Florida governor Ron DeSantis threatens to pull vaccines after being accused of prioritising white residents

‘If Manatee County doesn’t like us doing this, then we are totally fine with putting this in counties that want it,’ Mr DeSantis says following the backlash

Governor Ron DeSantis has threatened to pull one of his vaccine clinics in Florida after he was accused of prioritising wealthy, white residents over other population groups.

Manatee County announced on Tuesday that the Florida's Division of Emergency Management would host a "pop-up" vaccination site for residents to receive a Covid-19 vaccine.

But the pop-up site was selected for only two zip codes of the county: 34202 and 34211.

Mr DeSantis and his administration received backlash quickly after from Republicans and Democrats for prioritising the "whitest" people in the county to receive a vaccine.

"You're taking the whitest demographic, the richest demographic in Manatee County and putting them ahead of everyone else," said Manatee County Commissioner Misty Servia, a Republican, on Tuesday after the announcement.

"The optics are bad ... very bad – I'm really disappointed," she added.

Mr DeSantis addressed the controversy on Wednesday during a press conference. But instead of apologising, he threatened to distribute the vaccine doses elsewhere outside of Manatee County.

"If Manatee County doesn't like us doing this, then we are totally fine with putting this in counties that want it," Mr DeSantis said. "We're totally happy to do that."

Mass vaccination campaigns across the United States have exacerbated the disparities seen between wealthy communities and minority and poor populations.

White, wealthy residents have been vaccinated at a higher rate compared to African Americans and Latino Americans, despite these minority groups contracting and dying at higher rates from Covid-19 on average.

Critics said the state government directing the vaccines towards specific zip codes would only widen some of the disparities being witnessed in Florida and across the country.

Board of County Commissioners Chair Vanessa Baugh, a Republican, said the decision to place the pop-up clinic for a specific location "was done strictly by the governor who called Rex Jensen", adding they wanted it in Lakewood Ranch.

She was referring to Rex Jensen, the CEO of Schroeder-Manatee Ranch, the parent company of Lakewood Ranch. The wealthy community has houses valued between "$180,000s to more than $1million," according to its website.

Mr DeSantis denied that the zip codes were picked based on political or personal influence.

"It wasn't a choice about zip codes, it was a choice about where's a high concentration of seniors where you could have communities provide the ability for them to go on [to get vaccinated]," he said.

This pop-up vaccination clinic was one of several state-led facilities in Florida's "Seniors First '' initiative to get everyone over 65 years and older vaccinated in the state. Florida has set up several clinics targeted at senior living communities to reach this population group.

Democrats in the state have since released a press release accusing the governor for using politics when distributing the Covid-19 vaccines.

"Threatening retribution and less vaccine access for communities that criticise the vaccine rollout for its problems is shameful and inhumane," said Florida Democratic Party Chair Manny Diaz.

State Senator Annette Taddeo, a Democrat, has called the move "disgusting and unacceptable" when allocating "life-saving vaccines."

"The governor owes Manatee County residents an apology and a public statement reassuring the public that political games will not be used in the distribution of vaccines in our state. Period," she added.