Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Seniors getting vaccine despite criticism
Review of state records shows both parties benefiting from pop-up clinics
As he readies for a reelection fight next year, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is facing a barrage of criticism and even calls for a federal investigation into whether he is using the lifesaving COVID-19 vaccine as a political tool to reward his supporters and donors.
But is it true DeSantis’ vaccine distribution is politically biased? At issue are pop-up clinics, where the state visits 55-and-up communities with a large number of seniors and gives them vaccines where they live. Two of those pop-up clinics served upscale communities in Southwest Florida, including some with ties to a politically connected developer and GOP campaign donor.
A review of state records by the South Florida Sun Sentinel didn’t find evidence that these pop-up sites have gone exclusively to Republican neighborhoods. Nine of the state’s 18 pop-up vaccine sites for seniors have been in Broward and Palm Beach counties, Florida’s Democratic stronghold.
That list includes Kings Point and Century Village complexes, long seen as powerhouse Democratic voting blocs in South Florida.
DeSantis likely has a bigger political calculation in mind that cuts across party lines, and it could be a winning argument when he runs for reelection next year, said Susan MacManus, a retired University of South Florida political scientist and longtime observer of Florida politics.
The point he’ll make: He kept seniors safe by getting the vaccine to them faster than any other governor, regardless of their political beliefs. Performing well on that task will resonate with older voters who turn out at higher rates than younger age groups.
“The governor is aware he is going to be judged on the two issues polls show Floridians are caring about the most, which is the economy and COVID,”
MacManus said.
As of Thursday, nearly half of Floridians 65 and older have gotten at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, according to a Sun Sentinel analysis of state data.
Selection process unexplained
But questions remain that the state hasn’t answered. Why are some communities selected for pop-up clinics ahead of others? What criteria are used to make decisions so they are based on science as opposed to political considerations?
Then there’s the issue of racial disparities with whites being vaccinated at a higher rate than Blacks, despite Blacks being statistically more likely to die of the disease.
State Rep. Omari Hardy, D-West Palm Beach, said he isn’t seeing a data-driven approach to protecting Floridians, and decisions seem to be arbitrary rather than rooted in science.
“Politics and personal relationships should not drive the decision-making process for distributing these vaccines,” he said. “That’s what is happening.”
DeSantis hasn’t provided details to alleviate Hardy’s concerns.
At one news conference, DeSantis suggested he would redirect vaccine doses if local officials voiced concerns about his decisions. He also dismissed the need for a detailed and comprehensive distribution plan, saying not having one offers more flexibility.
Low-income seniors wait, wealthy get shots
Shirley Erazo, president and CEO of the Delray Beach Housing Authority, has been pleading since January for vaccines for about 500 low-income seniors living in two apartment complexes she oversees. Many of those seniors are homebound, lack transportation and don’t have have internet service needed to schedule appointments.
She learned recently the state will send a team next week to provide vaccines, but it wasn’t easy getting them there. She pushed for state and local leaders to set up a pop-up vaccine site. WPTV-Channel 5 aired a segment on Feb. 8 highlighting the plight of the seniors living in the affordable housing complexes.
“We have been begging since January,” Erazo told the Sun Sentinel. “This is definitely not fair.”
While low-income seniors waited in Delray Beach, vaccines arrived to communities connected to Southwest Florida developer Pat Neal, the politically plugged-in CEO of Neal Communities, according to reporting by the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
Neal, a former state senator, donated $125,000 to DeSantis’ political committee in 2018 and 2019, according to campaign finance records. He also served on DeSantis’ transition team, according to his company bio.
In a news release, Neal touted a pop-up vaccination clinic at Kings Gate, a Port Charlotte development where Neal’s company is building homes. The clinic delivered vaccines from Feb. 11-13.
“When Governor DeSantis reached out to ask for assistance with this vaccination event, we were happy to support him and the state’s efforts to vaccinate its residents,” Neal said in the release posted on his company’s website. “We’re glad to have the opportunity to help protect the health of Southwest Floridians in such an important way.”
That clinic provided special access to residents of three Neal Communities’ developments, as well as several other neighborhoods not affiliated with the company, allowing those residents to bypass wait times on county registration systems, the Herald-Tribune reported.
Why the state chose those wealthy communities over the low-income seniors in Delray Beach hasn’t been explained. Messages left by email and phone with Neal Communities by the Sun Sentinel were not returned. A spokesman with the Florida Department of Health and the Florida Division of Emergency Management also did not return phone and email messages.
Another pop-up site at the planned Lakewood Ranch community in Manatee County also received scrutiny. That vaccine clinic provided special access to residents of two of the county’s wealthiest ZIP codes.
Manatee County Commissioner Vanessa Baugh helped to organize that event and created a special VIP list that included herself, the CEO of Lakewood Ranch’s parent company Schroeder-Manatee Ranch, and three others, prompting the county’s sheriff to launch an investigation, the Bradenton Herald reported.
Those pop-up sites led U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist, who is considering challenging DeSantis in next year’s election, to ask the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate how Florida is allocating vaccine doses.
“In several cases, these sites seem to be targeted to wealthy communities with whom Gov. DeSantis has clear political connections, allowing some to skip to the front of the line in counties with existing waitlists,” Crist wrote Feb. 21 in a letter to the Justice Department.
Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” skewered DeSantis in a satirical video that depicted Florida as providing exclusive “vial service” to well-to-do seniors like Champagne at an exclusive nightclub, while the poor were kept behind the velvet rope.
DeSantis hasn’t excluded developments owned by supporters of his political opponents.
The state set up a pop-up site Thursday at Spanish Lakes Communities in St. Lucie County. The owner of that development, Joel Wynne, contributed $1,000 to Andrew Gillum, the Democratic candidate who ran against DeSantis in 2018.
Allegations of favoritism are a ‘joke,’ DeSantis says
DeSantis has denied that political favoritism played a role in site selection. Southwest Florida’s vaccination rate for seniors had been lagging other parts of the state, and that’s why he directed resources there, he said.
“There’s some people who are more upset at me for vaccinating seniors than they are at other governors whose policies have killed seniors, and that is a joke,” DeSantis said when asked about Crist’s allegations.
A Sun Sentinel analysis found 59% of Palm Beach County residents 65 and older have gotten at least one dose of the vaccine as of Wednesday. That number is 54% for Broward County. Manatee County is much lower at 36%.
A racial gap exists in the vaccine distribution. Blacks make up 5% of Florida vaccine recipients, despite comprising 17% of the state’s population.
The state also has given vaccines at dozens of Black churches and recreation centers in underserved neighborhoods. DeSantis opened a vaccine site in Pahokee, a poor community in the Glades, in part because of former NFL star Anquan Boldin’s advocacy.
DeSantis announced six additional vaccine sites for underserved areas on Thursday, including locations in Overtown in Miami-Dade County and Broward College’s North Campus in Coconut Creek.
Hardy, the state representative, said he thinks equity should be a greater focus in state’s planning. Blacks and Latinos have disproportionately died of the disease, he said.
“It looks like that the state is very good at getting vaccine to wealthy communities,” Hardy said. “It also looks like the state treats poor Black and brown communities like an afterthought.”
Erazo, the Delray Beach housing CEO, said she’s thankful the vaccine will arrive to her community the first week in March.
“We wouldn’t take no for an answer,” she said.