COVID-19 Deaths Under Counted in Florida

Posted on by Thor

A study published by The American Journal of Public Health this month says that Florida has under reported its coronavirus deaths by thousands of cases. The report stated that the impact of the pandemic in Florida “is significantly greater than the official COVID-19 data suggest.”

Researchers came to their conclusions by comparing the estimated deaths in the state from March to September and compared that figure to the actual number of recorded deaths, or the “excess deaths.”

Moosa Tatar, public health economist at the University of Utah and lead researcher of the study said, “I am sure that COVID-19 is responsible for most of these excess deaths.” According to Tatar’s study, nearly 5,000 deaths should have been included among the listed COVID-19 fatalities, but were instead attributed to other causes.

In May 2020, Rebekah Jones, a data scientist who helped create the state’s Covid-19 data dashboard, was fired from her role running a COVID-19 dashboard for the Florida Department of Health. Jones claims she was fired after refusing to falsify state Covid-19 data. Jones has harshly criticized Florida Governor Ron DeSantis‘ handling of the pandemic and filed a whistleblower complaint. She was fired and later her home was raided by police who took all her computer equipment. She has been running her own dashboard to keep track of Florida’s COVId-19 statistics. Her dashboard was back online in a few days when donors helped her get a new computer.

Governor DeathSantis has been less than forthcoming in releasing data to keep the public informed about the pandemic. He has consistently withheld information until media outlets sue the state to get the information released. Florida state Rep. Anna Eskamani said, “The governor does have a habit of picking the most positive numbers and ignoring the bad numbers. He hand selects data to fit a narrative rather than acknowledge the reality for people.” She said, “Access to even the basic tools to make decisions doesn’t seem like a priority for the governor.”

An investigation by the South Florida Sun Sentinel published in December found that the DeSantis administration worked to minimize bad news about the pandemic and spread misinformation, with some officials withholding crucial data about the spread of the virus.

According to the CDC, Florida has confirmed more than 33,000 deaths due to COVID-19 and more than 2 million cases of the coronavirus. Some 9.4 million coronavirus vaccine doses have been administered in the state. Florida has the fourth-highest number of COVID-19 deaths in the country, according to the Johns Hopkins University website that tracks national and international data.

Blue Sky

Posted on by Thor

Ron DeathSantis was one of the last governors to shut down the state of Florida at the beginning of the pandemic and he was one of the first to open up to full capacity much to the pleasure of his mentor POTUS Trump. At press conferences The Governor always puts a favorable spin on his handling of the pandemic by picking out obscure facts from the data and ignoring the growing danger as the state is being hit by a wave much bigger that the summer surge. This is known as the blue sky policy. If people are ignorant of the facts they can go about their merry way until they are also infected.

Like the POTUS, his denial of science puts every Floridian in danger since many are encouraged to not wear masks and gather in large groups. He is literally killing his constituents. Though the hope of vaccines are on the horizon, his backwards policies may result in many denying their efficacy. To him politics are more important than human lives.

The Sun Sentinel reported that, the Florida Department of Health’s (DOH) county-level spokespeople were ordered in September to stop issuing public statements about COVID-19 until after the Nov. 3 election. Rebekah Jones a former DOH worker had her computer and phone seized by police because she was reporting the daily hard facts about the spread of COVID-19 that don’t mirror the Blue Sky policy. He withheld data about the spread of the virus in schools, prisons, hospitals and only after prolonged legal battles could reporters gain access to those facts. The sunshine law requires certain proceedings of government agencies to be open or available to the public. When it comes to COVID-19 there has been a black out. Any messaging has to go through the Governor and he insists on Blue Sky messaging rather than stating facts. He seems to think he can pack everyone into bars and restaurants at full capacity despite the rising tide, and he can still keep the at risk population safe. The fact is he can’t. Rather than make adjustments to slow down the spread, he seems to want everyone infected. He seems to have embraced the disgraced former POTUS advisor, Scott Atlas’ herd immunity theory which will result in a huge spike in needless deaths. With community spread as wide spread as it is becoming, this will be a very dark winter with very dark sky’s.

