Florida Governor Ron DeSantis COVID-19 Press Conference Transcript February 1

Ron DeSantis: (00:00) Oh, I remember we did the rapid test there. Good afternoon. Always great to be in America's friendliest hometown. I want to thank Gary Leicester, VP of the villages for community relations. We also have state representative Brad Hage, District 33. I want to thank you guys both for being here. Appreciate it. So we were here a few weeks ago to announce that we would do a drive-through vaccination site in the villages, and there was a lot of demand and they went through that very quickly, but I said, "Look, the places that are doing well, that are showing that they can use these doses. As we get more vaccine delivered, we're going to make sure that we send more vaccine into those communities." And so we had been getting about 266,000 initial doses delivered in the state of Florida from the federal government over the last several weeks. This week coming up today, tomorrow, Wednesday, the deliveries will total about 307,000 initial doses. Ron DeSantis: (01:07) That's about a 40,000 dose increase. And because of that increase, we are able to announce that beginning this Thursday, that drive-thru site will be able to be open again, but this time it's going to be a permanent vaccination site. We're going to feed 4,000 doses, initial doses to that site on a permanent basis as long as our supply remains what it is. So the site will be in addition to other permitted vaccine location in Sumpter County at the Wildwood Community Center, which has also been good, but we have a lot of seniors here. There's a lot of demand. And we think that this drive-thru site will work very, very well. So we're happy to do it. So yeah, 4,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine for this week's shipment, that's going to be allocated. We think it'll probably arrive sometime tomorrow and then people will be able to sign up. And then Thursday, you'll start having the cars go through. Ron DeSantis: (02:05) And of course, if we get another 40,000 on top of the 307,000, we could do even more than 4,000 here and we're happy to do that. It's all contingent upon the supply that's being sent to the states from the federal government, but this was a very well run site. I was able to be here. I spoke with a number of the seniors. They were very happy with how it went. And so when you know that something works, you want to continue to see that go. So to schedule an appointment, you can visit sumpterfl.saferstart.net. Also, this week in addition to this village's site where we're going to have drive-thru testing, we're going to do a pod in the Sun City Center area. So last week, I was in Sun City Center to announce for the Sun City Center community that we would do 5,000 doses drive-thru, golf cart driving as well. It's a similar community to the villages in that respect. Was very well run. It is very successful. Ron DeSantis: (03:04) There was also a senior community across the street from Sun City Center called King's Point. And so we already have the infrastructure in place at Sun City Center. So this coming week, there'll be 5,000 additional doses for the residents of King's Point, which is also another senior citizen dominated community. So we think that the Sun City Center has gone very well. People are happy. Folks across the street at Kings Point said, "Hey, what about us?" And so we said, "Yeah, we'll get you some." We're also doing a pod of 3,500 in Palmera community in Broward and we think that that'll go very well as well. So when you're talking about places like the villages, which is obviously the big enchilada in Florida, but all these other senior communities, you're able to get that vaccine in there. You got a lot of folks who want it. It's very convenient and we really can get a lot of shots in the arm. Ron DeSantis: (03:53) So we're excited about the villages site, but we're also excited about those other sites as well. And so far, Florida has done a higher percentage of its vaccinations to senior citizens than any other state in the country. We decided the first state in the country to put seniors first. That has been our goal. That's been our policy. We haven't wavered from that. And of course, now many states are following Florida to put seniors first. We are reporting about 1.25 million seniors that have had at least one shot, but I would caution everybody, and we're finding these reports are lagging by sometimes four or five days. If you go back and look, seven, 10 days ago, those numbers have kind of kept growing even the week after they kind of do, so we believe that there are a lot more people that have actually been vaccinated than are necessarily reported. The reports come in and obviously we do it, but I'm worried about when the shots are getting in arms. I want instantaneous reporting, but the reporting to me isn't as important as the fact that the shots are doing. Ron DeSantis: (05:02) And so we're now getting close to 30% of our senior population that has had at least one shot. And again, that is either number one in the nation or very close to number one in the nation in terms of what percentage of our senior population has gotten a shot. And we have a very large population. We have 4.5 million. So