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Why is Florida so secretive with COVID records? [View all]
Why is Florida so secretive with COVID records?Editorial, Tampa Bay Times, 9/8/2021
Aside from mismanaging the pandemic, Florida officials have also concealed a true picture of the growing crisis. That’s why a lawsuit filed against the state last week is so critical.
A Democratic state lawmaker and a non-profit group allege the Department of Health has violated public-records laws by refusing to provide detailed data about COVID-19 in Florida. Orlando Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith and the Florida Center for Government Accountability filed the lawsuit last Monday after the department denied requests for information. As the outbreak worsened, and schools began to open, the plaintiffs sought to gauge the impact of COVID on local communities, seeking daily case counts and information about hospitalizations, deaths and vaccinations.
The department provided “inconsistent” responses to these requests, the lawsuit states, though ultimately officials claimed the records were confidential and exempt from public disclosure. Never mind the state had posted extensive, daily reports of county-specific data until suddenly halting the practice in June, or that the records sought involved aggregate data, not anything that identified individual people.
“This information is vital to the ability of citizens to understand the risks and make informed decisions about their lives,” the lawsuit states, accusing the DeSantis administration of concealing the record to paint “the illusory picture that the virus had been defeated.”
A Democratic state lawmaker and a non-profit group allege the Department of Health has violated public-records laws by refusing to provide detailed data about COVID-19 in Florida. Orlando Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith and the Florida Center for Government Accountability filed the lawsuit last Monday after the department denied requests for information. As the outbreak worsened, and schools began to open, the plaintiffs sought to gauge the impact of COVID on local communities, seeking daily case counts and information about hospitalizations, deaths and vaccinations.
The department provided “inconsistent” responses to these requests, the lawsuit states, though ultimately officials claimed the records were confidential and exempt from public disclosure. Never mind the state had posted extensive, daily reports of county-specific data until suddenly halting the practice in June, or that the records sought involved aggregate data, not anything that identified individual people.
“This information is vital to the ability of citizens to understand the risks and make informed decisions about their lives,” the lawsuit states, accusing the DeSantis administration of concealing the record to paint “the illusory picture that the virus had been defeated.”
More
https://www.tampabay.com/opinion/2021/09/08/why-is-florida-so-secretive-with-covid-records-editorial/
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