Lauderhill city commissioners able to fill 50 appointments for vaccine event

Questions raised about officials using shots for political gain

With COVID-19 shots in high demand, Lauderhill city commissioners each got 10 appointment slots for an event that aimed to boost the vaccination rate in the Black community.

The Jan. 31 vaccine clinic — coordinated by state Rep. Anika Omphroy — provided shots to more than 430 seniors at First Baptist Church Piney Grove in Lauderdale Lakes.

Lauderhill Mayor Ken Thurston said the event helped to address vaccine racial disparities, and the shots went to seniors who met the state’s criteria. About 80% of Lauderhill’s roughly 72,000 residents are Black.

“The thought was, let’s be direct,” he said. “Let’s set up a vaccination pod [point of distribution] right in the heart of the African American community, and we’ll say to the elected officials you can send in people.”

Thurston said he selected people who had contacted him in search of a shot, but he didn’t know how other members of the commission allocated their appointment slots.

Only about 6% of COVID-19 vaccines have gone to Blacks, even though they make up about 17% of the state’s population, according to state statistics.

Giving elected officials broad authority to hand out vaccines has been controversial, with questions being raised that the doses could be used for political gain.

A similar distribution method in Miami-Dade County sparked concerns. Jackson Health, a county hospital system, set aside 1,300 appointment slots for the 13-member County Commission to fill in January, the Miami Herald reported.

Hospital officials said elected leaders know their community and could help people in their district who wouldn’t have been able to get the vaccine otherwise. But the plan also sparked comments that commissioners could use the vaccine for political purposes.

On Jan. 28, Lauderhill’s deputy city clerk informed commissioners that they could select 10 people each who are 65 or older and requested names that would be forwarded to Omphroy, according to an email first obtained by the conservative blog Red Broward.

The slots did not need to be filled by Lauderhill residents, the clerk wrote in the email.

Omphroy, a Lauderdale Lakes Democrat, could not be reached for comment Monday via phone and email. In February, she posted about the vaccine event on Twitter and Facebook, thanking Gov. Ron DeSantis for the initiative offered through the Florida Division of Emergency Management.

“Bringing access to District 95 was why I chose to be a State Representative,” Omphroy wrote. “This collaboration was full of care and all about community service.”

Florida’s vaccine distribution has become a political lightning rod with Democratic

leaders calling for a federal investigation into “invite-only vaccine clinics” organized by the state in wealthy neighborhoods

One of those pop-up vaccine sites served upscale communities in Southwest Florida developed by Pat Neal, a former state senator and DeSantis campaign donor.

The state also set up nine pop-up vaccine clinics in large senior neighborhoods in Broward and Palm Beach counties, including events at Kings Point and Century Village communities.