Florida Withheld Daily COVID Tolls for Nearly 4 Months

Kana Ruhalter / The Daily Beast
Florida Withheld Daily COVID Tolls for Nearly 4 Months An ambulance brings a man to the hospital. (photo: Chandan Khanna/AFP/Getty Images)

As the Delta wave surged across the nation this year, state officials in Florida withheld daily COVID data from the public, leaving many Floridians in the dark about how many people in their neighborhoods were dying, the Tampa Bay Times reports. Between June 4 and Sept. 17, officials opted for weekly updates only, stopped reporting deaths per county, and started withholding data that was previously public. If people wanted to see how many people had died in their county, the Florida Department of Health directed them to the CDC... which relied on Florida’s online COVID data that was taken down by state officials in June. A Florida DOH spokesperson said that the agency’s 12,000 experts were better equipped “to make decisions regarding the best and most understood data.” Critics countered that a government agency determining what information to share is “contrary to the idea of transparency in government.”

EXPLORE THE DISQUS SETTINGS: Up at the top right of the comments section your name appears in red with a black down arrow that opens to a menu. Explore the options especially under Your Profile and Edit Settings. On the Edit Settings page note the selections on the left side that allow you to control email and other notifications. Under Profile you can select a picture or other graphic for your account, whatever you like. COMMENT MODERATION: RSN is not blocking your comments, but Disqus might be. If you have problems use our CONTACT PAGE and let us know. You can also Flag comments that are seriously problematic.
Close

rsn / send to friend

form code