Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday responded to a White House claim that Florida has only distributed about half of the vaccines it has received.
“That’s disingenuous,” DeSantis said at a Publix in Vero Beach Tuesday morning.
At a briefing Monday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said, “I will note because we’re data first, facts first here, they’ve (Florida) only distributed about 50% of the vaccines that they have been given in Florida,” Psaki said.
“So clearly, they have a good deal of the vaccine. That supply will need to continue to increase as they are able to effectively reach people across the state. But part of the challenge as we were just talking about, is not just having the supply, that’s pivotal, but also having vaccinators and having vaccine distribution places,” said Psaki Monday.
On Tuesday morning, DeSantis shot back on in a post on twitter said:
DeSantis says the flow of COVID-19 vaccines has been stagnant and the state needs more to meet the increasing demand from residents.
“When you look at it from the perspective of the first doses, we’ve done a very high percentage of them, and we continue to go even higher,” said DeSantis.
DeSantis said the state is holding on to doses that are needed for seniors who received their first shot and are awaiting their second shot.
“If the White House is suggesting that we shouldn’t be doing that, I don’t think that’s a good suggestion.”
DeSantis said officials in Washington told Florida it would start to see the supply increase around this time, but that hasn’t happened.
“If we can get 500,000 a week, instead of just 266,000, we’re gonna be able to vaccinate that many more seniors that much more quickly,” DeSantis said. “We’re at the mercy of what the federal government sends us.”
Last week, the governor said the state doesn’t need FEMA sites to distribute vaccines, saying it already has the infrastructure set up, with hospitals, pharmacies and some of the major drive-thru testing sites.