Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says he’ll wait for his turn to get a COIVD-19 vaccine because he’s in a low-priority demographic.
“I’m willing to take it, but I am not the priority, they’re the priority. I’m under 45,” DeSantis told reporters Wednesday at an event in Delray, where residents over 65 were getting their first immunizations.
“People under 45 are not going to be first in line for this, so when it’s my turn, I will take it.”
DeSantis’s position offers a stark contrast to some politicians.
Older ones who have been vaccinated, like septuagenarians Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell or President-elect Joe Biden, are prime candidates because they are among the population most at risk.
But others who are much younger, such as Baby Boomer Vice President-elect Kamala Harris (who once cautioned against getting the vaccine because the Trump administration was overseeing its development), Gen Xer Sen. Marco Rubio and Millennial Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have received the dose despite ranking lower in vulnerability.
DeSantis made clear who he wants at the front of the line, besides healthcare workers.
“This is who I want to be vaccinated,” added DeSantis, gesturing toward the seniors receiving the shots.
“I want my parents, our grandparents to be able to get it. “I’m an elected official but whoop-dee-doo, at the end of the day let’s focus where the risk is.”
The audience applauded those comments.
During the event, according to Fox News, DeSantis noted of seniors that COVID-19 has “impacted their lives greater and we have a responsibility to stand by those folks who have done so much to make our state and country what it is today.
“You have people from the Greatest Generation, people who fought in World War II, survived the Holocaust – these are people that we’ve got to stand with and prioritize.”
Liberals will rarely acknowledge it, but with COVID-19, DeSantis has outperformed many of those blue-state governors lauded by the national media, be they Democrats or liberal Republicans.
Death rates – since death is the ultimate adverse outcome of COVIID – should be a key measure of that. And according to an analysis by Becker’s Hospital Review, Florida, despite having more than 4.3 million residents over 65 and the nation’s second-greatest share (behind Maine) of senior citizens, ranks 20th in deaths per 100,000 people.
Meanwhile, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island have death rates that run two-thirds higher to more than double Florida’s.
And the Sunshine State’s economy has remained open and functioned at something resembling normal for months.