Many Florida Democrats are criticizing a report by the CBS News program "60 Minutes" that attempted to depict the state's vaccination partnership with the Publix grocery store chain as abhorrent. The program on April 4 navigated the COVID-19 vaccine dissemmination in Florida. It has experienced a similar novel coronavirus death rate to California and other states notwithstanding having much looser limitations.
Democrats on DeSantis in '60 Minutes'
According to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Monday, the news magazine show discredited itself by pushing a "political narrative" regarding his overseeing of the coronavirus vaccine distribution that ran counter to the reality. The governor stated DeSantis stated on "Tucker Carlson Tonight" that amid a segment with correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, what he uttered was "deceptively edited" to depict Florida's senior citizen inoculation plan with Publix supermarkets to be merely paying back a corporate political donor.
However, CBS is abiding by a "60 Minutes" segment on DeSantis, in which the program alleged the Florida governor enlisted Publix to help with COVID-19 vaccinations due to a campaign contribution. A CBS reporter asked him at a press conference regarding the alleged "pay-for-play" scheme. But the segment aired on Sunday edited out a key section of his response to the allegation, reported Yahoo Finance.
Thus, the show is facing backlash for the narrative it aired on the Republican governor, including from Publix and two prominent Democrats in Florida. As part of a bigger story regarding Florida's vaccine dissemmination, the renowned program underscored a recent $100,000 donation that the supermarket chain made to the Florida governor's re-election bid, reported Lebanon Express.
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As of midnight Monday morning, Florida recorded over 6.2 million Floridians had been inoculated. The report arrived shortly after the CBS News program aired the narrative on Sunday claiming the state's vaccine dissemmination was controlled by money and wealth and was "chaotic." The "60 Minutes" narrative started with a powerful statement regarding Florida's vaccine dissemmination system.
The Florida governor called the allegation a false narrative, proffering a lengthy explanation of what tanspired. It involved state officials reaching out to pharmacies besides Walgreens and CVS because those two companies took on the role of distributing vaccines to long-term care facilities, reported The Epoch Times.
The Lakeland grocer also criticized "60 Minutes," touting the reports offensive and false. TV Host Tucker Carlson also played correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi's clip. This was succeeded by the full video of DeSantis' exchange at a press conference that the CBS program took from. According to DeSantis, his deal with Publix had nothing to do with a six-figure political donation and many Florida Democrats came out to defend him and confirmed his agreement's account.
According to a CBS spokesperson, "As we always do for clarity, '60 Minutes' used the portion of the Governor's over 2-minute response that directly addressed the question from the correspondent." In the comments not aired by CBS, the Florida governor explained CVS and Walgreens were the initial pharmacies enlisted by Florida to dissemminate COVID-19 vaccines. Upon the airing of the report, the Democratic county mayor and the Democratic director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management of Palm Beach County both publicly made their responses. They stated partnering with Publix was not suggested by anyone from the Florida governor's office.
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