[SanyBelle]

Saturday 8/28/21 Update


Numbers from Worldometers.info. Hospital numbers from Florida Hospital Association.

Date..........Total Cases.....Total Deaths....New Cases......New Deaths...Today's Tests
Fri 8/27...... 3,225,007........43,968
Sat 8/28..... 3,246,196........43,979..........21,189........... ....11............163,043


Sat 8/28 Hospitalizations 15,865 -298

[SanyBelle]

Numbers from Worldometers.info. Hospital numbers from Florida Hospital Association.

Date..........Total Cases.....Total Deaths....New Cases......New Deaths...Today's Tests
Sat 8/28..... 3,246,196........43,979
Sun 8/29.... 3,277,385........44,553..........31,189........... ....574...........282,432

Sun 8/29 Hospitalizations 15,498 -367

[WRnative]

Governor Ron DeSantis essentially defends the right of individuals to transmit a deadly virus, inflict many more individuals with long-term sequelae, cripple Florida's hospital system, raise insurance premiums for everyone, impair business activity as many individuals engage in voluntary lockdowns, and subject the state's children to a Delta variant which may cause life-long health disabilities (it may take months or years before the damage is quantified as Delta variant cases soar among children).

<<As some Republican-led states, including Florida, confront their most serious outbreaks yet, even rising death totals are being treated as less politically damaging than imposing coronavirus mandates of almost any stripe.>>

IMO, it's more likely that Republican political leaders such as Trump and DeSantis have indoctrinated their political bases by promoting anti-science positions for the leaders' own personal political gain. Who can forget Trump not wearing a mask even as he personally suffered from a serious COVID infection or promoting mask-free, super spreader political gatherings (remember Herman Cain?)?

<<In many ways, Republican leaders are simply following Republican voters.

Skepticism about masks, vaccines and the rules governing them is increasingly intertwined with the cultural issues that dominate the modern Republican Party. The fear over losing “medical freedom” has become part of the broader worry that “cancel culture” is coming for conservatives’ way of life.

And while opposing pandemic edicts [e.g., mask and vaccine mandates] is a limited-government stance, the forceful approach of governors is at odds with the long-held principle of local control, making it the latest Republican Party orthodoxy to be cast aside since the beginning of the Trump era, along with free trade and limited spending.>>

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...?ocid=msedgntp

BTW, I don't consider Trump, DeSantis and their supporters conservatives on many important issues, such as the principle of local control and environmental protection.

<<Mr. Ayres, the Republican pollster, said that governors trying to control the virus policies of schools, employers and local officials were breaking with years of tradition on free enterprise and local control.

“Liberty has never meant the freedom to threaten the health” of others, Mr. Ayres said. “That is a perversion of the definition of liberty and freedom.”>>

[WRnative]

Only North Dakota and Rhode Island have higher case rates.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/...cans-by-state/

Although Florida greatly escaped the initial COVID surge in the spring of 2020, its cases per 100,000 persons now are much higher than initial infection hotspots New York and California, by 29 percent and 37 percent, respectively. Long COVID sequelae may be similarly greater in Florida than in New York and California (see post 349).

https://www.city-data.com/forum/flor...thread-35.html

Florida's per capita death rate still remains 27 percent lower than in New York, the initial U.S. ground zero before the virus was well understood and antibody infusions and other treatments were not yet available. However, Florida's per capita COVID death rate now is 23 percent higher than in California.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/...s-us-by-state/

[SanyBelle]

Numbers from Worldometers.info. Hospital numbers from Florida Hospital Association.

Date..........Total Cases.....Total Deaths....New Cases......New Deaths...Today's Tests
Sun 8/29.... 3,277,385........44,553
Mon 8/30.... 3,295,993........44,561..........18,608........... .....8...........101,155

Mon 8/30 Hospitalizations 15,488 -10

[WRnative]

The Florida Department of Health reportedly on Aug. 10 changed its method of reporting COVID daily deaths, resulting in a significant understatement of daily deaths when immediately reported. Florida no longer reports COVID deaths on the date they are recorded, but instead waits to analyze death certificates in order to record deaths on the actual date of death. So deaths immediately reported in Florida are understated compared to the customary manner used elsewhere to report COVID deaths. As the death certificates are analyzed, deaths for any given date apparently are revised retroactively and repeatedly.

The change in Florida's COVID death reporting methodology was first reported by the Miami Herald.

