It didn’t take a Florida Auditor General’s audit to confirm what many of us suspected: the Florida COVID-19 pandemic data was flawed and likely to remain so. The words “inaccurate” and “incomplete” appear in the 30-page audit report, along with other descriptions that do not inspire confidence.
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FOR SUBSCRIBERS:Florida lost 17% of COVID deaths at the start of the pandemic, with incomplete information on the cases, the auditor says
Florida underestimated the cases and deaths of COVID and failed to analyze and compile test results, confirming the disinterested stance of Governor Ron DeSantis and Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, as anti-mask policies helped spread the virus.
If the actual data is relevant to Florida health agencies, the Health Administration Agency, the Department of Health, and the Emergency Management Division did not disclose it to either the state auditors or, of course, the public. With 74,800 pandemic deaths in Florida, the DeSantis Administration needs to do better.
COVID-19 no longer causes fear in the hearts of many florids. Long lines of coronavirus testing, crowded ICUs, overworked medical staff, and infected patients dying in hospital ventilators are gone. Look almost anywhere, whether it’s on Atlantic Avenue Promenade, whether it’s Clematis Street, or the aisles of the local grocery store, and you’ll see a population without masks and showing no concern about the virus.
There should be concern. Last month, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported 1,234 adult cases at COVID Hospital in Florida, a rise in March and December reports. Another sign of the problem: Although the Omicron variant is lighter than the previous Delta variant, newer and more contagious subtypes have been found in the southeastern United States, including just under a dozen miles from us, in Miami-Dade County.
FOR SUBSCRIBERS:Return of COVID: A large portion of Florida is at high risk of hospital congestion; requires internal masks
Since a much more contagious virus is still present, we can’t afford a lukewarm response, let alone rely on the poor data from state agency agencies. The impact of bad data on public health agencies and the wider medical community can be addressed with effective care. Unfortunately, after the Auditor General’s Office analyzed nearly 11.3 million laboratory test results and 730,000 COVID cases documented across the state, the inspectors found that a lot of data was missing. If you ever apply the saying “get in the trash, get out the trash”, here it is.
For example, the report found that a majority of 5.5 million plus COVID test results (51.5%) did not identify a patient’s race. Approximately 59% had no information about ethnicity and a much smaller but significant number, with 75,828 results, showed no indication of gender.
Auditors found that a lab that received more than $ 5.4 million from the state in July and August 2020 did not include the ID numbers or dates of COVID-19 tests, and as a result, several tests were not included in public reports on the virus.
There were other issues such as failure to disseminate the initial contact tracing, conducting routine analyzes to verify the completeness of all reported test results, and documenting the number of staff provided by hospitals, nursing homes, and assisted living in their daily census counts in available beds. needs, inventory of using fans and face mask. Throw away the need to restrict access to technology to limit the risk of unauthorized data changes, and the challenges remain clear.
The problem lies in leadership priorities, with Governor DeSantis and Dr. Ladapo very well illustrated by the successful pursuits against the Special Olympics. State leaders threatened a $ 27.5 million fine by demanding that participants be vaccinated against COVID. They would rather have that priority than strengthen state resources to detect and fight this pandemic or any future.
When it comes to COVID data collection, limited governments may be good on the campaign trail, but in the face of the public health crisis, a partisan talk is only going so far. Florida health agencies must be able to operate.
The auditor’s report came out in praise of the “great effort” made by state staff in responding to the appearance. In the face of bureaucratic constraints, they went up. The same cannot be said of those above.