Palm Beach County recently pulled ahead of Broward County in terms of the number of people vaccinated for COVID-19. But it's been a slow and unpredictable rollout.
Last month, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced a vaccine distribution pilot program that would be available in Palm Beach County at Publix pharmacies — and only at Publix pharmacies.
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It sparked outrage. County Commissioner Melissa McKinlay told WLRN the Publix-only vaccine plan would create a “vaccine desert.” It would limit access to the vaccine for people who live in underserved, rural communities in the Glades area.
“Belle Glade, South Bay and Pahokee, they rank number one, number two and number four in terms of the poorest cities in Florida. The other one in that list is Immokalee. I don't think people understand that there are two parts to Palm Beach County,” McKinlay said. “There's the part that gets glorified in the media, Mar-a-Lago and Worth Avenue and the town of Palm Beach and the coastal side of the community.”
“But out west, it's predominantly rural. It's predominantly agricultural. It's one of the largest agricultural production areas in the entire country, but it struggles with poverty and extreme poverty,” she said.
McKinlay says the Publix-only distribution plan “came out of nowhere without any heads up to the county commission.”
“At no time did we ever make a request that Publix be the sole provider of vaccines in our community,” McKinlay said.
The state has since changed that Publix-only inoculation plan.
"I don't think people understand that there are two parts to Palm Beach County."
McKinlay, whose district covers the Glades and other western parts of the county, got word from Jared Moskowitz, the state’s emergency management director, about a new plan to reallocate some of the vaccine doses beyond Publix.
McKinlay says vaccines will be distributed through the county’s health care district and the local state health department. She says as it should have been in the first place.
“He [Moskowitz] confirmed he'll be setting up a point of distribution somewhere in Belle Glade. They're working out those details now,” McKinlay said.
McKinlay said the state reallocated 5,000 vaccines from Publix to local state health director Dr. Alina Alonso, who is set “to coordinate pop-up sites this week across the county.”
The county is still desperate for more vaccines.
McKinlay said there are many areas west of Loxahatchee Groves, “predominantly minority communities of Belle Glade, South Bay, Pahokee Canal, Point Lake Harbor” who don’t have access to a nearby Publix.
“If you lived on the easternmost edge of Belle Glade, you would have to travel 25 miles. If you left the very last westernmost store in Palm Beach County and Loxahatchee Groves, you would have to drive 108 miles west along State Road 80 until you came to the next Publix," she said.
And people usually get around town using public transportation, according to a letter signed by three mayors in the Glades area who, alongside state representatives, demanded the state to include cities in the Glades area.
McKinlay said constituents often see local leaders as the problem behind the slow vaccine rollout. She’s had to explain the state-run operation to passersby at her local coffee shop, many of whom have stopped her to express their grievances.
The commissioner says the state should trust local governments to use emergency distribution and logistics plans already in place to “handle the response to any other natural disaster.”
In terms of vying for state government attention, McKinlay says it’s hard for rural communities to compete against places like Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach — places with huge populations and commercial centers.
“We often feel left out of the bigger picture and forgotten,” McKinlay said. “And I'm trying to use my voice to make sure that everybody in the state of Florida has equal access to a vaccine opportunity.”