Joe Biden state, “Out of our collective pain, we will find our collective purpose: to control the pandemic, to save lives, and to heal as a nation.” Lets hope DeSantis eventually decides to help rather than hinder as COVID sweeps through Florida a second time. Information is power. Stay informed. Stay safe.

Data Raid

Posted on by Thor

Storm troopers entered the home of Rebekah Jones to seize her computers and tech. They didn’t take the router or other tech in the home,  just the computer she uses to keep Floridians informed about the daily death toll of COVID-19. They also took her cell phone which has all the contacts who have helped her in the quest to keep Floridains informed.

On Twitter she posted home surveillance video of the raid as officers entered her home with guns drawn. She answered the door and was pushed outside. She was asked who was inside and she told them her husband and two children were upstairs. An unmasked officer stepped around a child’s ball in the hallway and shouted up the steps for the husband to come down. As guns were pointed up the steps Rebekah shouted for them to stop pointing their guns at her children.

Quoting Jones from her tweet, “There will be no update today. At 8:30 am this morning, state police came into my house and took all my hardware and tech. They were serving a warrant on my computer after DOH filed a complaint. They pointed a gun in my face. They pointed guns at my kids.” She went on to say, “This is what happens to scientists who do their job honestly. This is what happens to people who speak truth to power.”

A search warrant had been issued based on a complaint from DeSantis’s Florida Department of Health (DOH) regarding an investigation claiming Jones sent an alert to the DOH emergency alert system. She denied the claims in that charge. In a December 9, 2020 tweet Rebekah reported, “The judge who signed the search order of my house was appointed by Governor Desantis and sworn in less than a month before he signed that warrant. In civil court. He’s not even a criminal court judge. It was one of his first actions as judge.” Rebekah could face 5 years in prison if convicted of cyber crime.

Rebekah Jones worked for DOH and she designed and built their COVID-19 data dashboard which was praised by members of the White House corona virus task force at the time. Six months ago she was fired when she refused to alter data to downplay the seriousness of the COVID-19 pandemic as Florida Ron DeathSantis wanted to fully re-open up the state. Jones created her own version of the dashboard with more accurate data. It is the source of information I turn to when seeking honest numbers about the outbreak in Florida.

In an interview on CNN with Chris Cuomo, Rebekah stated, “I have not had access to any systems at DOH for over 6 months. I am not a hacker. This is just a very thinly veiled attempt of the governor to intimidate scientists, and get back at me while trying to get to my sources. DeSantis needs to worry less about what I am writing about, and worry more about the people who are sick and dying in his state. And doing this to me will not stop me from reporting the data, ever. She started a Go Fund Me and plans to get a new computer so she can get immediately back to work. Data on Rebekah’s Florida Community Dashboard is now being updated.

DeSantis has been strong arming a Blue Sky campaign that ignores the pandemic and paints a rosy picture of his handling of all the death and agony.  The Sun Sentinel reported that Governor DeSantis in the weeks leading up to the November election ordered health officials to not talk about COVID-19 with the public.

Ron Filipkowski, the commissioner and vice-chair for the 12th Circuit Judicial Nominating Commission tendered his letter of resignation in response to the treatment of Rebekah Jones. Lets hope more politicians, lawmakers and civil servants stand up to this abuse of power by the Florida Governor. In response, Rebekah tweeted, “I continue to be amazed not by the depravity of our leaders, but by the strength of our community.“

More than 9000 Florida Children Infected

Posted on by Thor

The Daily News reported that more than 9000 Florida school aged children have tested positive for COVID-19 in the two weeks since schools opened. The Florida Department of Health reported 48,730 confirmed COVID-19 cases among children 17 years old or younger in new data released Tuesday. That’s 8,995 more cases than at the previous update, which ended on Aug. 9, 15 days earlier. More than 17,000 of those cases are in children ages 14 to 17, or high-school aged. About 13,000 patients are ages 5-10. More than 600 children have been hospitalized. Since Aug. 9, 2020 another child has also died, bringing the total to eight. The Florida union representing thousands of janitors, bus drivers and other front line workers at Florida schools suggests that schools reconsider opening in the fall.

