FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Baptist Health on Friday disputed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ claim that his administration had nothing to do with the decision to send 1,200 COVID-19 vaccine doses to Ocean Reef Club, the luxury Key Largo community at the center of controversy over whether the wealthy received privileged access to vaccines.

The governor made the claim at a news conference Thursday, when he slammed a Miami Herald report that claimed the state provided special access to vaccines to an enclave that contained many wealthy campaign donors.

“That was not a site that we were involved in, in the Keys,” DeSantis said. “That was one of the South Florida hospital systems (that) went to this community of seniors, I think that’s great. I want seniors to get shots, I think they did a good job of doing that. We just weren’t involved with it in any way, shape, or form.”

But a statement Friday from Baptist Health South Florida spokeswoman Dori Alvarez appeared to contradict the governor, saying the state was involved in the decision and that the hospital system assisted only in the logistics of delivering doses already earmarked by the state for Ocean Reef.

“It is our understanding that the Medical Center at Ocean Reef asked the State of Florida for vaccine doses, and the State of Florida asked Baptist Health to take delivery of the doses to our ultra-cold freezer storage for delivery to the Medical Center at Ocean Reef,” she wrote in an email to the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

Meredith Beatrice, spokeswoman for DeSantis, responded: “The Governor’s office statement from yesterday still stands, which is: This was not a state supported senior community vaccination site, nor was it requested by the Governor.”

Jason Mahon, spokesman for the Florida Department of Health and Florida Emergency Management Division, said in an email, “To be clear, neither the Division of Emergency Management nor the Department of Health ever directed Baptist Health to open a POD (point of dispensing) in Ocean Reef. Any statement to the contrary is false. From the beginning the state has sent the COVID-19 vaccine to support hospitals in their efforts to vaccinate the most vulnerable. We will continue to do so.”

A phone message and email left with the Medical Center at Ocean Reef was not returned.

Ocean Reef, which covers 2,500 acres in northern Key Largo, offers its wealthy residents golf courses, boat docks, a private airport and the lush ambiance of a Caribbean island within an hour’s drive of Miami.

The Miami Herald reported this week that Ocean Reef’s residents received 1,200 doses in January, ahead of most communities in the state. A month later, Ocean Reef resident Bruce Rauner, the former Republican governor of Illinois, wrote DeSantis’ political committee a $250,000 check. That donation came on top of donations of $5,000 each from 17 Ocean Reef residents through December, according to the Herald.

Democrats have pounced on the issue, calling on the FBI to investigate whether vaccines were improperly directed to DeSantis’ political allies. They say it’s part of a pattern in which Florida’s wealthy have been able to get the shots, while vaccination rates lag among Blacks and Latinos.

“It is too coincidental, which is why we’ve asked the FBI to investigate what is happening,” Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, a possible rival to DeSantis in 2022, said Friday on MSNBC. “Again this is one example of what has been happening time and time again as this rollout has occurred in the state of Florida.”

It remains unclear what led Ocean Reef to get vaccines in January. Although vaccines were particularly scarce then even for those who qualified, many communities, not just Ocean Reef, were able to get them.

But in addition to having many DeSantis donors, the community also has close ties to Baptist Health. At least eight members of Baptist Health South Florida’s board or the board of its affiliated foundation live in Ocean Reef or have business or philanthropic ties to the wealthy enclave.

The list includes William Dickinson, who is vice chairman of Baptist Health’s Board of Trustees and a broker selling real estate at Ocean Reef, according to his online biography. The hospital system’s foundation board includes Bill Henneberry Sr., who is described in his company bio as an equity member at Ocean Reef since 2004 and “one of the original members of the (Ocean Reef) Club’s marketing committee.”

Asked whether Baptist Health favored the community because of the presence of the Ocean Reef board members, the hospital system’s spokeswoman Alvarez responded, “As we have said, our mission is to get as many shots out as we can, as safely and as fast as we can, based on guidance from the State and vaccine availability.”

She then added the statement saying Baptist Health wasn’t involved in the decision to send vaccines to Ocean Reef.

Ocean Reef is also home to William Rowley, chairman and founder of Healthnetwork Foundation, a nonprofit that connects “CEOs and business leaders with top hospitals and doctors to provide fast access to world-class care and increase philanthropic funding for medical research,” according to the organization’s website.

Healthnetwork lists Baptist Health South Florida as one of its hospital partners. The nonprofit awarded a $50,000 cash grant to Baptist Health in 2018 for “general support and medical research,” according to a filing with the IRS. A William Rowley of Key Largo is also listed as donating $5,000 to DeSantis’ political committee in December 2019, along with other Ocean Reef residents, according to campaign finance records.

Reached by phone Friday, a Healthnetwork spokeswoman said she could not comment about the vaccine distribution at Ocean Reef but would check into the matter.

DeSantis has made at least one visit to Ocean Reef, speaking about the environment in December 2019, according to an article in the community’s newsletter. The Everglades Foundation, Bonefish Tarpon Trust and Ocean Reef Conservation Association invited the governor to address residents, according to the article.