Our state governor was in Little Havana last week on hand to distribute vaccines to the Bay of Pigs veterans at a press conference at the Brigade 2506 house.
“We are inspired by folks who are willing to stand up and fight for freedom,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said, just a little over a month after the Capitol riots.
“The primary reason to do seniors first is because seniors are the most vulnerable to COVID19,” he added. “These are our parents and grandparents. These are the people we draw inspiration from.”
Except guess what? Many if not most of those veterans had already been vaccinated because they’re old as dirt. Ladra personally knows several Bay of Pigs veterans who had their shots before DeSantis raised his magic wand.
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That’s why they could only vaccinate three of the veterans on camera, as shown and reported by Tampa Bay’s CBS channel.
Ditto for the Holocaust survivors DeSantis announced would get them the week before and his visit to a 100-year-old homebound veteran in Tampa. He didn’t have to be there. Fire departments everywhere are administering vaccines to elderly and veterans and doing house calls for the homebound.
Ditto for the photo opp at a Jacksonville Walmart he did to announce additional vaccines from the federal government for Walmart, Winn-Dixie and a bunch of other stores besides Publix, which we all know has a special relationship with the governor and had already a state supply of vaccines.
For the first week of the Federal Retail Pharmacy Program, the state should get 65,300 doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, said a statement from the governor’s office. Future allocations through this program will be announced as they become available.
“Florida is proud to partner with Walmart and other retailers, including Publix, to expand access to the COVID-19 vaccine,” DeSantis said in a statement.
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More than 2.2 million people have been vaccinated in Florida as of Saturday, about 1.7 million of them to seniors aged 65 and older, according to Florida’s Department of Health data.
DeSastre is not a doctor. He’s not even a medical professional. But he is a politician. And vaccine photo ops are good for political business. Just ask Commissioner Rene Garcia, who, according to a press release, “facilitated the safe and effective distribution” of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to 500 seniors at San Lazaro Catholic Church in Hialeah.
“Governor Ron DeSantis, Lieutenant Governor Jeanette Nuñez, State Senator Manny Diaz Jr., the Department of Health, Hope Mission Center, the National Guard, volunteers from Hialeah Housing, and the Miami-Dade Police Department are all playing an indispensable role in ensuring the successful distribution of vaccines in District 13 and throughout Miami-Dade County,” said the press release.
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Like, we wouldn’t be getting these vaccines without these people?
“This initiative could not have been accomplished without the help of the healthcare practitioners and frontline workers who have been at the forefront since the height of the epidemic. United, our community will thrive and overcome the virus,” Garcia said in a statement, which added that he is “working diligently to increase access to the vaccine to those who need it the most.”
Except he’s working diligently at finding photo ops.
He’s not the only one. Joining DeSantis at the Brigade 2506 house last week were Lt. Gov Jeannette Nuñez, State Reps. Thomas Fabricio, Alex Rizo and Vance Aloupis, Miami-Dade County Commissioner Jose “Pepe” Diaz, Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo and former county commissioner Esteban “Stevie” Bovo — who DeSantis said should run for Hialeah mayor (more on that later)
This could backfire on DeSantis. It could provide great material for Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried or State Rep. Anna Eskamani or whoever is going to run against the Republican guv next year: A slideshow and film clips of his photo opps, juxtaposed with people being turned away or headlines of hospitals cancelling vaccinations.
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He is not doing his job. DeSantis needs to stop taking this vaccine photo tour of churches and other organizations and get to work establishing a centralized vaccine network — people reportedly waited in line for 6 hours at Marlins Park Thursday — and getting more doses. Many more. Because the numbers show that less than 600,000 people under 65 statewide have gotten the vaccine, mostly healthcare workers and first responders.
Oh, yeah, and elected officials.
What about the rest of us?
Politicians can’t be prohibited from posing with the just-vaccinated. They can’t be banned from handing out food at distribution points during emergencies like the COVID19 crisis. Or frozen turkeys with the Miami Dolphins for Thanksgiving. Or back-to-school backpacks in the Fall.
But they should be discouraged from it. Don’t give them positive feedback. Only negative feedback for being so vain.
Then maybe they’ll let medical professionals handle the vaccine distribution and get back to work getting more vaccines to those medical professionals.
And maybe they’ll let the volunteers hand out the food and the Dolphins take all the glory for the turkeys and get to work on eradicating the food deserts and insecurity that exist all over Florida — even when it’s crisis-free.
Ron DeSantis would rather do photo ops than get more COVID19 vaccines added by Ladra on
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