Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Vaccine Distribution: ‘We Are Prioritizing Our Most Vulnerable Residents’

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Thursday detailed the Sunshine State’s plan to distribute the first doses of the Pfizer vaccine, which it will soon receive from the federal government, explaining that they will be reserved for residents of long-term care facilities and healthcare workers in high risk and high contact environments.

The federal government, DeSantis said, has allocated Florida 179,400 doses of the Pfizer vaccine for the first shipment, and the governor expects the state to receive it within the week:

Florida will receive 179,400 doses of the Pfizer vaccine & we are prioritizing our most vulnerable residents & high-exposure health care personnel to receive the vaccine first. We are also mobilizing strike teams to supplement vaccination of long-term care residents. pic.twitter.com/wmBcE4pGD1

— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) December 10, 2020

“We are working to get as much vaccine for our citizens as possible, but Florida will not, nor will any state, have enough to vaccinate everyone right off the bat. So we set priorities,” DeSantis said, identifying those in long-term care facilities as a top priority.

They are at the “greatest risk,” and the vaccine “could have a positive impact on them — not just protecting them from COVID, but allowing them to return to a more normal life,” DeSantis said.

Healthcare workers who are in high risk and high contact environments will also remain the focus for the first doses distributed by the federal government. DeSantis noting that elderly residents, as well as those with comorbidities, remain high on the list.

According to the governor, 97,500 of the 179,400 doses of the Pfizer vaccine will go to Florida pilot hospitals; 60,450 will go to CVS and Walgreens for long-term care facilities, specifically; and 21,450 doses will go to the Florida Department of Health, Division of Emergency Management, and Florida National Guard “Strike Teams” to supplement the efforts of CVS and Walgreens’ outreach to long-term care facilities.

DeSantis hopes to have “more good news” about additional doses soon and will provide them as they come.

Earlier this month, DeSantis guaranteed that the Sunshine State will not mandate the vaccine.

“While we’ll encourage and we want to make available the vaccine, no one will be mandated to take the vaccine,” he said. “This will be available but not mandated.”

DeSantis has come under scrutiny from critics for refusing to implement a statewide mask mandate as cases of the Chinese coronavirus rise across the country, including in many states that have imposed such mandates.