<<This means, going by the previous methodology, Florida death data should show an average of 262 daily deaths reported to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention over the previous week. But, the unexplained and sudden shift in counting deaths showed just 46 “new death” per day in the last week, showing a significant dip in the death rate even as the cases and deaths continue to soar, the analysis pointed out.

Difference between the two methods is significant in terms of accurate reporting of data. In the first method, the deaths are counted on the date they occurred - which is a straight way to report them. This method is widely used for producing deaths and new cases by most states and countries.>>

https://news.yahoo.com/florida-chang...071519789.html

By making this change, the DeSantis administration further increases its apparent cover-up of the current Delta variant surge ravaging Florida. In June, the DeSantis administration halted the reporting of COVID deaths by county, making up-to-date deaths by county unavailable. The DeSantis administration also reports NO hospitalization data on the state's COVID "dashboard." See post 335:

https://www.city-data.com/forum/flor...thread-34.html

http://ww11.doh.state.fl.us/comm/_pa...ata_latest.pdf

The new reporting method effectively would eliminate in the future headlines such as "Florida reports new COVID daily death record."

<<Instead of its previous methodology, which counted deaths the date they were reported, Florida is now tallying the count based on the date of death, which is delayed while deaths are evaluated and death certificates are processed, the Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald reported.

When deaths are finally tallied, they create a spike where there once existed a downslope, according to the Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald.>>

https://news.yahoo.com/statistical-s...064558031.html

Most importantly, the new reporting method hides spikes in the COVID surge from even epidemiologists, according to the first linked article.

<<Experts have said that this shift in counting deaths is problematic, suggesting that it tampered with the true assessment of the Covid-19 disease spread.

“Florida showed an artificial decline in recent deaths and without an explanation or context, and it would seem like we are doing better than we are,” Shivani Patel, a social epidemiologist and assistant professor at Emory University was quoted as saying by the Miami Herald. “It is extremely problematic especially since it came without warning or explanation during a rise in cases,” she said.>>

The article also suggests that Florida has changed its method of reporting newly confirmed COVID cases, somehow creating discrepancies with the daily case data reported by the federal CDC, which reports much higher daily case totals.

It's unclear how Florida and the CDC have resolved their data reporting discrepancies.

<<The change in methodology, according to the Herald, was instituted one day after the Florida Department of Health Twitter account criticized the CDC’s COVID-19 tracker, claiming that its numbers were “incorrect.”

Weesam Khoury, spokesperson for the state Department of Health, told the Herald it worked with the CDC this week to address “data discrepancies that have occurred.”

“As a result of data discrepancies that have occurred, this week, [Florida Department of Health] worked quickly and efficiently with CDC to ensure accurate display of data on their website the same day,” Khoury said.

“To proactively ensure accurate data is consistently displayed, the Department will begin daily submission of a complete renewed set of case data to CDC, including retrospective COVID-19 cases,” she added.>>

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-w...ases-were?rl=1

[WRnative]

Florida Democratic Representative Carlos Guillermo Smith is suing the DeSantis Department of Health over its cover-up of COVID statistical data. Smith claims that the misleading and restricted data released by the DeSantis administration endangers citizens who rely on the data to make decisions during the epidemic.

<<Smith has been asking for daily COVID numbers since July. But Health Department officials told the Orlando Democrat the information was confidential under Florida law and couldn’t be released. Even though he was asking for the same exact information the State had been voluntarily releasing the month before.

“People are making critical everyday decisions on how to protect themselves and their family based on what they know and what information is available,” Smith said. “The Governor is manipulating that information and hiding what information he can from the public....”

“We have more new COVID counts than we’ve ever had since the beginning of the pandemic,” he said. “We have more hospitalizations due to COVID than we’ve had. We’re seeing an increase number of deaths and Florida is leading the nation. No one can make the argument that we’re not in a state of crisis or state of emergency.”>>

https://www.wmnf.org/floridas-new-co...eaths-lawsuit/

The DeSantis administration's manipulation of data reporting and restricted data release, especially of local data, may cause citizens to underestimate the severity of the Delta variant surge. Consequently, they may engage in an activity that they later regret, go unmasked when they shouldn't, or even send a child to school when it might be safer to utilize remote schooling.

