2nd Democrat calls for investigation of DeSantis's vaccine distribution

WASHINGTON — The sole Democrat elected to statewide office in Florida is calling on the U.S. House of Representatives coronavirus committee to investigate the state’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, for “alleged political favoritism” in coronavirus vaccine distribution.

That call comes in a letter that Florida’s agriculture commissioner, Nikki Fried, will send on Monday morning to Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., who heads the coronavirus committee, and Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, its ranking Republican member. The letter was obtained by Yahoo News over the weekend.

“My office has received frequent complaints” about the state’s vaccine strategy, Fried writes, charging DeSantis with “an inept distribution of vaccines at best, and corrupt political patronage at worst.”

It is the second such call, coming days after Rep. Charlie Crist, D-Fla., asked the Department of Justice to investigate DeSantis on much the same grounds. Crist’s letter, sent on Feb. 21, alleged that DeSantis, a close ally of former President Donald Trump, “is establishing vaccine distribution and administration sites in select locations to benefit political allies and donors, over the needs of higher risk communities.”

Crist and Fried are both potential gubernatorial candidates, making their requests for an investigation impossible to separate from politics. Then again, the pandemic has been hounded by politics from the start. It may just be that the politics in Florida are more bare-knuckled and consequential than they are in most other places.

Fried, one of DeSantis's most unstinting critics, told Yahoo News that "Florida’s vaccine distribution has been chaotic and without a plan. It’s been inequitable, with Black and Hispanic residents left behind. And it’s been corrupt, with the Governor’s donors and political allies getting special access.”

“The message is clear,” she said. “If Ron DeSantis likes you, or if you give his campaign money, you can cut in line ahead of seniors, teachers, and essential workers. It’s despicable and it needs to stop.”

In an email to Yahoo News, DeSantis spokeswoman Meredith Beatrice said that “the insinuation that politics play into vaccine distribution in Florida is baseless and ridiculous,” pointing to vaccination clinics at Florida A&M University, a historically Black college, and, in partnership with the Biden administration, in underserved areas of Miami, Tampa, Orlando and Jacksonville. The DeSantis administration has recently held vaccination drives in churches, which has helped to correct racial disparities. Vaccination sites have also come to Walmart and Winn-Dixie outlets.

While controversies about the coronavirus vaccine abound across the country, the relationship between DeSantis and Florida’s Democrats has become particularly acrimonious, preventing the kind of cooperation that would presumably make the vaccination effort more efficient.

Although he enjoyed a surprising measure of bipartisan support in his first year in office, DeSantis has more recently faced harsh criticism from Democrats for his handling of the pandemic, which has mirrored that of Trump. The scramble for vaccines has only deepened such frustrations, renewing fears that DeSantis, like Trump, is interested only in catering to his most loyal supporters.

“He is treating Black people like an afterthought,” says state Rep. Omari Hardy, a Democrat who represents West Palm Beach. Hardy told Yahoo News he supported an investigation of DeSantis.

“We all deserve to know whether the governor is rewarding his donors and supporters by granting them privileged access to this life-preserving resource,” Rep. Hardy said, adding that if DeSantis has as much confidence in his vaccine plan as he appears to, he should “welcome” such an inquiry.

(The governor’s office noted that he held a vaccination clinic early last month in West Palm Beach with Anquan Boldin, the former professional football player.)

DeSantis’s primary goal has been to vaccinate the state’s large population of seniors. Beatrice, the governor’s spokeswoman, noted that those efforts have included outreach to veterans of World War II and the Korean War, as well as Holocaust survivors. In prioritizing the elderly, however, DeSantis is going against federal guidelines that call for essential workers to be at or near the front of the vaccination line.

DeSantis has been criticized for allegedly hiding data about the pandemic’s ravages in assisted-living facilities, keeping coroners from providing accurate coronavirus fatality statistics and misrepresenting the number of young people who have fallen ill with COVID-19. He was among the most eager governors to open up his state, which earned plaudits from conservatives averse to lockdowns. Some saw the rush as irresponsible, however, and the nickname “Death Santis” took hold among his critics.

When coronavirus vaccines first became widely available in January, DeSantis faced criticism for setting up vaccination sites in Publix supermarkets shortly after the company donated $100,000 to DeSantis’s political committee. Moreover, the specific Publix outlets where the vaccination sites were located were all in Republican counties won by Trump in November. A spokesperson for the company called such allegations “absolutely incorrect.”