that is why we're seniors first and we're going to continue to do that. We think it's the right strategy. Now ,we also have in many counties, Publix pharmacies, 20 different counties, 261 pharmacies. We hope to be able to announce some additional Publix in the very near future. And so stay tuned on that, but that allows folks, particularly in areas that may not have as robust of hospital systems as some of the other places. If you look at like Orlando, they've done a lot with their hospitals, have done a great job. You look at further South in South Florida, some of those systems have done a great job. Ron DeSantis: (05:58) Some of these Publix's have really filled a need getting into communities in a convenient way where folks are able to go and do that, so there's 261 of those throughout the state. And as I said, I think we're going to add more, very, very soon. We've also worked with county health departments and we're supporting 77 additional community vaccination sites. We've also done 25 vaccination events at places of worship in 15 different counties and we're going to continue with that program, which we believe has been very successful. So we're going to do another 23 houses of worship this week. So from doing the nursing homes and the longterm care facilities to doing senior community, starting at King's Point down in Delray Beach before the new year even started, obviously the villages and other similar situated communities. There's a lot good. Ron DeSantis: (06:52) One thing we're also going to be doing this week is setting aside a small number of vaccines, about 1500 initial doses for home-bound seniors. So you have folks who may not be able to go to a drive-thru site, may not even be able to go to the grocery store or the hospital. So those are folks that we want to be able to provide vaccines for. So that effort is going to begin this week as well. And I think that that's something that's good. Now, some hospitals have already been doing that because they have different clients who may... they are already doing different types of treatment for home bound. But we know there's other folks who may not be able to be as active as a lot of seniors in the villages, quite frankly. So we want to look out for them too. So our ability to vaccinate seniors can increase dramatically just based on additional supply. So we hope we continue to see increased supply. I think that there's a lot of capacity with hospitals. They're now getting some more vaccine. They did a good job working through what they had over the first four or five weeks. We're going to continue feeding these sites, but every single site we have can just simply be expanded. So if you have the drive-thru... Ron DeSantis: (08:03) ... Have, can just simply be expanded. So, if you have the drive-through at The Villages, you're going to do a certain number of day. We can just add another lane or two if we have sufficient number of vaccines. So we're hoping we're able to do that. Final thing I say, point out is we've got some really, really good news about the Phase Three clinical trial data from the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. If you watched some of the headlines and reports, it was like, oh, not as effective as Pfizer and Moderna was what I was seeing. I was like, "Oh man, that really stinks." But then you look at it and yeah, they said 66% efficacy in terms of preventing infection, and that was, it was higher in the US, but they looked at all worldwide data to come up with that. Ron DeSantis: (08:45) But, after 28 days, one single dose of Johnson and Johnson vaccine was found to be 100% effective at preventing death and almost 100% effective, practically 100% effective, at preventing hospitalization. So, look, to me, if no one got infected fine, but if you have something that will rule out fatalities and rule out, for all intents and purposes, people even being admitted to hospitals, that is a successful vaccine. Sign me up for that. So, we look very forward. They're going to be submitting an application for emergency use authorization probably this week, maybe next week, but very soon. If we, if you look at the way that the FDA handled the Pfizer and the Moderna, once that application is filed, they then set a date where they will then convene. So, that was I think, seven to 10 days after the application was received. Ron DeSantis: (09:49) That would mean under that timeline, we could get an approval for emergency use this month of February, which would be a really, really good thing. So, I see a one-dose vaccine, very easy to store. You don't have to have negative 70. You don't even have to have freezer. You can just put it in the refrigerator. You jab it one time, and then you don't have to worry about people coming back for the booster shot. We'll get more data. There'll be more put out beyond just what Johnson and Johnson has done. Even if it's slightly less "efficacious" than Pfizer, Moderna, for workforce people, for folks that may be younger with comorbidities, to me, this is something that we should be very excited about. When you're looking at all but preventing severe disease, after 28 days, to me, that's the whole name of the game. Ron DeSantis: (10:43) I don't think we would change society because