Bizarre NBC News Hit Piece Criticizes Ron DeSantis for Prioritizing Seniors for Vaccine Distribution
‘Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, ignored federal guidelines and prioritized getting senior citizens — one of Florida’s most potent voting blocs — vaccinated first,’ NBC News reported.
There have been a lot of ridiculous media hit pieces in the last year on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ management of the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak in his state, but NBC News published one on DeSantis’ “seniors first” vaccine distribution policy recently that really takes the cake.
Corky Siemaszko, whose Twitter feed reads like something you’d see from an unhinged Democrat, started out first by falsely proclaiming in his article that DeSantis “was slow to respond to the pandemic”:
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.
According to his critics, the “political gold” DeSantis supposedly “recognizes” is in prioritizing seniors over everyone else when it comes to who gets the coronavirus vaccine first. This was an actual paragraph that appeared on the website of a major news organization:
Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, ignored federal guidelines and prioritized getting senior citizens — one of Florida’s most potent voting blocs — vaccinated first.
Got that? I mean the sheer nerve of Gov. DeSantis to prioritize vaccinating the hardest-hit group of people during the pandemic. How dare he?
“Most potent voting blocs..” but also the most vulnerable to COVID.
What an absurd botched hit piece. pic.twitter.com/HiANfkuYXT
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) February 20, 2021
I can't believe Ron DeSantis would want to prioritize senior citizens getting COVID vaccines.
If the media have taught me anything, it's that you're supposed to send COVID patients into nursing homes, like what Andrew Cuomo did! That's leadership, apparently. https://t.co/tyhDpHmDwJ
— Zach Montanaro (@ZachMontanaro) February 20, 2021
What’s apparently even worse is that some of the communities that were prioritized included elderly Holocaust and Cuban Bay of Pigs survivors, which are “two other key Florida voting blocs”:
When Holocaust survivors and Cuban survivors of the Bay of Pigs debacle — revered members of two other key Florida voting blocs — got their first shots, DeSantis made sure he was there for the news conferences.
Siemaszko then pivots to suggesting DeSantis “threatened” to pull the vaccine from the communities after Democrat/media criticism over where the vaccines were being rolled out:
“If Manatee County doesn’t like us doing this, we are totally fine with putting this in counties that want it,” he said.
[…]
Earlier, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a South Florida Democrat, blasted DeSantis for threatening Manatee County.
“To threaten that he would pull vaccine if people don’t like the way the distribution system is working is vile and shows the callous indifference he has had in how the vaccine has been handled,” she said on Wednesday.
“Threatened” was a word used by other media outlets as well, including the Sun-Sentinel.
This is such a dumb and dishonest argument on so many levels. On one hand, his critics in the media and on the left are saying he’s prioritizing senior communities over first responders because of politics, but when he responds by suggesting he’ll pull the vaccine from those counties if that’s what they want, now all of a sudden he’s “callous” and “indifferent” to the suffering of senior communities.
DeSantis literally cannot win with these people.
For the record, here’s what DeSantis actually said in response to criticisms about vaccine distribution. The discerning reader will note that no “threat” was issued (ignore the text of the tweet, which is biased and incorrect). Instead, what DeSantis did here was to put the onus on his Democratic critics to make the call:
Unforced error? Famously combative with media, @GovRonDeSantis today says public criticisms about vaccine distribution in parts of Florida could divert vaccines to areas where there are no political criticisms of his efforts https://t.co/jqETqNjI9T pic.twitter.com/Idy4mfTJdk
— Ted Bridis (@tbridis) February 17, 2021
Then after quoting some Florida Democrats who were upset with DeSantis and finding a couple of Republicans to throw into the mix to make it sound “bipartisan,” Siemaszko posted some coronavirus statistics for Florida and alleged they had “some of the worst numbers in the nation”:
Florida, according to the latest NBC News tally, has reported 1.84 million Covid-19 infections and nearly 30,000 deaths due to the coronavirus, some of the worst numbers in the nation.
Most of those infections and deaths came after DeSantis, a staunch Trump supporter, claimed victory over the virus during a White House visit in April and reopened the state over the objections of health experts.
