Like many of you, we were appalled last week when Gov. Ron DeSantis rolled into Florida’s Friendliest Hometown with his traveling COVID-19 roadshow and promptly made sure five Villagers with close ties to the Developer received highly sought-after vaccines.
The governor’s visit, which took place this past Tuesday at UF Health The Villages Hospital, clearly was nothing more than a publicity stunt to generate support – and future votes – for Florida’s embattled and so-called leader.
During the stop, DeSantis promised that elderly residents across the Sunshine State would soon receive the vaccines and then stood by and watched as the Developer-friendly Villagers received valuable doses that should have gone to healthcare workers, first responders or those deemed as essential workers – like grocery store cashiers and teachers – who are most likely exposed to COVID-19 on a regular basis.
Yes, we’re aware that a very limited amount of UF Health employees received vaccines that day. But we also know that DeSantis – always the politician looking for his next move – shunned those who were more deserving and provided the Villagers with the vaccines for a photo op that’s bound to show up in future political ads.
For the record, the Villagers who received the vaccines were:
- Steve Printz, who voters recently ousted from the Sumter County Commission after he made the motion last year to approve a 25 percent tax hike that was quite friendly to the Developer;
- Diane Spencer, a director on the North Sumter County Utility Dependent District Board;
- Peter Moeller, chairman of the Project Wide Advisory Committee and a Community Development District 6 supervisor;
- Rich Cole, a Republican Party leader; and
- Doug Tharp, who serves on the Village Center Community Development District Board of Supervisors and is a former president of The Villages Homeowners Association.
All of those Villagers – supposedly “volunteers” – have long-standing ties to the Developer. Frankly, we’re shocked that none of them had the class to insist that their vaccine be given instead to a more deserving healthcare worker, first responder or essential worker. After all, those people are put in danger every single day when they report to work, unlike the retired residents who easily can avoid crowds and dangerous situations simply by staying put in their Villages homes and following guidelines put forth by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Of course, we’re not surprised that the Developer’s top political hack obviously played a role in this embarrassing fiasco. He clearly opened his thinning Rolodex and placed calls to those who have scratched his back on various government boards in the past. Wouldn’t it have been nice if he had instead placed a call to The Villages Public Safety Department, the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office, the Lady Lake Police Department, the Wildwood Police Department, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, the Lake County Sheriff’s office, Lake EMS or Sumter County Fire & EMS and offered up those five vaccines? Of course, that wouldn’t have had the same impact – or created future favors – but it would have been the right thing to do.
And then there’s DeSantis, Florida’s “Look-at-me-I’m-great” governor who has proven completely incapable at handling the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of new cases reported daily across the state is at an all-time high but the governor is constantly telling us how well his administration is handling the crisis.
Is he referring to his insistence at reopening the state despite the fact that thousands of new cases are being reported on a daily basis? Is he completely lost and just trying to figure out his next step since President Trump – the guy who tells him when to jump and how high – lost to Joe Biden after staging a rally in The Villages where mask-wearing clearly was an afterthought? Or is he just so desperate for future votes from seniors that he’s willing to sell his soul and ignore the health of the true heroes in the COVID-19 crisis?
If you answered yes to all three questions, then you’ve clearly seen through the DeSantis façade and know that like we said in a September editorial, he’s inept at handling the COVID-19 pandemic and the sooner he realizes it, the better off Floridians will be.
Let’s not forget that this is the guy who refused to shut down most beaches in March when the pandemic first hit – he wasn’t about to turn away spring break money – and since that time, he’s missed the mark so many times in dealing with the pandemic that it’s actually hard to remember all of them.
He’s appeared at press conferences and high school football games without a mask and at times has just seemed to take the pandemic much too lightly. He carries a big stick and can make things happen – if he’d just stop worrying about his political future and do the right thing for a change.
But perhaps DeSantis’ biggest faux pas has been his constant refusal to require face coverings in public – something that has put him at odds with Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried for refusing to do so. We all know that that mask mandates have proven effective in many other states and a poll earlier this year found that 79 percent of Floridians supported such a measure – including 60 percent of Republicans.
But the “I’ve-got-to-maintain-my-popularity-while-people-die” governor has refused to take that much-needed step, opting instead to hold annoying press conferences with upbeat messages touting himself – all while the number of cases, deaths and people in hospitals continues to rise.
If you don’t believe that to be true, then please consider this: When DeSantis announced on June 3 that Florida was entering in Phase Two of his reopening plan, the state was dealing with 58,764 COVID-19 cases, 2,566 deaths and 10,525 people being hospitalized. As of Thursday, those numbers stood at 1,247,546 cases, 21,295 deaths and 61,100 people hospitalized. That amounts to a 2,023 percent increase in cases, a 730 percent increase in deaths and a 481 percent increase in hospitalizations – in just under seven months.
As we said earlier – and Village of Sunbury of Glenbrook resident Marcia Wallace wrote in a Christmas Day Letter to the Editor – DeSantis and his band of vaccine-selfish Villagers should hang their heads in shame. The governor’s political stunt is shameful at best and the Villagers who received the vaccines should offer everyone who should have gotten them instead a heartfelt apology.
But in this community where political clout talks – and possibly saves lives – and doing the right thing apparently falls way down on the list, we don’t see that happening. Unfortunately, that doesn’t help the phlebotomist, the certified nursing assistant, the nurse, the doctor, the medical assistant, the hospital custodian, the grocery store clerk, the teacher, the paramedic or the law enforcement officer who should have gotten the vaccines.
