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Yellow Fever to COVID: Florida's Democrats Gave the State Power Over Public Health, Republicans Ran With It

An image of a syringe leaning against a vial of COVID-19 vaccine
Matt Rourke
/
AP
A health worker administers a dose of a Moderna COVID-19 vaccine during a vaccination clinic at the Norristown Public Health Center in Norristown, Pa., Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2021.

For a long time, big decisions that affected the health of Floridians came from county-run health departments. Aiming for more equity, Democrats funneled that power to the state, and somewhere along the way, Republicans embraced big government.

Daniel Rivero is part of WLRN's new investigative reporting team. Before joining WLRN, he was an investigative reporter and producer on the television series "The Naked Truth," and a digital reporter for Fusion. He can be reached at <a label="drivero@wlrnnews.org" class="rte2-style-brightspot-core-link-LinkRichTextElement" href="mailto:drivero@wlrnnews.org" target="_blank" link-data="{&quot;cms.site.owner&quot;:{&quot;_ref&quot;:&quot;0000016e-ccea-ddc2-a56e-edfe78d10000&quot;,&quot;_type&quot;:&quot;ae3387cc-b875-31b7-b82d-63fd8d758c20&quot;},&quot;cms.content.publishDate&quot;:1678401998388,&quot;cms.content.publishUser&quot;:{&quot;_ref&quot;:&quot;00000185-c831-dae1-a78d-ecf9b3f30000&quot;,&quot;_type&quot;:&quot;6aa69ae1-35be-30dc-87e9-410da9e1cdcc&quot;},&quot;cms.content.updateDate&quot;:1678401998388,&quot;cms.content.updateUser&quot;:{&quot;_ref&quot;:&quot;00000185-c831-dae1-a78d-ecf9b3f30000&quot;,&quot;_type&quot;:&quot;6aa69ae1-35be-30dc-87e9-410da9e1cdcc&quot;},&quot;cms.directory.paths&quot;:[],&quot;anchorable.showAnchor&quot;:false,&quot;link&quot;:{&quot;attributes&quot;:[],&quot;cms.directory.paths&quot;:[],&quot;linkText&quot;:&quot;drivero@wlrnnews.org&quot;,&quot;target&quot;:&quot;NEW&quot;,&quot;attachSourceUrl&quot;:false,&quot;url&quot;:&quot;mailto:drivero@wlrnnews.org&quot;,&quot;_id&quot;:&quot;00000186-c88d-db71-a7b6-d8bdb98b0001&quot;,&quot;_type&quot;:&quot;ff658216-e70f-39d0-b660-bdfe57a5599a&quot;},&quot;_id&quot;:&quot;00000186-c88d-db71-a7b6-d8bdb98b0000&quot;,&quot;_type&quot;:&quot;809caec9-30e2-3666-8b71-b32ddbffc288&quot;}">drivero@wlrnnews.org</a>
Verónica Zaragovia was born in Cali, Colombia, and grew up in South Florida. She’s been a lifelong WLRN listener and is proud to cover health care, as well as Surfside and Miami Beach politics for the station. Contact Verónica at vzaragovia@wlrnnews.org