Florida cites 'privacy concerns' for not making COVID-19 data public
Updated 15:00, 02-May-2020
By Gong Zhe
Rescue workers push a stretcher with a patient outside the ER area at Holy Cross Hospital amid the coronavirus outbreak in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, U.S., April 20, 2020. /Reuters

Rescue workers push a stretcher with a patient outside the ER area at Holy Cross Hospital amid the coronavirus outbreak in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, U.S., April 20, 2020. /Reuters

The U.S. state of Florida is trying to block medical examiners from releasing data related to the COVID-19 death toll, local newspapers have reported. 

The numbers and names of COVID-19 fatalities should be public information and taxpayers have the right to know, Dr. Stephen Nelson, chairman of the state's Medical Examiners Commission, told the Tampa Bay Times. 

This came after the newspaper reported that the commission's real-time release of COVID-19 death toll is 10 percent higher than the state's number. According to The Times, Florida's state officials directed that the list of death toll should be reviewed and potentially redacted.

The health department cited "privacy concerns" as a reason to pause the commission's data release, and the pause in reporting has been occurring for nine days, The Times noted. 

But Nelson told media that the record should be public under the state's law.  

"This is no different than any other public record we deal with," Nelson said. "It's paid for by taxpayer dollars and the taxpayers have a right to know."  

Nelson said death records have been kept and made public since 1992 until being paused by the government more than a week ago.  

However, the reason behind the inconsistency between data from the commission and the government department remains unclear.  

CNN corresponded with two medical examiner offices in Florida and has been told that medical examiners report deaths within their geographic jurisdiction and not by place of residence.  

The result is the state's county-by-county death toll of COVID-19 and the county-by-county death toll reported by medical examiners will not reconcile.  

Meanwhile, The Times also reached out to a spokesperson for one of the state health department's county offices, and has been told that the reason why the figures are different is because the health department doesn't include in its list "some snowbirds and other seasonal residents, along with visitors who died in Florida." While the medical examiners, on the other hand, count all people who died in Florida.  

It's too early to assume any party is concealing the number of deaths because the two could be using different counting methods.  

But Tampa Bay Times said it's hard to extract public information from the Florida government after the COVID-19 outbreak hit the state. They have to file lawsuits to get the data that should have been made public.  

Florida's act to the novel coronavirus has raised discussions on social media. Stephen King, a U.S. author with books sold over 300 million copies, made satire on his Twitter, saying the theory behind the state is like "If we don't report them, they are not happening." His remark has drawn thousands of retweets and likes. Users left comments under his post complaining Florida's confusing policy.

Screenshot from Twitter

Screenshot from Twitter

As of now, Florida has more than 33,000 coronavirus cases and more than 1,200 deaths from COVID-19, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.