Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is used to getting attacked for every single thing he does on coronavirus, but the latest line of attack must surprise even him. His offense now: prioritizing the elderly in his state’s vaccination plan.
NBC News suggested Ron DeSantis was “playing politics with COVID vaccine” by putting old folks at the front of the line:
“Florida’s governor was slow to respond to the pandemic and his COVID-19 vaccine distribution plan has been marked by chaos, but critics say he’s been quick to recognize the political gold in those precious doses.”
“Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, ignored federal guidelines and prioritized getting senior citizens — one of Florida’s most potent voting blocs — vaccinated first.”
It was a perfect demonstration of the media’s willingness to blast DeSantis for literally anything. But it’s not just liberal NBC reporters who tried to make vaccinating old people bad, and it’s not just DeSantis who is getting flack for this.
Maryland Democrats and their allies are attacking Republican Gov. Larry Hogan for, in effect, prioritizing the elderly and not prioritizing wealthy suburbs.
Here’s Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin:
With over a million people, MoCo is #1 in population but alarmingly #15 among all MD counties in percentage of population vaccinated. If the state can’t support a mass vaccine site in MoCo, we urge an increased vaccine supply to @MoCoDHHS so it can operate its own vaccine site.
— Rep. Jamie Raskin (@RepRaskin) March 4, 2021
Raskin’s argument there makes no sense. If he thinks the county with the largest population should have the largest number of vaccinations, sure. That’s exactly what’s happening: Montgomery County is Maryland’s most populous county, and it has the most people vaccinated: 165,776 first doses as of Thursday’s data, which is 25,000 more than second place Baltimore County.
But Raskin wants more than that. His objection is that his wealthy home county isn’t ahead of the other counties in percentage of population vaccinated. He doesn’t explain why people in smaller counties should be sent to the back of the line.
Liberal journalists, lobbyists, politicians, and activists like to object that some counties are getting more shots per capita than others, and they like to single out Kent, Talbot, and Worcester counties as the three counties where the highest portion of the population have been vaccinated.
Here’s a retired Democratic lobbyist naming these three counties and saying Hogan is favoring them because they voted Republican.
And here’s a former liberal journalist saying rural counties get more vaccines per capita because Hogan hates black people.
infuriating. Hogan’s racism is deadly.
From @stefmav:
Baltimore City will receive 135 vaccine doses per 10k residents.Baltimore County will receive 237 vaccine doses per 10k residents.
Kent County will receive 618 vaccine doses per 10k residents. https://t.co/mFGo0P32ZQ
— Evan Serpick (@Serps) February 27, 2021
There’s a far simpler explanation, although this doesn’t please the media or Democrats either: Vaccines are going to old people, and some counties have older populations. In fact, Kent, Talbot, and Worcester, the three counties with the highest vaccination rates, are the three counties with the highest share of over-65 population.
Montgomery County, Raskin complains, is 15th in its proportion of population vaccinated. State data suggest it’s actually 12th, meaning it’s in the top half of Maryland counties. But it is 16th in share of population over 65.
So who does Raskin think should be 12th or 15th? Not every county can be in the top 10.
It should go without saying why it’s better to vaccinate older people first. Simply put: they are more likely to die from the virus than younger people are. That Democrats and liberals in the media have trouble understanding this is baffling, but somehow it’s over their heads.
