State Rep. Kristen Arrington, whose District 43 includes much of Kissimmee and Poinciana, said late last week she supported the push from other House Democrats to reinstate daily reporting of COVID-19 data.
The Florida Department of Health provided that data on a state dashboard from the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, but went to weekly data dumps on Friday afternoons starting in June, when case numbers significantly dropped as the number of vaccines went up but before the ultra-contagious delta variant took hold.
But with case numbers rising sharply again in the past weeks, the call has gone out to reinstate daily information, especially in pediatric cases as children are showing up in classrooms – and in hospitals.
“I join my democratic colleagues of the legislature calling for the Department of Health to return to reporting daily COVID-19 data, as they did from early in the pandemic until the beginning of June,” Arrington said Thursday. “My first legislative session in Tallahassee was this year. Repeatedly the focus of legislation was parental notification and letting parents make educated decisions and choices for their children. How can we ask our parents to follow the science and make educated decisions whether to mask or vaccinate their children without this important data—especially with school starting this week. Unless our Governor has something to hide, these numbers should be published daily to provide transparency to the people of Florida.”
Members of the House Democratic Caucus held a press conference earlier that day to discuss the need for the FDOH to return to reporting daily COVID-19 data.
A member of the panel, Carlos Guillermo Smith (D-Orlando) said he asked for that information, and was told by the FDOH that it was confidential information and his public records request was denied.
After the Zoom conference, Smith noted a constituent called his office to thank him for the push to return the daily dashboard.
“’I'm a Republican,’ she said and went on about how transparency and access to information should not be a partisan issue,” he said.
At Thursday’s conference, Ramon Alexander (D-Tallahassee), leader designee of the Democratic side of the Florida House, noted that prior to their event, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday “It may not be a bad idea” to again share real-time Covid reporting on a county-by-county basis, which ended in June.
“We think it’s imperative,” Alexander said. “We need to be sure we address the largest public health crisis in an appropriate, adult-like manner.
“Now we’re waiting on Friday at 5:30 for a data dump on what happened for the week that passed. School board leaders need access to this daily data to respond to local trends.”
Others on the panel likened it to how hurricane information comes more frequently as a storm gets closer to landfall and warnings are issued.
