Tallahassee, Fla. – Today, Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, an independently-elected member of the Florida Cabinet, wrote to the Governor strongly recommending that he mobilize Florida National Guard resources to coordinate distribution of COVID-19 vaccines in Florida, given the slow nationwide vaccine rollout.
While Florida has received over 1.2 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, only 146,160 vaccine doses have been administered – just 15 percent of available vaccine doses, and just 0.68 percent of Florida residents. The state’s decentralized vaccine process has been characterized as “very chaotic” and has left Floridians frustrated and local hospitals and county health departments overwhelmed with calls for information. Yesterday, Florida recorded a record-high COVID-19 positivity rate of 22.75 percent.
The letter may be reads as follows:
The Honorable Ron DeSantis
Governor
The Capitol
400 South Monroe Street
Tallahassee, FL 32399-0001
December 30, 2020
Governor DeSantis,
As you know, the initial nationwide distribution and administration of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines for COVID-19 has fallen dangerously short of expectations. While 20 million vaccinations were expected to have been administered by the end of this month, only 11.4 million doses have been distributed as of this week, with just 2.3 million doses administered.
In Florida, despite the state receiving 1,218,300 vaccine doses, only 15 percent of those have actually been administered – just 0.68 percent of our state’s population. The lack of preparation and progress on administering these critical, life-saving vaccines is inexcusable.
According to media reports, the vaccine distribution your administration oversees has been characterized as “very chaotic,” with a “lack of clear strategy to vaccinate the public,” and healthcare professionals have “lacked clear direction from the state” on vaccination procedures. Instead of efficient, centralized distribution management by the State of Florida, distribution has been left to hospitals and county health departments. While you characterize this as “cutting out the middle man,” vulnerable residents are left without answers or clear direction from overwhelmed local agencies on when, where, and how to receive the vaccine.
With the State of Florida just yesterday recording a record-high 22.75 percent positivity rate and continuous near-record numbers of new cases, we cannot afford further delay. I strongly encourage you to mobilize Florida National Guard resources to oversee a timely, orderly, centralized process for distributing COVID-19 vaccines to Floridians, including a benchmark of administering 100 percent of available vaccines within ten days of those vaccines’ arrival in Florida.
I also request that the matter of COVID-19 vaccine distribution be placed on the agenda for the next scheduled meeting of the Florida Cabinet, and that any relevant personnel from the Florida Department of Health, Florida Department of Military Affairs, and Florida Division of Emergency Management be present to answer questions from the Cabinet.
Sincerely,
Nicole Fried
Commissioner of Agriculture
cc: Kyle Troop, Director of Cabinet Affairs, Department of Agriculture
Beau Beaubien, Director of Cabinet Affairs, Executive Office of the Governor
Erin Sumpter, Director of Cabinet Affairs, Department of Legal Affairs
Robert Tornillo, Director of Cabinet Affairs, Department of Financial Services
