By: Vincent Chi

After overpowering demand from the public, Florida will allow pediatricians to order their COVID vaccines for children below the age of 5. In other words, families will be able to get vaccine shots from their family doctor, but they will receive them behind schedule. Florida was the last of the 50 states to allow healthcare providers to order vaccines. The White House called it a “reversal” from Gov. Ron Desantis, who has aspirations of becoming the Republican nominee in the 2024 election. Desantis’s administration claimed they only delayed this because the Food and Drug Administration hadn’t authorized the Modern and Pfizer vaccine for very young children. As a result of this order being so late, Floridians will not be able to get the vaccine during the first wave of orders, nor will they get it in the second. Florida didn’t preorder by the June 14 deadline, hence the delay. The White House’s COVID response coordinator, Dr. Ashish K. Jha, believed that “the state of Florida intentionally missed multiple deadlines to order vaccines to their youngest children.” “We have always maintained the position that the state of Florida has chosen not to be involved in the preordering or distribution of the vaccine for children under 5,” explains DeSantis’s deputy press secretary, Bryan Griffin, “The state of Florida does not recommend the vaccine be administered to healthy children,” he adds. State officials said that doctors could only order vaccines after the state portal was opened on Friday when the FDA authorized the vaccine. But Dr. Lisa Gwynn, who has been communicating with these officials, claims to not be informed of the information. “First they said providers could order directly from the federal government,” she inferred. “That’s not true. We have to order through the state.” On Thursday, the governor came out in defense of his state’s refusal of the vaccine for young children. “I would say we are affirmatively against the Covid vaccine for young kids,” he said. “These are the people who have zero risk of getting anything. A letter was sent to DeSantis on Friday asking him to change his position.