Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) finds himself in a feud with a report from “60 Minutes” over the state’s handling of the coronavirus vaccine process.
According to the story, the DeSantis administration faces accusations of funneling the vaccines to rich communities and privatizing the vaccine rollout to benefit donors. Meanwhile, plenty of the state’s minorities struggle to obtain access to the vaccination.
CBS reporter Sharyn Alfonsi revealed the report on “60 Minutes” that was critical of the state’s vaccine rollout. Alfonsi stated DeSantis provided a contract to give coronavirus vaccines to Publix after the grocery chain store issued a $100,000 donation to his political action committee.
Alfonsi confronted DeSantis at an event south of Orlando over their report.
“Publix, as you know, donated $100,000 to your campaign, and then you rewarded them with the exclusive rights to distribute the vaccine in Palm Beach,” Alfonsi told the governor.
The Florida governor would respond by stating their report is inaccurate.
“So first of all, what you’re saying is wrong,” DeSantis said. “That’s a fake narrative. I met with the county mayor. I met with the administrator. I met with all the folks in Palm Beach County, and I said, ‘here’s some of the options. We can do more drive-thru sites. We can give more to hospitals. We can do the Publix.’ And they said, ‘We think that would be the easiest thing for our residents.'”
Eduardo Razo is the Assistant Content Editor for BNM, which includes writing daily news stories on the news media industry. He can be found on Twitter @eddierazo_ or you can reach him by email at eddie1991razo@gmail.com.
