It’s easy to think that Florida Democrats and their state media allies are downright giddy over the COVID-19 surge in the state, given their relentless attacks on the one man they seem to hate as much as Donald Trump, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
And while DeSantis insists on reserving for parents the right to decide what is best for their children when it comes to wearing masks, his cause wasn’t helped any when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported inaccurate numbers that had the press shrilling about a record-setting 28,317 new cases in a single day.
Except, the CDC incorrectly combined several days of data into one day.
However, as the old adage says, “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”
Which is not to say that the Florida Department of Health didn’t try to set the record straight, explaining online that there is no reporting of data to the CDC on weekends, resulting in “two or three days of data reported at a time” to start the following week.
This is not accurate. Florida follows CDC guidelines reporting cases Monday through Friday, other than holidays. Consequently, each Monday or Tuesday, there will be two or three days of data reported at a time. When data is published, it is attributed evenly to the previous days. https://t.co/NjjUmIgM9h
— Florida Dept. Health (@HealthyFla) August 10, 2021
Again and again, the Florida DOH explained this:
Wrong. @cdcgov combined multiple days of data. We anticipate a correction. Please correct this story to ensure accurate reporting to your audiences. https://t.co/5IIDg0rjq2
— Florida Dept. Health (@HealthyFla) August 10, 2021
Wrong again. The number of cases @CDCgov released for Florida today is incorrect. They combined MULTIPLE days into one. We anticipate CDC will correct the record. https://t.co/nbKnBNLzvU
— Florida Dept. Health (@HealthyFla) August 10, 2021
Of course, leave it to a Democratic state lawmaker to cast doubt on the correction — can’t have something like the truth interrupting a political narrative that they think will help them defeat DeSantis in 2022.
State Rep. Omari Hardy even called the staff at DOH the governor’s “apparatchiks,” claiming they “have lost all credibility.”
The Governor and his apparatchiks within the Florida DOH have lost all credibility. This is what happens when you suppress the data and refuse to release daily infection totals directly to the public. https://t.co/MEsxJL6FEP
— Rep. Omari Hardy (@OmariJHardy) August 10, 2021
But that may have paled in comparison to Orlando-based Democratic state Rep. Anna Eskamani, a former Planned Parenthood executive, who accuses the DOH of “trolling the media.”
Then again, Eskamani could hold a seminar on building advantageous relationships with journalists, given that she’s a favorite quote with the state media.
It’s a new low when your state health department is trolling the media. Maybe take responsibility of COVID19 cases and provide daily reports so we’re all on the same page?
— Rep. Anna V. Eskamani 🔨 (@AnnaForFlorida) August 10, 2021
Gov. DeSantis’ spokeswoman, Christina Pushaw, who much like her boss, will give as good as she gets, responded to Rep. Hardy and reminded him that “most” of the DOH staff are Democrats.
“The CDC messed up the data reporting, and a Florida state representative attacks our state’s Department of Health by calling them ‘apparatchiks’ of [DeSantis]? Most of the people who work there are Democrats, and all of them are doing their best to keep us safe, cmon man…,” she tweeted.
DeSantis, whose reelection campaign was just in the news for selling “Don’t Fauci my Florida” T-shirts — which were said to be selling like hotcakes — encourages Floridians to get vaccinated, but the father of three young children will not issue a mask mandate, especially in schools. He also frowns on vaccine mandates and refuses to lock Florida down amid the current surge.
After the governor signed an executive order last week banning mask mandates at schools, some districts have announced they’ll require them anyway. The governor’s office warned that superintendents and school board members in these districts may have their salaries withheld, or possibly face fines, which whipped the media into a further lather.
“With respect to enforcing any financial consequences for noncompliance of state law regarding these rules and ultimately the rights of parents to make decisions about their children’s education and health care decisions, it would be the goal of the State Board of Education to narrowly tailor any financial consequences to the offense committed,” the governor’s office said in a statement.
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The longest-tenured writer at BizPac Review, Tom grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills.
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