By David E. Hubler
Contributor, EDM Digest
A somber numbers games has erupted in Florida over the state’s death tally of coronavirus victims.
As the Tampa Bay Times headline on Wednesday reported, “Florida medical examiners were releasing coronavirus death data. The state made them stop.”
State officials have stopped releasing the list compiled by state medical examiners, “which has at times shown a higher death toll than the state’s published count,” the Times explained.
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The Florida Department of Health, Division of Disease Control and Health Protection reported 34,728 total cases of coronavirus as of April 27. The cumulative data for Florida residents: 33,829 positive residents; 5,767 hospitalizations; and 1,314 deaths.
According to the Times, the list previously was released in real time by the state’s Medical Examiners Commission. But in late April, after the newspaper reported that the medical examiners’ death count was 10 percent higher than the figure released by the Department of Health “state officials said the list needed to be reviewed and possibly redacted.”
As a result, the state “has not released lists compiled by the state Medical Examiners Commission in the last nine days,” Salon noted.
Dr. Stephen Nelson, the chairman of the state Medical Examiners Commission, told the Times that the change in policy came after the state health department intervened.
Medical Examiners’ Reports Demographic Information but Not Victims’ Names
“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 explained. “Without that information, the list is meaningless.”
Nelson said he believes the entirety of the list is public information. That stance is supported by Florida public records experts, he added.
“This is no different than any other public record we deal with,” he said. “It’s paid for by taxpayer dollars and the taxpayers have a right to know.”
State Previously Attempted at Least Once to Block Death Data Details
The Miami Herald noted that the health department “has attempted at least once to block information about deaths from COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, from becoming public.”
In March, when the Herald sought information from the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner’s Office about COVID-19 deaths, the state health department “tried to persuade the medical examiner’s office in Miami-Dade County to restrict access to its death records,” the Herald charged.
For proof, the Herald said emails and phone conference appointments obtained through a public records request show that attorneys for the state spent more than a week trying to convince their counterparts in Miami-Dade County not to provide that information to the Herald. At the same time “medical examiners across Florida had already released details about deaths in their counties.”
State Health Department Calls Records ‘Confidential and Exempt’ from Public Disclosure
In an April 2 letter, Christine Lamia, deputy general counsel for the state Health Department, wrote to the assistant Miami-Dade County attorney, Christopher Angell: “As we discussed, it is the Department of Health’s position that the information requested in the request below should not be released as it is confidential and exempt from public record disclosure.”
In a separate article, the Herald also noted that “in recent weeks, Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration has refused to name the nursing homes experiencing coronavirus outbreaks, even as the number of cases in long-term care facilities has passed 1,300.”
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