somebody had cough for two days or has a cold for two days. I mean, those are normal, mild maladies that we see all the time, regardless of COVID. So, if that is the worst that would happen with Johnson & Johnson, to me, that's something that's very, very positive. So, I think the data was better than how it was portrayed. So, I would tell folks that, yeah, this will be a really important tool. Then the final thing is just this AstraZeneca, they're giving it in Britain. They've given a lot of doses of this. There may, the FDA is making them go back and do American data, when they have data in other parts of the world. I just wonder why not try to get that on a fast track, so that could be yet another option for folks? Because I'm not sure how much is going to be, is produced right away. Ron DeSantis: (11:34) I know Johnson & Johnson's under contract for 100 million doses. I don't think that that's going to be on day one. I think that's going to take several months, but even if they have 10 million doses by February, March, that'll make a big difference. That'll help a lot of folks. So, Johnson & Johnson, very positive. We're looking forward to that. Obviously, we're going to be ready if that is approved, we're going to look for our allocations and want to put that to very good use very quickly. I think there's a lot of great news that's happening. If you look in Florida, the COVID situation, throughout the whole winter respiratory cycle, our per capita hospitalizations were significantly lower than States like California, New York, some of the other, all these lockdown states. Ron DeSantis: (12:19) What we've seen here, and I think some of it's seasonal. Some of it is community immunity. Maybe some of it's vaccine, but we've seen huge decline in hospitalizations over the last two weeks. The admissions have gone down dramatically over the last few weeks, and we hope that that trend continues. But we're right now, I think we've probably, we, over the summer, we peaked at nearly 10,000 COVID-positive patients in hospitals statewide. In the winter respiratory season, a completely open state where we trust people to work, live, do as they see fit, we reached 70, I think 7,700. So, 25% less than what we were over the summer and much less per capita than many of these other states. Now we're going down dramatically. I think Seniors First is part of that, but I can tell you this, the more seniors we vaccinate, the lower that hospitalization number is going, because those are the folks that are most likely to need admission to the hospitals. Ron DeSantis: (13:24) So, that's a really good one trend. Really, the two things we've looked at the whole time, I don't get bent out of shape about these positive tests, because if you test 200,000 people, you're going to get a lot of positive tests. So, that's never been the barometer we've used. We've used Emergency Department visit for COVID-like illness. That peaked on January 3rd. It's been going down for the rest of January, and then the hospital census, which peaked in the middle of January has been going down in the last two weeks. Those aren't trends unique to Florida. COVID is receding everywhere in the United States. Now, maybe that's seasonal. Maybe it'll come back stronger in the spring. We obviously had a summer wave. Maybe, that's something we'll have to contend with, but I think that with the vaccines continuing to be put out, I think it's going to be harder for COVID to really have a serious spike, when you combine the people that have natural immunity through infection and then the vaccine. Ron DeSantis: (14:20) So, we're making some really good progress as a country on this, the state, we're doing, I think, well, and we want to keep those trends going as we go forward. So, the Villages drive-through site, it was so successful. We said, if you use it, we're going to work to get you more. Finally, we're able to get another 41,000 doses on top of our normal allotment. This is a beneficiary of that, as well as the community in Broward and in Tampa, and we're going to keep doing it and keep working hard, putting seniors first, and not resting until every senior that wants to get a vaccine is able to get a vaccine. Thanks. Speaker 1: (14:58) Governor, can you address the Sharecare? Some of our counties here say, they're not going to sign up yet for that safe registration site, because they want the kinks to be worked out. Are you confident in that system, that that's the best way [crosstalk 00:15:13] Ron DeSantis: (15:12) Well, they're free to do their own system. It's not required, so that's up to them if they want to do it. But I think some other counties have used it, and I think it's worked satisfactorily. But, there's people working on it as things develop. They obviously want to work, to try to fix it. Yes, sir? Speaker 2: (15:28) Governor, the growing racial disparity that we've heard about between in particular, blacks versus whites being vaccinated versus the number of blacks dying from COVID. I know one of the pushes from you was churches. How do we do this? How do we overcome the gap? Ron DeSantis: (15:45) Well, so the church program's been successful. I think you've gotten a lot of buy-in from the parishioners, partially because it's not some