MIAMI – CVS and Walgreens were contracted by the federal government to provide COVID-19 vaccinations at long-term care facilities, but Florida leaders say their rollout of the shots has been anything but warp speed.
With the highest fatality rate from the virus, those residents of long-term care facilities were supposed to be the priority population for vaccines. In fact, they were supposed to be done by now, but that’s not the case.
Speaking Monday in Jacksonville, Gov. Ron DeSantis took a diplomatic approach in saying that the state stepped in because CVS and Walgreens were so far behind.
“The federal government had an agreement with CVS and Walgreens for them to be able to handle these facilities, and we obviously have sourced CVS and Walgreens,” he said. “But at the beginning of this, when CVS and Walgreens needed a little more ramp-up time, the state of Florida acted.”
Speaking about the efforts of CVS and Walgreens, Florida’s Director of Emergency Management Jared Moskowitz called it a “mediocre experience.”
We asked Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nunez about it Sunday on Local 10′s “This Week in South Florida,” after a month of those companies providing no numbers and no answers.
“The governor simply wasn’t happy about the pace of Walgreens and CVS reaching out into the nursing homes,” she said. “We understood the urgency. There truly is urgency around that population.”
Two hours after that interview, CVS sent its Florida long-term care vaccination numbers for the first time. It showed that the date they activated, Jan. 11, was the date they were supposed to be finishing.
Today, they are only two-thirds through.
“CVS [and] Walgreens continue the mission, but at the beginning of January we looked at what was going on and we said, ‘Look, we’ve got about 4,000 facilities here. We believe that time is of the essence,’” DeSantis said. “So, I activated additional support.”
DeSantis said that with that added support, he expects all long-term care residents inoculated by the end of the month.
We reached out to CVS hoping for an interview to put their numbers into context, but the company declined.