Advertisement

Which Tampa Bay state legislators and Congress members are vaccinated?

With the delta variant spreading across Florida, health leaders have pointed to the vaccine as a way out. But what are public officials doing?
 
Doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine are distributed for administration on Tuesday, April 13, 2021, at the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Greyound Spoke vaccination site at the Larry Sanders Sports Complex, 5855 S 78th St., in Tampa. Florida is the first state to have a “hub-and-spoke model” for the federal vaccine sites, Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Jared Moskowitz said Tuesday. The mini-sites are meant to get vaccines deeper into communities and reach people who don’t have transportation or who face other barriers to get doses at the main vaccine sites.
Doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine are distributed for administration on Tuesday, April 13, 2021, at the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Greyound Spoke vaccination site at the Larry Sanders Sports Complex, 5855 S 78th St., in Tampa. Florida is the first state to have a “hub-and-spoke model” for the federal vaccine sites, Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Jared Moskowitz said Tuesday. The mini-sites are meant to get vaccines deeper into communities and reach people who don’t have transportation or who face other barriers to get doses at the main vaccine sites. [ DOUGLAS R. CLIFFORD | Times ]
Published Aug. 12, 2021|Updated Aug. 13, 2021

As the delta variant continues to dominate Florida, plunging the state into a fourth wave of hospitalizations and infections, public health experts keep emphasizing the way out: the coronavirus vaccines.

Gov. Ron DeSantis has promoted the vaccines in news conferences and at roundtables. Doctors and epidemiologists stress their importance in reducing spread and serious illness.

About 63 percent of Florida’s 12-and-older population has received a vaccine so far.

Local state legislators and Congress members have played a role in promoting the vaccines amid resistance and misinformation, with some using their offices to help connect constituents with places to get vaccinated or using their social media accounts to share pictures of themselves getting the shots.

But not all have been forthcoming about whether they are among the vaccinated, and some have been more vocal than others in touting the shots.

Of the 30 legislators in the greater Tampa Bay area contacted by the Tampa Bay Times earlier this month, 18 shared they were vaccinated. Twelve did not return requests for comment.

Both Senate President Sen. Wilton Simpson, R-Trilby, and House Speaker Chris Sprowls, R-Palm Harbor, have gotten coronavirus vaccines, according to their spokespeople.

Rep. Ben Diamond, D-St. Petersburg, said he was vaccinated in the spring, in part to protect his three young children who aren’t eligible for a vaccine. Diamond said he also considered vaccination a way to protect the many people who come to speak with him in his legislative office.

“We all know how unfortunate it is that the issues relating to this pandemic have been politicized and we have to step out of that space,” Diamond said, adding that his aides helped in the early part of the vaccine rollout to connect elderly Floridians with access to vaccine appointments.

Staff for Rep. Tommy Gregory, R-Sarasota, also helped at-risk groups get access to vaccines in the early phases of the vaccine rollout, said aide David Ballard. Ballard said Gregory got his coronavirus vaccine this spring.

Some state legislators shared when they got their vaccine on social media, including Rep. William Robinson Jr., R-Bradenton, and Rep. Andrew Learned, D-Brandon. Others have been more private about it. (DeSantis in April said he got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, but he opted to do so out of the public eye.)

Rep. Susan Valdés, D-Tampa, was vaccinated when her age group became eligible, she said. Sen. Jim Boyd, R-Bradenton, Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg, Sen. Darryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg, Sen. Janet Cruz, D-Tampa, Rep. Blaise Ingoglia, R-Spring Hill, Rep. Nick DiCeglie, R-Indian Rocks Beach, Rep. Dianne Hart, D-Tampa, Rep. Michele Rayner, D-St. Petersburg, and Rep. Fentrice Driskell, D-Tampa, also said they got vaccinated against the coronavirus.

“As a legislator, it is imperative that I lead by example,” Driskell said in a statement, saying she listened to leading medical experts in deciding whether to get vaccinated.

Driskell said it has been heartbreaking to hear stories of patients begging for the vaccine from hospital beds in recent weeks.

“I hope these examples and the escalating infection rates motivate Floridians to do their part and get vaccinated quickly despite the lack of decisive action from the state of Florida,” Driskell said.

Rep. Chris Latvala, R-Clearwater, and Sen. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland, were both vaccinated at the end of the legislative session, they said. Both had previously been infected by the coronavirus; Stargel tested positive in November, while Latvala got a severe case in August 2020 that put him in the hospital.

Other legislators did not return requests made via email and phone call for comment. Those include Sens. Ed Hooper, R-Palm Harbor, Danny Burgess, R-Zephyrhills, and Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula; and Reps. Mike Beltran, R-Lithia, Lawrence McClure, R-Dover, Jackie Toledo, R-Tampa, Traci Koster, R-Tampa, Linda Chaney, R-St. Pete Beach, Amber Mariano, R-Hudson, Ardian Zika, R-Land O’ Lakes, Randall Scott Maggard, R-Dade City, and Ralph Massullo, R-Lecanto.

The majority of Tampa Bay-area state legislators have posted information on social media on how their constituents could find vaccines. Some have directly urged people to get vaccinated, while others more strongly stressed the notion of personal choice.

Several legislators said they helped arrange vaccine availability in their districts in the early days when doses were harder to come by. Latvala said he got the Department of Health to come to On Top of the World, a massive retirement community in Clearwater, and vaccinate over 1,000 residents over two days, Latvala said.

Hart said she helped get doses for Health Matters Pharmacy in East Tampa, and Rayner contacted the Florida Department of Emergency Management to set up vaccine sites in Manatee and Sarasota earlier this year.

Meanwhile, the U.S. House members from Tampa Bay have almost all shared that they’ve been vaccinated, including Reps. Charlie Crist, D-St. Petersburg, Kathy Castor, D-Tampa, Vern Buchanan, R-Longboat Key, Gus Bilirakis, R-Palm Harbor, and Scott Franklin, R-Lakeland.

“I chose to get the COVID-19 vaccine after weighing my options and determining what was best for me and my family,” Franklin said in a statement. “I would encourage others to consider their own health situation, and determine what is best for them as well. Ultimately, I believe getting vaccinated is a personal choice.”

Rep. Daniel Webster, R-Clermont, declined to comment on whether or not he was inoculated.

Buchanan co-sponsored a bill in March 2021 to expand vaccine access through the Department of Veterans Affairs and give shots to veterans and their caretakers. He also wrote to DeSantis in February asking to prioritize hospice workers’ access to the vaccine.

In recent weeks, as the delta surge brought Florida back to days many hoped the vaccine would eradicate, Crist took a more direct stance of calling for DeSantis to mandate that all state employees be vaccinated. He also called for the Justice Department to investigate whether DeSantis was prioritizing vaccine access to wealthy communities.

Both of Florida’s senators, Rick Scott and Marco Rubio, have been vaccinated. Rubio got an early dose of the vaccine in December 2020, back when doses were in short supply, and shared a photo on social media. Scott, who tested positive for the coronavirus in November, announced on social media in July that he’d gotten vaccinated.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated after Rep. Blaise Ingoglia told the Times he has been vaccinated.