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Walmart mistakenly books COVID-19 vaccine appointments in Florida against Governor’s order

Walmart has begun offering COVID-19 vaccine appointments to people under the age of 65 with comorbidities, but Thursday, they had to admit that was a mistake.

AdventHealth first started vaccinating people under 65 who’d been deemed “extremely vulnerable” last week.

59-year-old Type-two diabetic Curt Bigelow told Channel 9′s Megan Cruz then he was eager to get the shot.

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“If I had the choice of winning one of those two lotteries that were close to a billion dollars, or getting a vaccine, I would much rather get the vaccine,” Bigelow said.

However, Bigelow wasn’t able to arrange an appointment because AdventHealth didn’t include Type-two diabetes or coronary heart disease in its list of qualifying medical conditions.

So this week, when Bigelow was able to book a vaccination appointment through Walmart, he was understandably thrilled again.

“Elated...that’s the only word I can use to describe it.”

Walmart started booking vaccine appointments this week as part of a federal program to increase access to doses.

Bigelow went to Walmart’s booking site, confirmed he has comorbidities and which ones, then got registered.

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He says he was speechless when he learned hours later the appointment was a mistake.

“They accidentally invited medically vulnerable people to be vaccinated,” Florida State Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith explained. “Hospitals have really only been inoculating those patients that are in-network...that are actually at one of their facilities.”

Smith says he was initially excited to learn that Walmart would also start administering the vaccines to that group, but when he called the company for clarification, they began to backtrack.

“I’m reassured that those who did actually manage to book appointments with Walmart who are under 65 and medically vulnerable will have their appointments honored,” Smith says.

A spokesperson with the Florida Department of Health confirms Walmart actually shouldn’t be administering vaccines to that particular group of Floridians because of an executive order by Governor Ron DeSantis.

There are states where Walmart has appropriately started booking appointments for vulnerable people under 65, but Florida isn’t one of them.

The Governor’s order states only hospitals can do that work. Rep. Smith says they’ll “absolutely” be urging DeSantis to revise the order.

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“It’s like saying, okay, here’s the lottery numbers and you’re a winner. Oh wait, that was videotape from the night before...you’re really not a winner,” Bigelow says.

Again, Walmart has released a statement confirming that those people who successfully booked appointments will still have those appointments honored.