wild-eyed public health bureaucrat shaking their finger at them, telling them to get it. It's someone that they trust. Having a pastor, having these people that they know, and so I think it's been- Ron DeSantis: (16:03) Having a pastor, having these people that they know. And so, I think it's been good. All of our other sites, community sites, the Publix, the hospitals, just to be clear, there's not any type of racial discrimination. They're not accounting for race. It's all based on age, regardless of any of that. And that's obviously the way it needs to be. I think the church program is just meant to bring it closer to home, get it into communities, getting it to people, getting it where people who are trusted in those communities are able to advocate for it. And so we're going to keep doing that, but all the other programs are obviously open to everyone, as it should be. Yes ma'am. Speaker 3: (16:44) Yes, governor. This is [inaudible 00:16:47] with Telemundo. Are you doing any special effort to vaccinate communities that are minority, like Hispanic and Black communities, especially in Osceola, Orange, and Seminole County? Leaders of minority communities are calling attention to lack of access to these things. Ron DeSantis: (17:02) Well, so, as we've mentioned, we've been doing these church programs for weeks and weeks, where we go, and it's predominantly been African American churches, but not limited to that. I know we've worked with folks in Osceola on that, and we'll continue to do that. We think that that's an effective way to get folks there. And it's also, the pastor can reach out to the parishioners and then say, "Okay, I got 500 people for you." You go. So from an administrative perspective, it makes it a little easier for us to do that as well. So we're going to keep doing that 100%. Ron DeSantis: (17:33) I would say, if you look around the state, some of the areas... Miami Dade has had the most vaccines of anybody administered. They've done a good job with that. And I think the Central Florida area has done a good job. Orlando has done a lot of vaccines. I think part of it is because your healthcare system has really, really done a good job. But all of those are not limited, based on any type of community, based on any type of racial consideration. It's open to all comers. Again, we're focusing on seniors first. And so we want to focus on those who are 65, but that's based on age. It's not based on anything else. Yes, ma'am. Speaker 4: (18:17) The 1500 doses that are [inaudible 00:18:18], is there a system in place already to get those out, or how does that work? Ron DeSantis: (18:20) We'll have an announcement on that soon, but basically, there's certain communities have reached out. And so we've said, "Okay, what can we do to do it?" So for example, there's folks who were Holocaust survivors, who were in their 90s in certain communities. And so we said, "Okay, let's work to do that." So we'll have an announcement on that soon. Their hospitals and other folks have been doing this, to a certain extent. This adds to that, which I think is something that's very, very important. Not everyone is just in a position, and not everyone has the same level of support as some of the... Here, people are very active. They're very self-sufficient, but that's not everyone. So we're trying to prevent people from falling through the cracks. Yes, sir. Speaker 5: (19:06) Governor, the White House is offering for potentially a FEMA infrastructure to help, not just Florida, but every other state. Would you welcome that? And if so, in particular, in what areas do you feel it could be used with that? Ron DeSantis: (19:18) So what I've just said is what the state of Florida needs, and I think most governors agree with me, is just simply additional doses of the vaccine. The infrastructure to do these shots is there. These hospitals could double their output. Our community sites could probably double their output. And I know Publix, we could do 700 Publix stores. We have 261. They have 750 stores. So we have the capacity to do it. And so I would just say, figure out how we can get additional doses of the vaccine. If the choice is, "Hey, we have 50,000 doses for you, but you only get it if we administer it." Then I'll say, "Go ahead and do it." But it's the notion that kind of started in December and the beginning of January, "Oh my God. The US, they're not getting the doses out. They can't do it." Really was somewhat of a misnomer for two reasons. Ron DeSantis: (20:10) One, the doses, most of them got dropped during Christmas and New Year. So the hospitals are getting this. They're trying to get their staff's done, but they weren't in a position to do a major community drive at that point. The minute the new year changed, and you could see in Florida, from that Monday, January 4th, man, they were doing it. And all these other sites as well, we're doing it very well. So some of that, I think, was a misnomer. But then also, the way it's reported, there's a lag on the reporting. And so if whatever Florida's reporting, I can tell you, there are tens of thousands, at a minimum, additional people that have been jabbed, who just haven't been put into the system yet. And there's some folks who are given the shots are