The DeSantis administration has agreed to release years of previously suppressed data about Covid’s spread in Florida to settle a lawsuit filed by a former state House member, a government openness group, and news organizations.
The Florida Department of Health will resume posting on its website details of vaccination counts, case counts, and deaths weekly by county, age group, gender, and race in the future. Additionally, the department will pay $152,000 in litigation costs to the plaintiffs. The agency did not admit wrongdoing or violations of state law.
Furthermore, the department has released 25 gigabytes of data gathered since June 2021 to the plaintiffs, which are free to publish them once they’ve been scrubbed of any personally identifiable information, said Michael Barfield, a paralegal who serves as director of public access initiatives for the Florida Center for Government Accountability, which was one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. The center seeks to enforce public-records laws through litigation.
The department first released the information to plaintiffs’ attorneys in March in response to an order from the First District Court of Appeal, according to a timeline released by the center. That led directly to the settlement, it said.
‘It was almost entirely Excel spreadsheets. A few PDFs and emails. We actually got more than we asked for,” Barfield said by email.
“It will be up to epidemiologists to parse through that information to tell us what the raw data would have told us two years ago when Floridians needed this information to determine the risks of opening Florida for business,” he said.
Additional plaintiffs include Carlos Guillermo Smith, who represented portions of Orange County in the state House through 2022 and now is a candidate for state Senate, and who filed his lawsuit in August 2021; The Associated Press; The New York Times; The Washington Post; Gannett, publisher of a number of Florida newspapers; the (South Florida) Sun-Sentinel Co.; broadcaster Scripps Media Inc.; and the First Amendment Foundation.
“The DeSantis administration settled in our favor because they knew they were wrong,” Smith told the Phoenix.
Three years
The data must appear for at least three years following the date of the settlement, which gives the department 30 days from the date of the agreement to post fresh numbers going forward, or Oct. 28, according to Smith.
The outcome “means the public will have better, clearer access to public health data for the next three years, at least. Which is really, really important for health care professionals, for epidemiologists, and for the public’s right to know,” Smith said.
The administration published the same sort of data every day from the onset of the pandemic through the summer of 2021, when it switched to publication evert two weeks.
“Right after they changed that reporting back in 2021 was when the Delta surge hit, and that was the worst part of the pandemic in Florida as far as deaths in the state. And the vaccine was available, which is mind boggling.”
“From a retroactive perspective, evaluation of the data will help us understand why so many deaths occurred during the summer/fall of 2021 and whether those deaths could have been limited,” Barfield said.
“Going forward, the requirement that the department publish this detailed information on its website promotes transparency and allows all Floridians to see the level of Covid-19 infections and deaths in their particular communities. Finally, Floridians can make their own decisions about whether the release of vital information affecting public health and safety was suppressed to fit a political narrative,” he added.
In a September 2021 court filing, the department suggested the plaintiffs had failed to show that it at that time was collecting the data breakdown sought or that the information was subject to public disclosure.
DOH response
In a written statement to the Phoenix, health department spokesman James Williams emphasized that the agency conceded no fault.
“Covid-19 data has been made available through historical Department reports, and the department has always reported data to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It is unfortunate that we have continued to waste government resources arguing over the formatting of data with armchair epidemiologists who have zero training or expertise,” Williams said.
One object of a legal settlement is to avoid a court order by giving ground on the plaintiff’s demands.
“While some individuals may continue to grapple for political relevancy and disregard providing the public with the truth, we will continue serving Floridians by executing our core mission of protecting, promoting, and improving the health of all people in Florida,” Williams concluded.
ban the GOP says
lol downplayed death for profits sounds like normal gop policy to me. lock the greedy clowns up starting with racist ron.
Steve says
DUHSANTIS another loser. Absentee Landlord Governor. Culture War hero NOT. Glad his Term is near over and won’t be anywhere near the WH. Mr fickle thin skinned doughboy circling the Political drain
Lee says
Has anyone taken the time to look at the States web site or call the information number? It’s a joke !! DeSantis & his Taliban is a joke..
https://www.floridahealth.gov/diseases-and-conditions/respiratory-illness
The dude says
No Floriduh won’t.
We all see, and have seen what becomes of any agreements entered into with MAGA.
Not honoring agreements is a core MAGA principle.
Thomas Hutson says
DeSantis Lawsuits
Nothing new here, our BABY Mussolini, Commander in Chief of his private ARMY/Militia, DOCTOR, EDUCATOR, PROSECUTOR, sometime GOVERNOR, want-a-be President LOST another court case.
