Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
DeSantis denies claims of VIP vaccine access
Dems attack after wealthy enclave had January shots
A Key Largo community where house prices can exceed $10 million has become the focus of a furious dispute over whether Gov. Ron DeSantis steered COVID vaccinations to the rich and powerful.
The Ocean Reef Club, a 2,500-acre gated community with golf courses, restaurants and its own airport, received 1,200 vaccine doses in January, well ahead of most of the state, according to an article in Thursday’s Miami Herald. A month later, Ocean Reef resident Bruce Rauner, the former Republican governor of Illinois, wrote DeSantis’ political committee a $250,000 check, a donation that came on top of earlier contributions from other residents.
Top Florida Democrats called for the FBI to investigate what they saw as another example of the governor providing supporters VIP access to the life-saving vaccines.
“If this isn’t public corruption, I don’t know what is,” said Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, a potential challenger to DeSantis in 2022.
DeSantis denied having anything to do with the decision to route the vaccines to Ocean Reef, saying that site was chosen by a South Florida hospital system that had control of the doses.
“I’m not worried about
your income bracket, I’m worried about your age bracket,” DeSantis said Thursday at a news conference in Crystal River.
Baptist Health South Florida, which is listed as a sponsor of The Medical Center at Ocean Reef, provided the doses. A spokeswoman for Monroe County said that like all early vaccines, the doses received by Baptist Health were allocated to the hospital group by the state because it met the state’s criteria, and the hospital then decided how to distribute them.
“They received the vaccines as part of the Governor’s program to vaccinate communities with a population of 65+ with a homeowner’s association and onsite medical center with the ability to administer the vaccines,” Kristen Livengood said in a written statement.
“Communities like The Villages also received the same,” she said. “The allocations were coordinated through Baptist and the State of Florida, not through Monroe County. We were aware they received them, but they were not FDOH-Monroe County allocations.”
Dori Alvarez, spokeswoman for Baptist Health, said the hospital system has given out shots at sites across South Florida, from Palm Beach County to the
Keys.
“Our mission is simply to get as many shots out as we can, as safely and as fast as we can, based on guidance from the State and vaccine availability,” she said. “To date, we have vaccinated approximately 33,000 people, and we remain focused on the important task of protecting and caring for our community.”
In all, 17 Ocean Reef residents had donated $5,000 each to the governor’s political committee through December 2020, the Herald reported using state records.
The Herald report comes after weeks of controversy over whether the wealthy communities targeted by the DeSantis’ vaccine “pods” were influenced by political considerations.
Three communities in Charlotte, Manatee and Sarasota counties developed by Republican fundraiser Pat Neal were chosen by DeSantis for pop-up sites. Neal contributed $125,000 to DeSantis in 2018 and 2019. Only two ZIP codes were eligible at the Manatee site, and County Commissioner Vanessa Baugh included herself and the development’s CEO on a VIP list.
Calls for investigations Thursday came from Fried, U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist and Senate Democratic leader Gary Farmer.
“The prioritization of the wealthy and affluent for vaccinations is morally reprehensible in its own right, but the exchange of
hard-to-get vaccines for political contributions is nothing short of criminal,” Farmer wrote Thursday in a letter to acting U.S. Attorney General Monty Wilkinson. “If this scheme is what it appears to be, the Governor of Florida has used medical resources provided to the state by the federal government for his own personal and political gain.”
An FBI spokesman declined to confirm or deny the existence of an investigation, a standard response from the agency.
DeSantis called the Herald story a “poorly executed hit piece,” saying the state wasn’t involved in selecting the Ocean Reef distribution site.
“That was not a site that we were involved in, in the Keys,” DeSantis said. “That was one of the South Florida hospital systems [that] went to this community of seniors, I think that’s great. I want seniors to get shots, I think they did a good job of doing that. We just weren’t involved with it in any way, shape, or form.”
DeSantis also defended Baptist Health going into Ocean Reef.
“It’s the age, not the income, that shows the risk,” he said. “... I think it was good that they did it. I support the hospitals doing that. And really being proactive and trying to reach as many seniors as possible.”