Rebekah Jones who created The Covid Monitor which tracks cases in schools, reported that, Florida Governor DeSantis’ Department of Health claims that the number of COVID-19 cases in Florida schools is confidential. As she said,  “They publish the age, gender, county, symptom onset data, case date, travel info, and more.. but a count of cases by school- which they published then DELETED!!- is “confidential???” NO. OUR SCHOOLS. OUR KIDS. OUR DATA. DEMAND BETTER FROM YOUR GOV!!”

The Florida Education Association sued Governor Ron DeSantis who insisted that all children must return to school in person regardless of the risks associated with the pandemic. On Tuesday  August 25, 2020 Leon County Circuit Judge Charles Dodson sided with the Florida Education Association and granted a temporary injunction against the state’s order that required brick-and-mortar schools to reopen. The mandate, Dodson wrote in his ruling, “arbitrarily disregards safety.” The state school board has filed an appeal.

On August 21, 2020 CNN reported that the White House officially declared teachers Essential Workers  as part of their efforts to encourage schools around the country to reopen for in-person learning. The guidance for essential workers states that they can continue to work even after exposure to a confirmed case of Covid-19, provided they remain asymptomatic.

On Monday, August 24, 2020 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) changed the language on its website about who should get a COVID-19 test, a move that has baffled public health officials. “If you have been in close contact (within 6 feet) of a person with a COVID-19 infection for at least 15 minutes but do not have symptoms, you do not necessarily need a test unless you are a vulnerable individual or your health care provider or State or local public health officials recommend you take one,” the guidelines now read, in contrast to the previous recommendation, which called for testing ALL close case contacts.

CNN broke the news that the decision to change the wording was made not by the CDC, but by top government officials from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and could even reach the White House, where President Donald Trump has made clear he believes the United States is doing too much testing for the COVID-19. The change, made without any rationale or explanation, further erodes the scientific community’s confidence in the CDC. For months, the story has been that more—not less—testing could only help control the world’s worst outbreak of the virus. Politics have infected the pandemic. It is what it is.

Blip

Posted on by Thor

On July 14, 2020 Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said that “Florida has a COVID-19 BLIP.” He went on to say that Florida has had “a lot of different blips.” He stressed that “despite increased positivity rates, Florida was not comparable to other hot spots, like New York.”  However Florida has surpassed New York in the number of cases per day. On Friday July 30, 2020, 253 people died from the virus in Florida, a new single-day record for the fourth day in a row.Half of all the reported deaths in Florida happened in July. That is NO BLIP!

A blip is defined as “an unexpected, minor, and typically temporary deviation from a general trend.”  Physicians and nurses however are besieged by the surge of new cases filling the hospitals. Experts and medical staff fear the worst is yet to come.

Florida was one of the first states to relax COVID-19 restrictions and the results are becoming abundantly clear. DeSantis refuses to issue a state wide mandate that would require the use of masks when out in public. On Sunday, July 12, 2020 the Sunshine State recorded 15,300 new cases—more than all of Europe. The number of cases per day have continued to hover around 10,000 per day. Dozens of the state’s intensive-care units are at capacity. Miami has become the new Wuhan.

Memorial Hospital West hospital CEO Leah Carpenter said, “Our ICU capacity is beyond 100 percent.”As of Friday July 10, 2020, At least 52 Florida hospitals had no ICU capacity left at all. Rebekah Jones who created the Florida Department of Health COVID-19 dashboard was fired for not manipulating data to help in the re-opening plans. She said,  “Hospital staff have the hardest job in the world right now, more so than any of us scientists,” she said. “That most hospitals in Florida are at or near capacity frightens me. It should frighten everyone.” She now runs her own COVID-19 Community Dashboard which is meant to more accurately reflect what is actually happening in Florida. In Brevard County patients are being treated in the hallways. Some hospitals that are full are having to send patients to other hospitals.

The Harvard Global Health Institute recommended a number of states, including Florida, Georgia, Arizona, Louisiana, and South Carolina, institute a mandatory stay-at-home order to curtail severe outbreaks.

