Florida officials call for FBI to investigate governor Ron DeSantis ‘for linking vaccines to donations’

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} Florida’s top Democratic officials have called for federal investigations into Governor Ron DeSantis for allegedly prioritising vaccine doses to wealthy donors in exchange for political favours. On Thursday, senator Gary Farmer slammed what he described as the governor’s “vaccine auction” and wrote a letter to US attorney general Monty Wilkinson. Representative Charlie Crist has also raised concerns over the vaccine distribution in Florida and wrote a letter in February to the acting attorney general to investigate the governor allegedly favouring “political allies and donors” over higher-risk communities. On Wednesday, the Miami Herald reported that the “ultra-exclusive” Ocean Reef Club community in the Florida Keys, which accounts for dozens of Mr DeSantis’s donors, had 1,200 people vaccinated by mid-January while many Floridians struggled to get their jabs.