Low-income residents are shut out of vaccine rollout
Many seniors in Palm Beach County live far away from Publix pharmacies
Many of Palm Beach County’s poorest residents live far from the Publix pharmacies where they could get COVID-19 vaccines, putting another burden on communities where the coronavirus has hit hardest, census data shows.
Residents living in Belle Glade and along Lake Okeechobee don’t have a nearby Publix pharmacy despite much of the area having more than 30% of people in poverty, according to an analysis by the South Florida Sun Sentinel. Also left in jeopardy are disadvantaged residents in Riviera Beach, where no Publix pharmacies with vaccines exist. Several areas of the city have more than 30% of people living in poverty, census data shows.
The Sun Sentinel calculated the share of people living in poverty in each of the county’s census tracts, which are small geographic areas sometimes the size of neighborhoods.
Annoyed Palm Beach County leaders say they have no idea how long it will be before doses are put in the arms of disadvantaged people, because the health department has no say over the vaccine aimed at stopping the coronavirus pandemic. The decision to make Publix the sole distributor isolates a significant portion of the population, especially by the Glades — without any Publix pharmacies in reasonable driving distance, County Commissioner Melissa McKinlay said Wednesday.
“The emergency management systems in each county should have been charged with handling the distribution, because we know our communities best,” said McKinlay, who represents the Glades agricultural region.
Publix, which provides up to 125 shots a day from 67 pharmacies in Palm Beach County, is completely in charge. No other county appears to be as dependent on the supermarket chain in this way.
Dr. Alina Alonso, the state health department director in the county, told commissioners Tuesday that the county was unique among Florida’s 67 counties for having Publix control the vaccine supply.
“The Governor picked Palm Beach County to be the first metro county to use Publix to vaccinate Seniors 65 and older,” she
texted to a reporter Wednesday, adding that the store’s pharmacies will remain the only option “until we get more vaccine.”
The worries about the disparity are intensifying a week after Gov. Ron DeSantis came to Jupiter and promised “easy access” for the county’s vulnerable population. They fear in the immediate future this will only build upon already troubling statistics.
McKinlay said that as of last week only about 300 people over age 65 from the Glades had been vaccinated.
“Make no mistake about it, it puts our rural communities at a further disadvantage,” she said, two days before Publix began the vaccinations.
State health data also highlight a major racial imbalance among those people who have been
vaccinated. As of Wednesday, records show that of the 125,700 people to get the first dose in Palm Beach County, only 2.75%, or 3,458, are Black.
DeSantis has said county officials were entirely on board with rolling out the Publix plan, citing a meeting he had with a select
group of leaders Jan. 12. He said the county administration showed him a statistic that 90% of all seniors in the county live within 1½ miles of at least one Publix. He did not make the distinction that not all Publix locations have a pharmacy.
“We wanted to see what more can we do to help seniors in Palm Beach County, and I think everyone at that table last week thought, you know what, if you can get it into Publix, our seniors, that’s very easy for them to be able to do, rather than have them drive all over God’s creation,” the governor said at his Jan. 19 news conference.
Before then, the state health department in the county was running the show, taking requests from seniors and booking appointments. Those vaccinations are continuing at two locations, until a supply runs out, likely next week: John Prince Park near Lake Worth and the South County Civic Center west of Delray Beach.
County Commissioner Robert Weinroth said Wednesday that citing the 90% of seniors living close to a Publix might be “mathematically correct” but it does not properly factor in the western areas of the county.
People living out there “are in trouble right now, because there’s no place for them to go,” he said.
Weinroth added that he is extremely worried that poor people along the coast who lack Internet access are also at a disadvantage because Publix is only booking appointments online.
“We need to have a more equitable situation,” he said, calling it a “glaring disparity and we cannot accept that.”
McKinlay said she finds it concerning that perhaps 10% of seniors in the county don’t live within a couple miles of a Publix.
“I would argue that 9% of that 10% lives [by the Glades] around Lake Okeechobee,” McKinlay said. “I applaud the decision to have Publix as a local partner, but it can’t be the only partner.”
County Administrator Verdenia Baker said there are plans to use government-run mobile units to bring vaccine to the western communities, among other intentions to open vaccination sites at large sites such as the South Florida Fairgrounds.
“Right now,” she told the commissioners Tuesday, “we don’t have the vaccine.”