Vaccine favoritism could lead to fewer doses for offending facilities, DeSantis says

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Sunday was hesitant to call for penalties for instances where favoritism is played in vaccine distribution but said the state could potentially start sending fewer doses to offending facilities.

At a press conference in the Panhandle city of Lynn Haven, DeSantis said instances where people jump in line at odds with his administration’s vaccine distribution guidelines is “not what we are looking for.”

“I don’t know necessarily about penalties or what,” he said. “But if someone is not doing it right and they are not following what we want, then obviously we can distribute vaccines to other places instead as we go forward.”

State guidelines say the first doses of the coronavirus vaccine should go to residents 65 and older, front-line healthcare workers, staff and residents at long-term care facilities, and those whom hospitals deem to be “extremely” vulnerable to the virus.

But multiple news organizations have reported that donors and well-connected people have been offered vaccine doses ahead of the general public.

A West Palm Beach nursing home and assisted-living facility steered doses to its board members and wealthy donors, according to The Washington Post. At least three South Florida hospital systems have reached out and offered vaccines to some donors in advance of the general public, the Miami Herald found. And the Sun Sentinel reported that some high-end medical practices in Palm Beach County got their own share of vaccinations to give to presumably wealthy patients

The reports came as seniors in various parts of the state faced long lines outside vaccination sites and coped with web portals crashing and jammed phone lines as they tried to schedule appointments.

Sen Rick Scott on Thursday called for a congressional investigation into what he said was “vaccine distribution mismanagement.” The same day, DeSantis said the state was investigating the matter.

This story was originally published January 10, 2021 at 12:03 PM.