He and that “QUACK” doctor minion agreeing to everything this want-a-be president tells him, nothing is a Surprise today.
The only real problem our “BABY Mussolini “has is the fact that even with this case lost he is still way behind his “SURROGATE DADDY” in lost court cases. But,,, HEY there is still time for him to catch up.
What! not “DISNEY”, AH just another “WOKE” moment.
Pogo says
@Elsewhere in Floriduh
https://www.google.com/search?q=Church+of+Bleach
Skibum says
Deathsantis and his administration lied to the public about this state’s horrible covid infection rate during the pandemic, because Florida had one of the highest infection rates in the entire nation. Then Deathsantis had the audacity to hide the data from being published or disseminated so FL citizens could determine for themselves what precautions they wished to take to protect their families. Deathsantis fired his own state health official in charge of the covid data because she sounded the alarm and publicly called the gov out when it was apparent that he and his minions in Tallahassee were covering up the covid transmission data and refusing to allow state health officials to accurately inform the public about how many infections, hospitalizations and deaths were actually occurring here in the state. It was a very calculated conspiracy from start to finish, all because Deathsantis had aligned his donors and was already engaged with the GOP base for his eventual run for the republican presidential nomination, and the true scope of the covid disaster in his own state would hurt his fake talking points, not to mention his chance of becoming the republican nominee. I’m so grateful for the former state health official for having the courage to stand tall in the face of her termination and continue to put out the REAL covid infection data for this state that Deathsantis was hiding from his own state citizens, who were being infected and were dying at an alarming rate all because of Deathsantis’ own vanity and political aspirations. I’m also grateful for the former state democratic official in Tallahassee who filed this lawsuit to hold Deathsantis and the state health officials accountable for their brazen and illegal scheme. It was only because the court ruled against Deathsantis, and the appellate court upheld that court ruling, that he and other defendants caved and decided to settle this lawsuit because they were on notice that they lied and gave untruthful testimony about the facts, and the court’s judgement would have been even worse had they continued being obstinate and continuing on with the lawsuit. WE won, public accountability was victorious, and I certainly hope that all of the lies, deceit and dead bodies resulting from Deathsantis and the state health officials who worked together to keep Florida’s citizens in the dark – and in danger – will now be widely published so everyone can see how despicable these people are!
Deborah Coffey says
You seriously don’t think he’ll have them all lie again?
Endangered species says
sad part is this is EVERY republican policy sabatoge the program and blame the other guy. Dont worry they will spew more lies about this its all a hoax rememeber.
Pat Stote says
He should be held accountable for all the people he misled on COVID.
Firing the Health official was inexcusable, and thank God she continued with her information. He has a tendency to fire people, including elected officials, who don’t agree with his policies.
dave says
The DeSantis empire is falling, piece by piece.
John Stove says
Oh look….another Republitard Idiot and his Imbecilic administration caught suppressing information in favor of “Alternative Facts”!!
What used to be the party of “Law and Order” has become the party of liars, cheats, idiots with a traitorous rapist as their preferred presidential candidate for 2024…..
Not to mention they have the majority in the House of Representatives and they cant even govern that!!!!
Losers with a capital “L”
Sherry says
desantis. . . treating the citizens of Florida like mushrooms. . . keep them in the dark and feed them s__t! While desantis, and those like him, are terrible enough. . . what is even more dangerous and tragic is that those same brainwashed citizens just mindlessly eat it up.
Millions of our fellow citizens now live in an “alternate reality”. . . one where scientific fact is completely ignored. One where their passionate allegiance to the lying leadership of proven corrupt criminals goes beyond any reasonable understanding. How can we help them come back to living with us in actual reality? If only I had a magic wand.
Skibum says
I wouldn’t put anything past this horrible lech of a governor or the gerrymandered legislature, but he is now on notice that both the public and the courts are aware of his lies and trying to hide the truth from the citizens of FL. And he also knows there are people who will file more lawsuits as necessary to hold him and the GOP accountable.
Bill C says
Remember Rebekah Jones? “Florida Scientist Says She Was Fired For Not Manipulating COVID-19 Data.”
https://www.npr.org/2020/06/29/884551391/florida-scientist-says-she-was-fired-for-not-manipulating-covid-19-data
Tony from PC says
This guy who portraits himself as a Navy Seal is the second biggest bully ( and like most bullies you punch them in the nose and they start crying) in the US. Thankfully after he fades into the nothing of national politics , he will be at the judgement of the Florida voters. Doesn’t he remind you of Alfred E Newman from Madd magazine?