reporting it two weeks later. We want them to do it within the 24 to 72 hours. Ron DeSantis: (20:56) But bottom line is, that's the case. So I think it's not just Florida. I think it's throughout the country. These doses are getting into people's arms. It's just a matter of, can we do more doses? And then once everyone's kind of involved in this, from hospitals to community sites, to all these other things, the pharmacies, can you do more? We're hoping that the Federal Pharmacy Program will be sending some additional doses directly to some of our locations. So for example, Publix would be a participant in that, Walmart, we've worked with to see whether they would be willing to do it. And then also Winn- Dixie, so that gives you even more. And if they do turn on Federal Pharmacy Program, that would be in addition to our current allotments. I think that would really be helpful. And I think you have folks that are willing to play ball on this with those companies. Ron DeSantis: (21:47) So there's a lot that can be done with the existing infrastructure. I would say the problem is not infrastructure. The problem is not a lack of people to be able to jab people in the arms. It's just people are running through the vaccine. At The Villages, they burned through it. They did the right thing. We want it in people's arms. And if we would have had more vaccine over the last week, 10 days, we would have given more there. Now that we're getting some more, we're doing it. And we're also doing a lot more second doses now, which is good, because that is the full regimen. I know people have said, "Oh, well, you should just don't give people the second dose. Just use it on other stuff." Not here. The seniors want the second dose. We're going to make sure they get the second dose. But that is now kicking up a lot. Ron DeSantis: (22:31) You're going to see this week, and again, the reporting lags on it. But you will absolutely see 50, 60, 70,000 second doses a day, throughout this week. Because the Pfizer came due last week for a lot of the seniors. Moderna is going to be coming due, yeah, probably right at the end of last week, beginning of this week will be that 28 day mark. And so they're scheduled for it. The federal government has sent the second doses. We got a lot of the Moderna the beginning of last week and have used some of it. But you're going to see a lot more of it go out to go out the door and into people's arms, which is going to be great. And I do think, once you do that, once we get that second dose, yes, the hospitalizations are going down. The ED visits are going way down. But you start to have a million, a million and a half, 2 million seniors fully vaccinated, that's just going to dramatically reduce the pool of people who may end up hospitalized. Ron DeSantis: (23:29) And that'll be a really, really good thing, I think, for all of us. Yes, sir. Speaker 6: (23:32) And governor, when the White House- Ron DeSantis: (23:33) Oh wait, do we have one more? He hasn't asked one. Yes? Speaker 7: (23:43) Governor, what is the state doing to make sure hospitals are getting to vaccinate those people under 65 who have comorbidity [inaudible 00:23:43] have sent some [crosstalk 00:23:43]- Ron DeSantis: (23:43) Yeah. Yeah. So we did it. So from my executive order, from the beginning said... So seniors first was obviously the overriding policy. But we said, "Hospitals can administer to anybody, regardless of age, who's especially vulnerable to COVID." So a number of them immediately started just going to their cancer wards and offering it to folks. That's totally appropriate. Ron DeSantis: (24:03) They're just going to their cancer wards and offering it to folks. That's totally appropriate. We've now sent more doses, I think about 30,000, because we got more this time. So we sent about 30,000 to various hospitals saying, "Obviously you can continue to do seniors, but the executive order does say these comorbidities. We're trusting you to do it." So they're going to be doing more of that and I think you're going to see that with folks who have compromised immune systems, in particular. Again, regardless of age, will be able to have access to that. And I think that that's important. Clearly, if you're under 65, but you have some of those, you're more at risk. Now, age is the most important, but that's a significant one. So you'll see more and more of that, but some hospitals have been doing that all along and that was something that we encourage. Ron DeSantis: (24:46) What we didn't want though, is if we're putting it in pharmacies and we're doing drive-through sites, to have a pharmacist or a nurse have to referee someone's comorbidity. Oh, that doesn't count. So we said, "This is something that the doctors have to handle. It's got to be in the confines of a hospital system." So I think that that makes what we're doing here, more efficient, to focus on the 65 and plus, and then trusting our medical professionals to be able to identify those patients of theirs existing or people in the community who really are especially susceptible to significant impacts from COVID. Speaker 8: (25:22) I've got one more. Ron DeSantis: (25:22) One more, yes. Speaker 2: (25:23) Governor, when the White House said last week that you were not