In actuality, Florida numbers are not “some of the worst numbers in the nation” when analyzed per capita. They rank 27th in death rates per 100,000 people. As for case counts, Florida ranks 30th in case numbers per 100,000 people.
That NBC article is a pretty hilariously bad attempt at a hit piece on DeSantis, and it ends with this, not telling readers Florida is actually in the lower half of the country in death rate per capita from COVID. pic.twitter.com/y3tGI5rtHJ
— David Rutz (@DavidRutz) February 20, 2021
Florida’s death rate per 100,000 is still **more than 100 people** lower than New York’s AND has a higher percentage of its population vaccinated (one shot rate and two) and yet this is how @NBCNews covers each state’s governor. pic.twitter.com/xbYepBiKO7
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) February 20, 2021
Also, in NBC News’ rush to dunk on DeSantis for prioritizing seniors, they made a key error that resulted in a correction added two days later to the piece:
CORRECTION (Feb. 20, 2021, 3:40 p.m. ET): An earlier version of this article incorrectly suggested that the Lakewood Ranch development and [its] parent company, Schroeder-Manatee Ranch, which is owned by the Illinois-based Uihlein family, had a connection to Dick Uihlein, a prominent donor to Gov. DeSantis. Dick Uihlein’s lawyer says he has no connection to Schroeder-Manatee or the Lakewood Ranch. That section has been removed from the article.
The conclusion we’re supposed to draw from the story is that Ron DeSantis is a bad guy or something because he put seniors first in the vaccination line, people who incidentally are also a key voting bloc for both parties:
Maybe DeSantis prioritized getting vaccines to seniors because, oh, I don’t know, they’re far and away the most at-risk category? Not because he wants their sweet sweet votes?
— Alexandra DeSanctis (@xan_desanctis) February 20, 2021
For purposes of discussion, let’s say Andrew Cuomo prioritized the vaccine for women or in black or Hispanic communities, which are also key voting blocs. Do you think we’d hear criticism from NBC News or any other news network from them over Cuomo making that key voting bloc a priority? Of course not. I mean, it took them ten months to finally get around to noticing the nursing home controversy, which was and is an actual scandal.
Predictably, this was another hit piece designed to dent DeSantis’ political armor, not just in an attempt to once again paint him as the coronavirus villain over governors who actually have done a bad job, like Cuomo, but also because of 2024 considerations. DeSantis has been touted as a possible top presidential contender, and as a result, the Usual Suspects in the media and on the left are responding accordingly.
It’s especially remarkable when you think about how the media and Democrats routinely accused Trump and DeSantis last year of being willing to sacrifice seniors in order to reopen the economy. So the media and Democrats have almost quite literally done a full reversal from their previous “we must protect seniors!” stance. Sadly, for them it all boils down to politics.
As I’ve said before, these people are nothing if not shamelessly predictable.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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How ridiculous. There is no motive: The D’Rats would just cancel their votes out with fraudulent and harvested mail-in ballots.
“U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a South Florida Democrat, blasted DeSantis for threatening Manatee County …”
Why is Ms. Wasserman Schultz not in prison for aiding Imran Awan’s espionage operation against the U.S. Congress?
Oh, we know why not. Never mind.
Why? Because she is a Democrat
She is also 1/1024th Exhalted Minority!
And she is so incredibly ugly, people are afraid she will cast an evil spell on them.
How ’bout a story about the discarded/deceased senior citizens that start voting Democrat for the first time.
So vaccinating those most vulnerable first is somehow objectionable? That is an insane take.
But then what would one expect from these outlets? Know-nothing journalists trying to virtue-signal invariably is a recipe for disastrously wrong takes on anything.
And those seniors are almost all white! Further evidence of systemic racism and white privilege!! /s
No, not a /s. Tucker reported that the CDC was in disagreement with Trump’s policy of giving seniors first shot at the vaccine, because seniors are mostly white.
Maybe that’s why Zeke Emmanuel said that no one over 75 had a “right” to live. Does that apply to Slow Joe? He never answered that!!
