TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis continued his trek across the state Thursday morning as more vaccination sites pop-up for senior residents, adding to Florida’s overall vaccine distribution efforts.
A day prior, while speaking at a vaccine site in Zephyrhills, DeSantis announced the state has opened vaccine distribution to several additional groups.
Teachers, school employees, firefighters, and law enforcement aged 50 or older are now eligible for the vaccine, as are people deemed by a physician to be “extremely vulnerable to COVID-19,” according to the governor’s executive order.
“We’ve had the comorbidities in from the very beginning for hospitals,” DeSantis said. “Because hospitals got a lot of vaccine. They can vaccinate anyone who a doctor deems to be especially vulnerable to Covid due to underlying health conditions.”
“Now what we’ve done is say, maybe you’re not going to the hospital. Maybe you just go to your doctor. A doctor can do that, can vouch for it, and then you can go and get a shot.”
Some 8 On Your Side viewers expressed confusion about who would qualify and how. Late Tuesday night, Florida Department of Health released the physician’s form that people will need to have filled out to get the vaccine.
The form doesn’t specifically list any health conditions that qualify as an “extreme vulnerability.” DeSantis said that decision is best left to doctors.
“We wanted to get away from ‘you count, you count,'” DeSantis said. “That’s a doctor’s decision.”