getting the shots into the arms, only 50%. I know you pushed back, you called them disingenuous. You said, "Send us the shots," as you continue to say today. Do you feel like they're hearing you? Ron DeSantis: (25:35) Well, and other governors said the same thing. We are reporting lags on this. So you've really got to go back a week to look to see now what was done that week, because we keep adding more and more, and that's true with every state. But what they had said was we had the big dump of the Moderna second doses, and oh, we'll just give those out. Those are already scheduled because people get scheduled for their shots. So if you got a shot on January 4th, you're going to be in early February. And so if I get that dose six days early, am I supposed to give it to someone and then you may not have your dose? So it's getting out. And you can also see, if you look January 4th week, first full week back from the new year, 355,000 initial doses administered. The next week, January 11th, we had 455,000 initial doses. The next week, January 18th, even though that Monday was a holiday, 355,000-ish. Last week, it's going to take four or five more days to be able to get all that. Ron DeSantis: (26:37) But it'll be over that 266,000 number that we're doing. Look, I think that when you're dealing with this, our goal is putting seniors first, and that means putting seniors ahead of politics. And what I've seen since January 20th is too much politics thrust into the COVID response. When they're saying that there was no plan for vaccine distribution by the federal government, that's just factually false. I had meetings with governors, conference calls. I met with Warp Speed multiple times in the White House. We had phone calls. And they have been getting vaccines out to the states. So I understand it was a campaign. The campaign's over and now let's just focus on putting seniors first, regardless of policy, regardless of politics or regardless of party. And I think if we do that, then I think we'll be more effective. Ron DeSantis: (27:31) No one has called me and said, "Governor, what would make sense? What have you found? What are some of the things, lessons that you've learned? What's been effective? What's not been effective?" We've learned a lot over the last month and a half. I think that we've done a really good job. Obviously we're leading the nation in vaccinating seniors. The highest percentage of our vaccines have gone to seniors of any state. We've also vaccinated the highest percentage of our seniors, either number one or two in the country, and that toggles back and forth. But we're getting close to 30% of seniors in Florida have had at least one vaccine shot. There's some states that are still in single digits on that. Some of these states were vaccinating prisoners instead of seniors. They're vaccinating drug addicts instead of seniors. Ron DeSantis: (28:19) And look, I mean, if we had unlimited vaccine, vaccine who you want, but this is limited vaccine. Whose priorities are you looking out for? We're looking out for our parents and grandparents here in Florida, and there's no way you're going to get some prisoner a vaccine over a senior citizen. And so our seniors first promise is iron clad. We're making good progress. Look, if I had half a million additional doses a week, we'd be able to do even more, but we're happy we got the extra 40,000. We think the Villages is a good place to apply some of that. Our commitment, what I've told my guys is, look, they did a good job here. We told them to use it. They used it. Let's keep getting it to them. So in future shipments, we're budgeting this amount to continue to keep the Villages operating with the drive-through site. Ron DeSantis: (29:15) The seniors like it. When the weather gets a little warmer, maybe we'll see more golf carts. I didn't see a lot of golf carts the other day, because quite frankly, it was probably about 50 degrees outside. So as the weather gets a little bit better, we'll have the opportunity to do the golf carts as well. So I'm excited about the progress we can make in the Villages with this site. I'm also excited about all the homes you guys are selling. If you look there was ... Did you see the thing where they had the 25 communities that had the most new home construction, I think it was, and the Villages was number one in the country by a country mile. It wasn't even close if you look. The next closest was like, it's like the Villages and everyone else. And I think Florida, we had at least five of the 25, maybe even more than that with the Villages leading the way. Ron DeSantis: (30:03) So they say it's America's friendliest hometown. It's going to get a lot friendlier with a lot of new faces and hey, what's not to like about being in the Villages. If you're a little bit older and very active, you play golf every day, you socialize. And then when everyone gets vaccinated, I know the partying and the events you used to do can resume full throttle. So we're looking forward to that. And I will come back and help you guys ring that in. So, thanks everybody. We appreciate it. Speaker 8: (30:30) Thank you. Speaker 2: (30:30) Thank you, sir. Ron DeSantis: (30:30) Let us know how we can be helpful, but we think this will be good.