I see they are already preparing the battle space for Governor Ron’s possible run for the presidency.
What bunch of dishonest dickwads.
Evergreen post.
Isn’t this simply a false flag to take the heat off of abject failures such as Cuomo?
I like Ron Desantis. I’d vote for him for POTUS. I’m sure millions of others would as well.
Apparently the media is afraid of that which is why this is just the opening salvo in a four year mission to wreck him before 2024.
This is one of those causation/correlation situations.
Old people are getting vaccinations. Old people vote for DeSantis. Therefore, old people are getting shots not because they are most likely to have severe problems with Covid but because they vote disproportionately Republican.
How people vote and how people die are two entirely different things.
In Michigan, Detroit and Oakland County delivered Michigan for Whitmer and Biden. Detroit and Oakland County are getting a lot more doses than anywhere else. Who is attacking Mayor Duggan and Frau Whitmer for political shenanigans?
“Florida’s governor was slow to respond to the pandemic . . .”
Evidence needed.
Slow, as in Biden?
A: Why not just kill all the seniors, like cuomo did?
B: Who cares what the democrat media says about anything?
C: This is literally obama’s 3rd term:
https://townhall.com/columnists/wayneallynroot/2021/02/21/meet-the-new-president-of-the-united-states–barack-obama-n2585042
Either we get out, or we watch ourselves brought into slavery.
He is a Republican. Of course he cannot do anything right. Whereas if it were a Democrat prioritizing prostitutes, he would be praised.
DeSantis, the Right Wing Governor, catering to the senior citizen voters instead of catering to the various diversity Dem identity groups.
Don’t let Ashli Babbitt be forgotten!
What kind of grown man goes by “Corky?”
One that needs to be punched in his lying fucking mouth.
I bet he’s named after my grandmas cat.
Damn, you beat me to it. Hard to take him seriously.
Maybe it’s his actual name?
For only $400, he could change it legally, if he had any maturity and dignity.
Mr. DeSantis, throw Granny under the bus! You’re Planned if you do, Planned if you don’t.
“When Holocaust survivors and Cuban survivors of the Bay of Pigs debacle”
what do those groups have in common, they are survivors of totalitarian governments, and they were screwed over by he US government
Remember when the Dems ran an add showing Paul Ryan pushing granny off a cliff? Good times, good times.
God forbid that he do the intelligent thing and apply the vaccine to the group that is hardest hit.
Gotta give the radical Socialists credit, they are nothing if not loyal to the Socialist whining. Trump was about winning, Socialists are about whining. As for DWS, how about before she casts any stones at anyone, she comes clean about the Awan Brothers and what all they left this country in possession of and how many times her and other Congress leeches have had their emails and other accounts hacked by these tech terrorists. What say you now, Debbie Wassermann test?
A pretty bizzare story. My understanding is the CDC guidelines allows for overlapping of the highest risk groups or phase 1a is front line health workers and the elderly in homes, then 1b is other key workers and 1c is the over 75’s. That’s an approximation but clearly indicates that vaccinating the elderly is well within the guidance provided that it hasn’t prohibited the supply to health care workers. As far as I’m aware this isn’t the case. Seems a pretty stupid bit of reporting.
Here in Washington County TN, I scored in the 1C classification. That group is getting shots now. I checked, and if I went WAY out of the way, I could have a shot March 5th. Going only six or so miles: March 11.
I’d expect nothing else from socialist / communist writers and pundits. We old people are seen as useless eaters in the Grand Plan, their version of a Great Leap Forward.
I think you misunderstand which is my fault to be fair I should have been clearer. I’m calling the hit piece a stupid bit of reporting. On the basis as set out above.
The CDC Guidelines and most states prioritize senior citizens. Group I-A is 75+ and Group I-B is 65+
Prioritizing by age cuts across racial or other lines. This is a priority for 65+ regardless of race, religion, color or creed.
Best governor in the United States. This guy gets things done, he is on top of things, and is unafraid of the MSM morons. We need more people like Ron DeSantis and hopefully, if Trump chooses not to run in 2024, DeSantis will win in a landslide (assuming fraud is solved by then).
