- April 24, 2024
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Cliff Lathrop can’t wait to hug his daughter again.
The 67-year-old River Club resident has been especially careful during the COVID-19 pandemic. His 70-year-old wife, Catherine Lathrop, has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a condition that obstructs airflow from the lungs.
“I’m constantly worried,” Cliff Lathrop said. “If she gets it, with a lung disease, it would be bad.”
After they receive their second vaccinations at Premier Sports Campus, Cliff and Catherine Lathrop will visit with their daughter, Sarah Lathrop, who lives in Nashville. Aside from a brief "Hello" while she was visiting nearby Anna Maria Island to take care of her cousin’s pets, it’s been a year and a half since the Lathrops have visited with her. They usually get together about twice per year.
“I’m from a very close family,” Cliff Lathrop said. “We hug all the time. I miss that.”
The elder Lathrops received their first doses of vaccine Feb. 17 and are scheduled to receive their second doses March 17. They are two of 3,200 people who live in the 34202 and 34211 Zip codes who received vaccinations at Premier Sports Campus in Lakewood Ranch Feb. 17 through Feb. 19 at a pop-up site orchestrated by Gov. Ron DeSantis, Schroeder-Manatee Ranch CEO and President Rex Jensen, developer Pat Neal and Commissioner Vanessa Baugh.
While the Lathrops and others who received the vaccinations were applauding the effort, a firestorm erupted over the way the event was organized.
Baugh was ripped by fellow commissioners for not including them in organizing a pop-up site and for not using the county's random selection pool to choose those vaccinated. Baugh also was criticized for an email she sent to Public Safety Director Jacob Saur that listed Schroeder-Manatee Ranch CEO and President Rex Jensen, Lawrence Jensen, herself, and two of Baugh’s neighbors as “names for vaccination requested.”
Baugh, who apologized at a Commission meeting for her email to Saur, said she only wanted to ensure those names were listed in the county’s Vaccination Standby Pool. She was criticized for playing favorites in a county that had stressed all county residents would have an equal shot at being vaccinated.
“It does compromise our system,” Commissioner Misty Servia said. “It does pit people against each other. We’ve asked why do we think there's a racism problem perceived in Manatee County. This adds to that argument. Because you're taking the whitest demographic, the richest demographic in Manatee County, and putting them ahead of everyone else.”
Parrish resident James Kennedy, 70, already was upset by the county’s lottery system. He said he registered for the Vaccination Standby Pool on Jan. 8, hours after it opened. Kennedy is pre-diabetic, has a stent in his heart and has blood pressure and cholesterol problems. He had not received an appointment for his vaccination as of Feb. 16 and said it felt like a “death sentence.”
“I played by their rules, and now they're going to discriminate against me?” Kennedy said. “I can't get a vaccine, but they're going to put 3,000 people ahead of me, because they live in Lakewood Ranch? That's total discrimination. And whoever made that decision needs to be fired.”
Braden Woods resident Phillip Obregon was relieved to receive his first dose Feb. 17 at Premier. On the other hand, the 69-year-old had mixed feelings about the Lakewood Ranch site.
“There's a lot of people like myself, who are in their late 60s, early 70s and older that live in Bradenton, that don't have the luck of the draw that just happened to be living in this Zip code,” Obregon said. “And that's disconcerting.”
Country Club resident Donna McIntyre, 79, agreed with Obregon and doesn’t blame people outside the selected Zip codes who were upset.
Nonetheless, she was grateful to receive her first dose at Premier on Feb. 17. She has asthma and a heart condition, so she has barely left her house since the pandemic started except for groceries, trips to the bank and doctor appointments. McIntyre is most excited to resume painting with her friends, who used to meet every Monday and Friday for art sessions.
“Because I can't meet up with my friends, I have just almost stopped painting,” McIntyre said. “I just have lost my inspiration to paint. … I look forward to going back.”
