Getting COVID-19 booster shots in Florida should be easier now. How Florida universities rank nationally. Epstein files vote to get final signature. And more.
News and views from Florida's Left Coast
Covid-19 boosters get OK
Want a COVID-19 booster shot? It should now be easier to get one in Florida than it was a week ago.
Walgreens and Publix pharmacies say they will now offer the shots, joining CVS, which had done so previously with doctors’ prescriptions.
Two events in the past few days have come together to clear up this confusion, with one small technicality yet to be resolved.
Late last week, an advisory panel on vaccines for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), while refusing to actually recommend COVID-19 boosters, voted to allow people to get the shots without a doctor’s prescription.
The Florida Board of Pharmacy met yesterday and endorsed that decision in a brief, 15-minute meeting.
Shortly thereafter, major pharmacy chains announced they had the shots in stock and are prepared to give them to patients.
“Publix pharmacies are now accepting walk-ins for eligible patients, and we will begin offering appointments later today for as early as tomorrow,” Publix spokeswoman Lindsey Willis told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. Publix has 800 pharmacy locations in Florida.
Walgreens said it is only waiting for the final signoff by the new director of the CDC, which is almost always automatic. CVS was already offering the boosters.
There is one possible wrinkle in all this, as hinted in that statement from Walgreens. The CDC is in turmoil since Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Trump appointed head of the Department of Health and Human Services, fired the agency’s director.
Jim O’Neill, the new acting director, could, theoretically, refuse to sign off on the vaccine advisory board’s recommendation. That would create chaos, since his signature is required for Medicare and Medicaid to cover the costs, although other private insurers have announced they will do so.
Best advice is to check first to be sure you’re covered before heading to the pharmacy.
Usually, the CDC director’s sign-off is a rubber stamp. But these are unusual times. Still, as of this writing there is no indication that this won’t happen.
Florida colleges ranked
How do Florida colleges and universities stack up? U.S. News & World Report’s 2026 list places the University of Florida at the top of the heap. It came in at Number 30 among national universities and Number 7 in public universities.
No Florida colleges or universities made it to the top 25 in national rankings where, in addition to other public universities, they compete with behemoths such as Harvard, Princeton, Stanford and other top-tier schools.
In descending order, other Florida college national rankings:
Florida State University: 51
University of Miami: 61
University of South Florida: 88
Florida International University: 97
University of Central Florida: 117
Florida A&M: 169
Florida Atlantic: 183
University of North Florida: 222
Florida Institute of Technology 232
Nova Southeastern University: 257
Florida Gulf Coast University: 318
Statuesque
A statue of Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein, holding hand and frolicking, appeared overnight near the U.S. Capitol.
It was 12-feet tall and made of foam and wire but painted bronze. Accompanying it were three plaques, one of which read:
“In Honor of Friendship Month: We celebrate the long-lasting bond between President Donald J. Trump and his ‘closest friend’ Jeffrey Epstein.”
The White House was not amused.
“Liberals are free to waste their money however they see fit—but it’s not news that Epstein knew Donald Trump, because Donald Trump kicked Epstein out of his club for being a creep,” a White House spokesperson told TMZ. “Democrats, the media, and the organization that’s wasting their money on this statue knew about Epstein and his victims for years and did nothing to help them while President Trump was calling for transparency, and is now delivering on it with thousands of pages of documents.”
Yeah, except for the part where Trump has been burning up the phone lines trying to defeat an effort in the House of Representatives to open the files to the public.
But that may quickly change because…
New Democrat to be sworn in
An Arizona woman, Adelita Grijalva, handily won a special election against Republican Daniel Butierez on Tuesday night in Arizona’s deep-blue 7th Congressional District. She will replace her late father, former Rep. Raúl Grijalva, in Congress.
According to Politico:
Grijalva will have an immediate impact when she is sworn in. She will become the 218th and clinching supporter of a bipartisan effort to force public disclosure of federal investigative files related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who died in federal custody before facing trial on new sex trafficking charges.
Today is …
Tday iz a veri impotant day. Its Nationl Punkuation Dae.
Quote of the day
“The voters of Southern Arizona sent the country a loud message tonight: we reject the MAGA agenda, and we demand a Congress that will hold this administration accountable.”
— Newly elected congresswoman Adelita Grijalva
Florida factual
Florida has the only wild monkey population in the United States. Not all of them are found in the state Capitol.
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J.C. Bruce, journalist and author, is the founder of Tropic Press. He holds dual citizenship in the United States of America and his native Florida. When he’s not blogging, he’s in training for the Florida Man Underwater Ping Pong Championships. Forward this email to your friends. They will love you for it.
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