Every day I thank God for being able to live in Florida and for getting out of NY.
Their manic obsession with destroying DeSantis will simply ensure that he gets impeached three times during his presidency. And then re-elected.
Journalism isn’t a profession, it’s a learning disability.
I live in Port Charlotte less than a mile from the Kings Gate subdivision. It is across Rampart Boulevard from a similar subdivision, called the Maple Leaf. Charlotte County has one of Florida’s highest percentages of elderly – 1/3rd or a little higher. I have no way of knowing, but I wouldn’t be surprised if a few Canadian long term snowbirds made their way across the road to the pop-up distribution center that is currently being criticized by the media presstitutes. Here in Florida, long term ‘foreign’ residents who meet the age restrictions are welcome to get vaccinated. That includes, heavens, New Yorkers too. Compare that to Trudeau’s hospitality for Americans coming to Canada. Or New York’s for that matter.
Florida’s kids have been allowed to attend school since August and will complete a regular school year. The media would be all over it if there were significant instances of kids infecting their elders. (Occasionally, an individual school is closed if there is a ChiCom virus outbreak, until the issue is resolved.) Under Charlotte County’s innovative E-learning model, parents get support if they chose to home school or remote learn.
Florida’s virus numbers compare closely to California’s numbers, but without Draconian state diktats. Economy-wise, while there has been some real pain here, our unemployment rate is low and people can move about without state interference, again unlike California. I don’t foresee Gov DeSantis being recalled, unlike Gov Newsome.
The one thing that hasn’t been done, to the best of my knowledge, is to tabulate the number of vaccinations per 100K population for each county for elderly residents. That is the only way to determine if vaccine distribution was politically skewed. Apparently, this is beyond the capabilities of the gossip mongers.
DeSantis literally cannot win with these people.
Why would he want to win with these fools?? He has his constituents… and he managed not to kill 12,000 of them.
He has the qualities of a good leader, poor bastard. They will try to make him pay for that..
Terribly written news article, but what would you expect coming from a grown man who calls himself Corky! Gawd!!
How do you know it’s not his name?
Maybe he really likes wine
I’ve noticed in all of this, that since DeSantis and Florida aren’t absolutely *perfect* dealing with the virus, they’re unredeemably terrible, and nothing other than regime change is warranted to make things right in the Sunshine State.
But when talking about NY, NJ, and elsewhere where it has been observably, statistically, and *objectively* worse, it’s always “eh, nobody’s perfect.”
I wonder how the MSM would respond if a conservative outlet ran a piece pondering why the MSM despise the elderly, Holocaust survivors, and Bay of Pigs Survivors so much that they’re pushing to see them dead?
And there’s an opportunity for another piece to ponder on the great failings of the education system that the MSM apparently cannot distinguish between absolute values – Florida is one of the largest states in America, and relative (per capita) rates. The alternative is of course that the MSM are deliberately embracing the Goebbels role which is even worse than poorly educated. I mean the MSM object to being called the enemy of the people, but if they’re committed to being the enemy of the people …
This is a pure propaganda ploy.
PRAVDA would be proud.
Since Cuomo is a Dem and is getting destroyed – NBC feels a need to smear a Repub. They know DeSantis record in Florida makes him a viable 2024 candidate – so they have to rough him up.
Right now, DNC is certainly conducting polls and strategizing about how to hurt DeSantis. You will see many more dirty tricks played against DeSantis in the coming months.
The MSM needs to feed the lies to the ideologues on the left – before they have a minute to think for themselves.
In all my life I’ve never seen such professional and intellectual dishonesty that I’ve seen among journalists. I have a college friend who is a reporter (not on a political beat) and he says the newsrooms are like DNC echo-chambers now. No reporter dare dissent. But at some point, they will start to retire or will realize the threat to the nation and future generations – AND THEN I hope they speak loudly about what has happened. Like Bari Weiss and NY Times. The truth comes out eventually. I just hope its not too late.
This is the Dems regard for the elderly – they have fewer “quality life years” and should be just given palliative care.