Florida Plays Games With Virus Death Count

The Tampa Bay Times is reporting that Florida's Medical Examiners Commission has been prohibited from releasing COVID-19 death counts by the Florida Department of Health, apparently at the direction of Florida's ignorant and corrupt Trumpist weasel Gov. Ron "One Glove" DeSantis. The medical examiners' count was running 10 percent higher than the state's figures, so that caught the eye of DeSantis' enablers. Moreover, the state is going to remove causes of death and case descriptions from the list of deceased:

"Dr. Stephen Nelson, the chairman of the state Medical Examiners Commission, said the change in policy came after the state health department intervened.

The medical examiners’ list does not include names. But it provides demographic information, probable cause of death and case summaries with information about each person’s medical and travel history.

Nelson — who is also the medical examiner for Polk, Highlands and Hardee counties — said state officials told him they plan to remove causes of death and case descriptions. Without that information, the list is meaningless, he said." (our emphasis)

Trumpists want to diminish the numbers of dead in the COVID-19 pandemic so they look better and to justify reopening businesses in their jurisdictions. "Meaningless" data can be manipulated and sliced anyway to suit a political agenda. The lists of deceased are something that medical examiners have been keeping and publicly reporting for every state emergency since Hurricane Andrew in 1992:

"Transparency advocates, public health experts and medical examiners say comprehensive information about deaths is critical to understanding the epidemic’s path and impact.

Barbara Petersen, president emeritus of the First Amendment Foundation, said the interactions between the health department and medical examiners seemed to fit a troubling pattern.

'It’s just shocking to me the level of interference,' Petersen said.  (our emphasis)

In DeSantis, Trump has a reliable, venal puppet who's working for him and not the people of Florida.

BONUS:  According to CDC statistics, whatever death count is reported is very likely to be an undercount anyway.

BONUS II:  Meanwhile, the reported death toll in the U.S. just passed 60,000.