Florida Filters Public COVID Data While Virus Takes a Toll

Link: https://www.governing.com/now/Florida-Filters-Public-COVID-Data-While-Virus-Takes-a-Toll.html

Excerpt:

Most of the public isn’t worried about people testing negative for COVID-19, but for researchers that data is an essential tool to understanding the path of the virus as it courses through Florida, killing more than 30,000 and infecting more than 1.9 million people.

“They’re definitely not releasing everything,” Hladish said last week. “It has a huge impact on scientists’ ability to understand what’s going on.”

The Herald/ Times interviewed more than two dozen researchers, journalists and legislators about their experience with open records in the last year and the common conclusion was: Florida health officials are reluctant to release new data related to COVID-19 that contradicts the governor’s upbeat narrative and they frequently withhold information until they are either threatened with a lawsuit, or convinced the trend lines have improved. (See: Timeline of Florida’s Dark Year for Sunshine.)

Author(s): MARY ELLEN KLAS, THE MIAMI HERALD

Publication Date: 1 March 2021

Publication Site: Governing