DeSantis says vaccines are best tool against COVID; but how’s FL doing on the vaccination front?

Back in December, Gov. Ron DeSantis prioritized the elderly population for COVID-19 vaccines, a strategy that went against the status quo and pushed for seniors to get the shots first.

Eight months later, CDC data show that 82.1 percent of Florida residents 65 and older are fully vaccinated, slightly higher than the national average. Florida ranks 26th of the 50 states and Washington, D.C.

That means 25 other states did better when it came to vaccinating the elderly, according to the data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Northeast states such as Vermont, Rhode Island, Maine and Connecticut are in the 90-percent-and-higher category for residents age 65 and older who are fully vaccinated in their states. Those are smaller-population states with fewer vaccine doses, but even some big states show higher percentages than Florida.

In Pennsylvania, 85.9 percent of 65+ residents have been fully vaccinated; New York’s number is 82.4 percent. New Jersey is at  85 percent, and Ohio had a slightly higher figure than Florida.

Meanwhile, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday continued to traverse the state to raise awareness of monoclonal antibodies therapy being offered as a COVID treatment for free at 21 sites in Florida and counting.

But while the governor focused on promoting treatment after a person becomes ill, he also reminded listeners that vaccination is the best tool for avoiding infection and fighting the spread.

He did not mention masking — and no one visible in broadcasts of his three indoor press conferences was wearing a face mask or practicing significant distancing.

DeSantis said getting vaccinated is the most effective way to protect oneself from the Delta-variant wave of COVID raging in Florida, but he recommended monoclonal antibodies therapy for people who get sick from not getting vaccinated or from contracting the more transmissible Delta variant in “breakthrough” cases that overcome currently available vaccine protection. (Booster shots are just becoming available on a limited basis).

“If you’re at risk, the best thing you can do beforehand, obviously, is to get vaccinated. But even if you are, and if you’re not, if you do become COVID-positive, you have an opportunity to get early treatment using these monoclonal antibodies,” DeSantis said at a press conference in Tampa.

“This is not in lieu of [vaccination]. It’s in addition to.”

The three press conferences featured testimonials from COVID patients who said they were successfully treated with monoclonal antibodies, including Toma Dean, a Jacksonville woman seen in a widely circulated photograph lying crumpled on the floor after arriving at a clinic site to be treated. Dean did not mention her vaccination status.

But overall, with vaccine shots widely available, Florida is at 52.6 percent for total population fully vaccinated.

Florida ranks 22nd among the states and the District of Columbia in that category. Florida is among 25 states and the District of Columbia in terms those states that 50 percent and higher.

Vermont, at 67.8 percent, has the highest figure for the percent of the total population fully vaccinated. The smallest figure is Mississippi, at 37.7 percent.

DeSantis also said COVID hospitalizations and visits to emergency departments have begun to decline, suggesting early treatment with monoclonal antibodies may be helping with that.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the use of monoclonal antibodies therapy under an emergency authorization.  Some but not all brands have been shown to reduce the severity of infections and improve recovery times even in Delta-variant cases. The therapy does not keep people infected with COVID from transmitting it.

Here’s a list of states related to 65 + populations and fully-vaccinated residents:

State	Percent of 65+ Pop Fully Vaccinated by State of Residence
Vermont	94.3
Rhode Island	92.9
Maine	92.3
Connecticut	91.2
Wisconsin	89.3
Maryland	89.2
Washington	88.4
Minnesota	88.2
New Mexico	87.9
Massachusetts	87.8
New Hampshire	87.5
South Dakota	87.5
Iowa	87.4
Nebraska	86.8
Delaware	86
Pennsylvania	85.9
Hawaii	85.4
New Jersey	85
Oregon	84.6
Virginia	83.7
Kansas	82.8
Michigan	82.7
Indiana	82.7
New York State	82.4
Ohio	82.3
Florida	82.1
Colorado	81.9
Utah	81.7
Kentucky	81.4
District of Columbia	80.8
Louisiana	79.9
Montana	79.2
Alaska	79
California	78.8
Idaho	78.8
Texas	78.6
South Carolina	78.5
North Carolina	78.3
Oklahoma	78
Illinois	76.8
Missouri	76.8
Nevada	76
Arizona	75.7
North Dakota	75.7
Tennessee	75.5
Wyoming	74.8
Mississippi	74.7
Georgia	73.8
Alabama	72.3
West Virginia	70.8
Arkansas	70.4

Here’s a list of states related to overall total populations and fully-vaccinated residents:

State	Percent of Total Pop Fully Vaccinated by State of Residence
Vermont	67.8
Connecticut	65.8
Massachusetts	65.8
Maine	65.6
Rhode Island	64.6
Maryland	61.3
New Jersey	61.3
Washington	60
New Mexico	59.9
New York State	59.9
New Hampshire	59.6
Oregon	57.9
District of Columbia	57.2
Virginia	57
Colorado	56.8
Minnesota	55.8
California	55.7
Hawaii	55.2
Delaware	55.1
Pennsylvania	55
Wisconsin	53.9
Florida	52.6
Nebraska	51.9
Iowa	51.5
Illinois	51
Michigan	50.4
South Dakota	49.1
Ohio	48.3
Kentucky	48.3
Kansas	48.1
Arizona	47.7
Nevada	47.6
Utah	47.5
Texas	47.2
Alaska	47.1
Indiana	46.2
North Carolina	46.2
Montana	45.9
Missouri	45
Oklahoma	43.6
South Carolina	43.1
North Dakota	41.7
Tennessee	41.5
Louisiana	41.4
Arkansas	41.3
Georgia	41.2
West Virginia	39.6
Idaho	39.1
Wyoming	38.4
Alabama	37.9
Mississippi	37.7

The post DeSantis says vaccines are best tool against COVID; but how’s FL doing on the vaccination front? first appeared on Daily Florida Press.

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