Gov. DeSantis Announces Vaccination Program for Homebound Seniors, Holocaust Survivors

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) discussed his state’s continued vaccination efforts on Thursday, announcing a pilot program aimed to provide vaccinations to homebound seniors.

Speaking from the Aventura Turnberry Jewish Center in Miami, DeSantis discussed the pilot program, which targets seniors who are unable to leave their homes to receive the vaccine.

“Not everyone can go to a drive-through site, not everyone can go to the hospital. Some have family who can help them, not everyone has that all the time so we thought it was important to fill a niche,” DeSantis said.

Of the 1,500 doses of the vaccine reserved for seniors in the pilot program, 750 are set aside for Holocaust survivors.

“As part of our effort to vaccinate homebound seniors, this morning I had the opportunity to visit with Judy Rodan, an 83 year old Holocaust survivor, as she received her second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine,” DeSantis said, providing a picture of the visitation:

DeSantis has continued to prioritize vaccinating senior citizens across the state, given its status as having one of the largest elderly populations in the country. As of February 4, the state had vaccinated nearly 1.3 million seniors, representing the majority of all individuals vaccinated in the state, according to the governor’s office.

Additionally, DeSantis announced the interfaith vaccination event at the Aventura Turnberry Jewish Center. He said the site would “vaccinate 175 members of the synagogue, 175 members of The Islamic Center of Greater Miami in Miami Gardens, and 175 members of Trinity Church”:

“To date, the Florida Division of Emergency Management and Florida Department of Health have administered more than 13,000 doses at 25 vaccination sites in partnership with places of worship,” the governor’s office said.

As of February 4, Florida had administered 2,223,754 vaccinations, or 10,354 per 100,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) data.

DeSantis rebuked the Biden White House last month after press secretary Jen Psaki suggested Florida was underutilizing its vaccines. The governor dismissed the critique as “totally disingenuous,” explaining that officials would not “divert second doses away from our seniors”:

“If the implication is that we should be giving those second doses away to other people, that is not the way the FDA [Food and Drug Administration] has prescribed the series,” he explained.