MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – Florida became the first state in the country to reach one million senior citizens vaccinated for COVID-19, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Tuesday.
The governor maintains that the state needs more vaccine supply after White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki implied that Florida is lagging in distributing the allocation it does have.
“We’re facts first here — data first — they’ve only distributed about 50% of the vaccines that they have been given in Florida,” Psaki said Monday.
DeSantis pushed back Tuesday, calling that “disingenuous.”
“We’re pretty much going through the first doses, and I think that’s really what you need,” he said.
In a tweet, the governor said any unused doses are already earmarked for seniors due for their second shot, saying “if the implication is we should be giving those second doses away to other people, that is not the way the FDA has prescribed the series.”
This morning I was asked to address recent comments from the White House about Florida’s vaccine allocation. Here is my statement ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/imwvT67sRo
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) January 26, 2021
DeSantis was in Vero Beach on Tuesday morning to announce more Publix locations in Indian River and St. Lucie counties will start administering the vaccine — still none in Miami-Dade or Broward.
Many of the state’s seniors are overwhelmed by the number of different venues offering the shots and still struggling to find appointments.
“We have the throughput,” DeSantis said. “Every place that’s doing this can do more, so I think just get more doses ... that is really the No. 1 thing.”
Late Tuesday evening, DeSantis tweeted that Florida will receive 307,000 first doses of the vaccine next week.
The governor called it a “modest increase.”
We just learned Florida’s vaccine allocation for next week. My statement ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/Y0t7IaMU8z
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) January 27, 2021
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