Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Announces Partnership with Churches to Distribute Vaccine

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) spoke at the Lynn Haven Senior Center in Bay County on Sunday, announcing a partnership with churches to assist with vaccine distribution for seniors across the state, something for which establishment media have scrutinized him.

On Sunday, DeSantis announced that the state is on schedule to “get about 250,000 additional vaccine shots, first doses, next week” as his administration continues to prioritize seniors in the vaccine distribution process. To help with those efforts, locations across the state are partnering with local churches.

“This is a lot of teamwork, the state providing resources, it was the city and the county working with all the churches to make it happen and so they designated each church certain amount of times to receive and then the pastors would then work to bring some of the senior citizens for those times,” DeSantis explained on Sunday, with WJHG reporting that the program is “expected to expand as the state issued more vaccines.”

The governor, who said they are currently doing “50,000, 60,000 shots throughout the state of Florida,” said they are “excited about the progress” they are making throughout the Sunshine State.

WSVN reported:

Two of the new sites are in South Florida: one in Fort Lauderdale and the other at Koinonia Worship Center in Hollywood.

Seniors who spoke with 7News at the Hollywood site said it was a smooth and easy process.

“Everything went smoothly. We drove straight through, filled out the paperwork, came over and got the shot,” said Barbara Cleare. “We haven’t been here 10 minutes.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) January 8 data, 1,355,775 doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines had been distributed throughout the state, with 402,802 receiving the first dose.

The Republican governor has come under fire from members of the establishment media for prioritizing seniors over frontline workers, prompting CNN to accuse him of “bucking” CDC recommendations.