Looking to expand COVID-19 vaccine distribution sites over the winter, Florida’s emergency management director says he first reached out to Walmart, not Publix, to execute the mission.

The reason: Walmart has more locations than Publix in socially vulnerable, rural areas in Florida. But Walmart wouldn’t be ready to distribute the vaccine for three weeks, Jared Moskowitz, the state’s emergency management director, told National Review. So, he reached out to Publix, a Florida-based grocery and pharmacy chain.

“Publix said they could be ready in 72 hours,” said Moskowitz, who is a Democrat. “I picked Publix. Walked into the governor’s office the next day, gave them the plan about why we needed to turn on more locations, especially in some rural, fiscally constrained areas.”

Moskowitz’s take, that he was the one who recommended Publix stores as the state’s first pharmacy vaccination sites, runs counter to a 60 Minutes story on Sunday that implied that Florida governor Ron DeSantis picked Publix to distribute vaccines as part of a “pay to play” scheme. The company, which donates regularly to politicians of both major political parties, donated $100,000 to DeSantis’s political action committee in December. The companies and hospitals that distribute the vaccine can charge Medicaid $40 for each administered dose.

Moskowitz has been saying since early March that Florida picked Publix to distribute vaccines because it was the only pharmacy company at the time that “could execute the mission.”

The 60 Minutes story, which explored how wealthy Floridians allegedly were able to cut to the front of the line for the vaccine, has been criticized for editing out key parts of DeSantis’s response to their reporter during a press conference. In an unaired portion of the exchange, DeSantis explained how CVS and Walgreens pharmacies had first access to the vaccine and a mission to inoculate people living in long-term care facilities.

“So yes, you had the counties, you had some drive-thru sites, you had hospitals that were doing a lot, but we wanted to get it into communities more. So we reached out to other retail pharmacies: Publix, Walmart, obviously CVS and Walgreens had to finish that mission and we said we’re going to use you as soon as you’re done with that,” DeSantis said in the unaired exchange.

In a statement to National Review, a Publix spokeswoman pushed back on the suggestion that Publix received priority to distribute the vaccine based on a campaign contribution.

“The irresponsible suggestion that there was a connection between campaign contributions made to Governor DeSantis and our willingness to join other pharmacies in support of the state’s vaccine distribution efforts is absolutely false and offensive,” Publix spokeswoman Maria Brous said in the statement. “We are proud of our pharmacy associates for administering more than 1.5 million doses of vaccine to date and for joining other retailers in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia to do our part to help our communities emerge from the pandemic.”

Dave Kerner, the mayor of Palm Beach County, also pushed back on the 60 Minutes story, which was based on disparities in vaccine access in Palm Beach County. In a prepared statement, Kerner, who also is a Democrat, called the story “intentionally false,” said it was “based on bad information,” and said that the media “are hellbent on dividing us for cheap views and clicks. 60 Minutes should be ashamed.”

One segment in the story focuses on a small, rural, and poor city in Palm Beach County called Belle Glade that does not have a Publix grocery store. The closest one is about 25 miles away. For a short time, Publix was the only place in the county to get the vaccine.

In an interview with National Review, Kerner said he was the one who suggested to DeSantis that the state utilize Publix grocery stores in his community to distribute the vaccine. It was in early January, when the state announced it was collaborating with Publix on the project, which was initially limited to three smaller counties. Kerner said more than 90 percent of the county’s seniors, 65 and older, live within a couple of miles from a Publix.

“To get 67 ready-to-go Publix vaccination sites in this county was a coup,” Kerner said.

Kerner said he told DeSantis the county had its own plans for distributing the vaccines once supplies became more readily available, and he got permission to carve out 4,000 doses out of the county’s 20,000 weekly doses for distribution in underserved areas.

“My goal was to get as many initial points of distribution operational as quickly as possible, and that’s what transpired,” he said. “It was a difficult process, but adding 67 sites is a no-brainer.”

Publix was never the exclusive provider of COVID-19 vaccines in Florida. Several other retailers, including Walmart, CVS, Walgreens, and Winn-Dixie are now providing vaccines as well.

Kerner said there were county-supported efforts to distribute the vaccine in communities like Belle Glade within days of the Publix announcement. And in the short period when there was no vaccine access directly in Belle Glade, there was always public bus service offered that residents could use to get to a Publix store.

“I can’t say there was perfection in this process, but certainly every effort was made to do it in a transparent, but also very broad-based way, including Publix,” he said.

Kerner said 60 Minutes never reached out to him for their story, but he reached out to them last week. He said he and a producer “had a very, I would say thorough and substantive conversation.” But none of it was included in the 60 Minutes story on Sunday.

He said he’s speaking out because the 60 Minutes narrative is not true.

“I don’t know Governor DeSantis would recognize me in the street,” he said. “We’re from separate parties. We don’t talk on the phone like we’re best friends. I haven’t spoken to him in weeks. But what I will say is, what was reported was inaccurate, even after I corrected the record. I’ve worked well with the governor, and I’m not ashamed to say that. And there’s no politics in a pandemic, so I felt compelled to issue the statement.”