Florida governor plans to sign executive order to ensure seniors are vaccinated first
From CNN s Sara Weisfeldt and Rosa Flores
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during a press conference in Pensacola, Florida, on December 23. Pool/WEAR-TV
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis plans to issue an executive order to ensure seniors, over the age of 65, are the first members of the general public to receive the Covid-19 vaccine. The announcement was made Wednesday during a press conference in Pensacola.
DeSantis said his order will guarantee seniors will be in the front of line to get vaccinated, despite the CDC recommending essential workers have priority as well.
By
Dec 22, 2020 07:50 PM EST
After States and counties have been left to handle their share of the first batch of vaccines, distribution became chaotic.
In a rural hospital in Arkansas, the 975 doses per tray of Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine contains way too many, but splitting trays into smaller shipments has risks. That is an example of the logistical issues in safely getting the Pfizer vaccine to rural health care workers. Another is once the vaccine is out of the freezer at 94 degrees below zero, the vaccine can only last five days and, thus, must be refrigerated in transit.
According to Dr. Jennifer Dillaha, Arkansas epidemiologist, since over 40 percent of Arkansas territories are rural and Covid-19 infections are climbing, resolving this delivery dilemma is serious.
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
This pandemic has been marked by confusing, contradictory messages from the top. And the federal government s distribution of coronavirus vaccines to the states has followed the same pattern. Over the weekend, the man in charge of the rollout, General Gus Perna, bluntly admitted that he had failed.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
GUS PERNA: I failed. I am adjusting. I am fixing. And we will move forward from there.
SHAPIRO: Perna took responsibility after more than a dozen states said they were promised a certain number of doses, only to have that number slashed at the last minute. Oregon, Washington, California and Nevada saw their batches cut by 40%. Well, for a big-picture look at how this process is going so far, we re joined once again by Claire Hannan. She is the executive director of the Association of Immunization Managers.
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