Florida Is Now Just Gonna Stop Telling Everyone How Many People Died From Coronavirus

For the past ten days, no reports have been made available to the public on the number of deaths.  

Florida has stopped releasing its report listing the number of people who have died from COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus. The brief regularly showed death totals that were 10 percent higher than the official numbers reported by the state. 

According to The Tampa Bay Times, earlier this month the Florida Department of Health “intervened to suppress the medical examiners’ list,” which had previously been released in real time by the state Medical Examiners Commission. For the past 10 days, no reports have been made available to the public, as state officials said the list needed to be reviewed, with no indication of when or if it will be released again.

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State officials told Dr. Stephen Nelson, the chairman of the state Medical Examiners Commission, of the plan to remove probable causes of death from the examiners’ report, a deletion that would make it impossible to determine how many people have died from coronavirus.

The Tampa Bay Times also reported that last month the Florida state government “tried to persuade the medical examiner’s office in Miami-Dade County to restrict access to its death records, according to the Miami Herald and correspondence between the two agencies obtained by the Times.”

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The health department admitted that it consulted with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement on the subject of “privacy concerns for the individuals that passed away related to COVID-19.” But although the medical examiners’ report does not include names, it provides probable cause of death as well as the medical and travel history of the deceased. Without this vital information, the report is meaningless, Dr. Nelson said.

At the same time, Florida’s Republic Gov. Ron DeSantis, one of president Trump’s closest allies, claims “transparency” in dealing with the pandemic.