Florida Official Accused of Choosing Herself, Friends for Coronavirus Vaccine Priority
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A Florida sheriff’s office is investigating a county commissioner over the allegation she abused her authority to put herself and two wealthy ZIP codes at the front of the line for the coveted COVID-19 vaccine. Manatee Commissioner Vanessa Baugh chose two high-income ZIP codes in her district as the sites of two pop-up vaccination centers last week, and an ethics complaint filed against her alleges, “Baugh ignored the Vaccine Standby Pool process and selected two zip codes within her own district, including friends and herself, that would receive the additional doses of Covid-19 vaccine at the pop-up site.” Detectives are investigating the complaint. A Tuesday vote of the Manatee County Commission to remove Baugh from office failed narrowly, 4-3.