[beachmouse]

Entire Florida school district shuts down until after Labor Day because of covid. Rumor mill says other panhandle districts may be close to this too

https://www.mypanhandle.com/news/loc...nearly-a-week/

[SanyBelle]

Originally Posted by WRnative

The Florida Department of Health reportedly on Aug. 10 changed its method of reporting COVID daily deaths, resulting in a significant understatement of daily deaths when immediately reported. Florida no longer reports COVID deaths on the date they are recorded, but instead waits to analyze death certificates in order to record deaths on the actual date of death. So deaths immediately reported in Florida are understated compared to the customary manner used elsewhere to report COVID deaths. As the death certificates are analyzed, deaths for any given date apparently are revised retroactively and repeatedly.

The new reporting method effectively would eliminate in the future headlines such as "Florida reports new COVID daily death record."

WRnative, I snipped your post for brevity in my reply.

Here are the numbers I'm keeping, I've been keeping #deaths each day and adding up for the week. Even though the state isn't reporting on the actual date of death, it's still possible to see trends. I used to be able to report numbers on the day they were reported, but now because they go back and change the prior day's numbers, I wait until late the next day to report the previous day's numbers:

Week of Sunday 8/1 - Saturday 8/7
8/1 - NR
8/2 - 64
8/3 - 36
8/4 - 140
8/5 - 84
8/6 - 199
8/7 - 93
Total 616

Week of Sunday 8/8 - Saturday 8/14
8/8 - 119
8/9 - 120
8/10 - 233
8/11 - 4
8/12 - 357
8/13 - 29
8/14 - 27
Total 889

Week of Sunday 8/15 - Saturday 8/21
8/15 - 539
8/16 - NR
8/17 - 7
8/18 - 799
8/19 - 8
8/20 - 42
8/21 - 11
Total 1406

Week of Sunday 8/22 - Saturday 8/28
8/22 - 725
8/23 - 1
8/24 - 6
8/25 - 902
8/26 - 8
8/27 - 336
8/28 - 11
Total 1989

Week 3 and 4 have double the number of deaths than the previous weeks. Is this because there are more deaths or the reporting methods have changed? I think it's a little of both and the state doesn't really want us to know actual numbers.

[WRnative]

Originally Posted by SanyBelle

WRnative, I snipped your post for brevity in my reply.

Here are the numbers I'm keeping, I've been keeping #deaths each day and adding up for the week. Even though the state isn't reporting on the actual date of death, it's still possible to see trends. I used to be able to report numbers on the day they were reported, but now because they go back and change the prior day's numbers, I wait until late the next day to report the previous day's numbers:

Week of Sunday 8/1 - Saturday 8/7
8/1 - NR
8/2 - 64
8/3 - 36
8/4 - 140
8/5 - 84
8/6 - 199
8/7 - 93
Total 616

Week of Sunday 8/8 - Saturday 8/14
8/8 - 119
8/9 - 120
8/10 - 233
8/11 - 4
8/12 - 357
8/13 - 29
8/14 - 27
Total 889

Week of Sunday 8/15 - Saturday 8/21
8/15 - 539
8/16 - NR
8/17 - 7
8/18 - 799
8/19 - 8
8/20 - 42
8/21 - 11
Total 1406

Week of Sunday 8/22 - Saturday 8/28
8/22 - 725
8/23 - 1
8/24 - 6
8/25 - 902
8/26 - 8
8/27 - 336
8/28 - 11
Total 1989

Week 3 and 4 have double the number of deaths than the previous weeks. Is this because there are more deaths or the reporting methods have changed? I think it's a little of both and the state doesn't really want us to know actual numbers.

WOW! If your methodology is correct, it certainly explains why DeSantis is anxious to obfuscate the statistics.

At this rate of death, especially if the exponential increase continues unabated, Florida will overtake many states that suffered so severely early in the epidemic in total deaths and per capita deaths. Sorting the following chart by "Total Deaths," then "Deaths/1M pop" shows the current rankings. Florida currently ranks 4th in the former and 19th in the latter. Within a week, Florida easily should crack the "Deaths/1M pop" top 15 states. Florida is 4th in "Tot Cases/1M pop," which may correlate well with the rate of long COVID patients in a state.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/

Comparing graphs of deaths in New York and Florida over time shows how badly DeSantis has bungled public health defenses in Florida. See graphs for "Total Coronavirus Deaths" and "Daily New Deaths" for each state. New York was ravaged at the beginning of the epidemic, as it was a hotspot for the new pandemic and lacked treatments, let alone vaccines. Since June 2020, New York has suppressed the epidemic superbly compared to Florida.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/usa/new-york/

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/usa/florida/

Thanks for your analyses!!!