to ensure that all seniors who elect to receive the vaccine have access to the second dose to complete the series, which is necessary for maximum efficacy.”
Despite all the controversy, Florida’s percentage of unused doses is not unusual. California, for example, has administered 45% of its doses, Pennsylvania 49% and Texas 57%.
Other states have done much better than Florida, although these have typically been smaller states. New Mexico, for example, administered 78%, South Dakota 70% and West Virginia 76%.
The governor has also blamed a lag in reporting for the high number of unused doses, saying it can take three or four days for shots to be reflected in the state’s reports.
The dispute began after DeSantis last week criticized a plan by President Biden to use the Federal Emergency Management Agency to set up vaccination clinics around the United States.
“I saw some of this stuff Biden’s putting out, that he’s going to create these FEMA camps, I can tell you, that’s not necessary in Florida,” DeSantis said. “All we need is more vaccine. Just get us more vaccine.”
The phrase “FEMA camps” has been used for years by right-wing extremists who claimed the federal government planned to use FEMA to detain dissidents after declaring martial law.
The White House press secretary responded Monday with the observation about Florida’s unused doses, after a reported asked for a response to DeSantis’ statement.