Carlos Migoya, president and CEO of Jackson Health System in Miami-Dade, said “You have people who are aggressively saying they don’t have to wear a mask and don’t have to do social distancing,” he explained. “Those are the kind of people spreading this disease. If we don’t get this under control and have too many more infections, we are going to have problems.”

At a ceremony in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington on July 24,2020 DeSantis discussed, an initiative – called One Goal One Florida that “encourages” the public to follow four guidelines: Protect the vulnerable, practice proper hygiene, practice social distancing and wear a mask if in close contact with another person. This is a BLIP of a service announcement, too little too late.

Dueling Dashboards

Posted on by Thor

Florida now has Dueling Dashboards. Rebekah Jones was the former manager of Data and Surveillance for the Florida Department of Health Covid-19 Dashboard. She was removed from the state’s dashboard project after she questioned other officials’ commitment to accessibility and transparency. In April, she was working on the results that would specify which countries in Florida could open. Superiors told her they did not like the results. A report had been written on the criteria needed for a county to re-open. Many rural counties did not meet the standards needed to re-open. Some more populated counties at the time did meet the criteria. She was told, “We can’t tell Jackson and Franklin Counties that they can’t re-open but Broward and Maimi-Dade can.” They wanted to exempt counties with populations of less than 75,000 allowing them to re-open regardless of their status. She was asked to delete data and hide information making the information not publicly inaccessible. Basically they wanted justify the Governor’s desire to re-open regardless of the facts.

The reputation of the dashboard had been built on it’s transparency. The data was eventually put back, but now it is hard to know how reliable that data is. They have changed how the date is calculated and how it is recorded. Data continues to go missing since the dashboard keeps crashing.

The way percent positive cases were calculated was re-worked. As she put it, Lets say there are 100 apples and 50 are rotten. 50% of the apples are rotten. Now lets say 30 were rotten yesterday, 10 were rotten 2 days before and 5 are almost completely rotten but not quite, the rest of the non-rotten apples are diced into hundreds of pieces. No matter how you slice it 50% of the apples are rotten. The scenario is made more convoluted than it has to be.

Percent of positivity was one of the bench marks each county needed to meet to re-open. Positivity had to be below 10% and decreasing for two weeks. The way it was calculated was to divide the number of positive tests by the number of tests given. It was changed to the number of new cases per day divided by the number of negative tests per day. If someone gets tested multiple times it throws off the results. She refused to mislead the public during a health crisis and was fired.

Since leaving Rebekah decided to create her own Covid-19 Florida dashboard and she accomplished that in 3 days. Jones’s website floridacovidaction.com is paid for entirely by donations. Her dashboard reported about 77o2 more positive cases than the Florida Department of Health dashboard on March 1, 2020, because she bases her findings on science and data.

The new dashboard also shows report cards on where each county stands on reopening. Based on the facts she presents only one county is actually ready to open every other county included Orange County failed.

After being fired, Gov. Ron DuhSantis attacked Rebekah’s character but he can have no say on her new dashboard since the information is publicly accessible. He accused her of not being a scientist, and not having access to the date. Her new Dashboard clearly shows that she was the architect of the FDH dashboard and I for one will be consulting her new dashboard often since I tend to trust her results more that the FDH site.  She was able to quickly assemble the new and improved Covid-19 Dashboard since she knows exactly how to find and access the data. The dashboard she had created previously was praised by Deborah Burks a member of the White House Task Force and her credibility remains unquestioned.

Liberty County up tin the Florida panhandle is the only county that meets all the criteria of the Department of Health to re-open. Decrease in ER Visits for COVID-like illness: YES
Decrease in ER Visits for influenza-like illness: YES
Decrease in new cases by date: YES 

Orange County where I live, has not met the criteria to Re-open.

