Wealthy donors and members of MorseLife Health System, a high-end nursing home and assisted-living facility in the U.S. state of Florida, were given priority to COVID-19 vaccinations, the Washington Post reported.

MorseLife CEO Keith Myers "asked me if I wanted to have a vaccine," said Ryna Greenbaum, one of the donors who received Myers phone call. 

She continued that the CEO wrote to and called "members of the board and major donors" directly to offer them early access to COVID-19 vaccines.

The coronavirus vaccinations were supplied to MorseLife through a federal program aimed at residents and staff of the long-term care facilities, according to the report. The company's behavior of offering and giving priority access to other members of the public might already violated the national immunization guidelines and state protocols, it added.

So far, the number of invitations and vaccines the company gave under these conditions is still unknown, the report said.

Democrat Omari Hardy, a representative of West Palm Beach where MorseLife is located, told the Washington Post that the facility appeared to be "selling access to this vaccine." 

He added that even if the immunized are within the age group eligible, they still took advantage of the process inaccessible to most people. "So if MorseLife is giving this vaccine away to the well-connected, they need to be held accountable for that," he added.

Florida began vaccinating late December, but the process has been messy with different counties in the state using various systems for signing up.

In several counties, residents queued up and waited overnight, hoping to get a chance to "get vaccinated in first-come, first-served situations," according to the Business Insider. In other areas, residents were asked to use the online ticketing to register for an appointment to receive the vaccinations, the same source said. 

Numerous users were frustrated with the online system, particularly the elderly, who are "most at risk of severe cases of COVID-19," it added.