According to Department of Health, Orange County does NOT meet the criteria for the next phase of reopening.
Decrease in ER Visits for COVID-like illness: NO
Decrease in ER Visits for influenza-like illness: NO
Decrease in new cases by date: NO 

Social distancing grade for Orange County is:
F
Distance Grade: D
Encounters Grade: F
Visitation Grade:  F

Florida reported another 2,610 cases of COVID-19 on the morning  of Wednesday June 17, 2020, and saw its Covid-19 death toll rise to over 3,000. Those numbers come one day after the state set a record with 2,783 new cases. The rush to re-open has consequences. Wear masks, socially distance and stay home if you can. If 80% of people wore masks this virus could stop dead in its tracks.

Hydroxidistraction

Posted on by admin

President Donald Trump likes to grab headlines with distracting insane baubles for the media to run with. His latest rant is that he has been taking Hydroxychloroquine for the past week. I personally don’t think he has been taking the unapproved drug as a prophylactic against Covid-19. He doesn’t have the balls. He knows the dangerous side effects, and that there is no evidence to support the idea that it helps in any way against the virus. The FDA warned that the drug can cause serious side effects and even death. I will need to see a video of him actually taking the drug and then having a health professional check under his tongue like they do in psychiatric hospitals before I believe he is taking the drug.  This is a lie intended to make him appear macho for his base. They already believe his Hydroxi claims. Science be damned. It is also a distraction to keep reporters from asking about why there is not adequate testing and tracking as the country prepares to open.t of the pandemic Trump has decided to cut funding the the World Health Organization. This is like closing the fire department as your house burns.

Rick Bright, who filed a whistleblower complaint after being removed from his position as head of the agency in charge of pandemic response, testified for just under four hours Thursday May 14, 2020 before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce’s health subcommittee. Bright said.  “The Trump administration rushed out recommendations about the drug hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus.” Bright’s whistleblower complaint alleged he was removed from his post in retaliation for opposing the broad use of hydroxychloroquine.

More important for us in Central Florida is the fact that Rebekah Jones the architect of Florida’s COVID-19 dashboard was fired on May 5, 2020 for failing to manipulate covid-19 data which might possibly contradict the states narrative that it is safe to open up the economy. What we need moving forward is not some magic pill but cold hard facts. Independent researchers are worried that this is government censorship. Since Rebekah was fired, the site has “crashed” and gone offline and data has gone missing without explanation while access to the underlying data sheets has become increasingly difficult. The site was created by a team of Florida Department of Health data scientists and public health officers headed by Rebekah Jones.

She single-handedly created two applications in two languages, four dashboards, six unique maps with layers of data functionality for 32 variables covering a half a million lines of data. Her objective was to create a way for Floridians and researchers to see what the Covid-19 situation was in real time.

“I worked on it alone, sixteen hours a day for two months, most of which I was never paid for, and now that this has happened I’ll probably never get paid for,” she wrote in an email, confirming that she had not just been reassigned on May 5, but fired from her job as Geographic Information Systems manager for the Florida Department of Health.  

In her farewell letter she wrote, “I understand, appreciate, and even share your concern about all the dramatic changes that have occurred and those that are yet to come. As a word of caution, I would not expect the new team to continue the same level of accessibility and transparency that I made central to the process during the first two months. After all, my commitment to both is largely (arguably entirely) the reason I am no longer managing it.” She signed off, “It was great working with you guys. Good luck, and stay safe.” Governor Ron DeSantis implied that Rebekah just needed a vacation and then he abruptly walked out of the press conference to avoid further questioning by reporters.

Restricting the data, is the equivalent of cutting off hurricane forecasts as a storm approaches. When requesting the previously available underlying data, Department of Health officials said that because the data is “provisional” no such requests would be considered until May 2021. Racial and ethnic data and cause of death have been consistently excluded from Florida’s line listing of cases. Such data was reported by medical examiners, but that data table has also been censored by the Department of Health making it virtually useless. 

Asal M. Johnson, an assistant Professor of Public Health at Stetson University, has also been frustrated with decreasing data access.  “They are pretending that public health is what has damaged (the) economy. They are getting it wrong; the economy is damaged because we ignored evidence to protect public health,” she wrote, adding  “They think they can save their own political interest by restricting information.”

Even children learn that by closing your eyes, the problem does not go away. The virus does not care if the numbers are hidden.