If Governor Won't Release COVID-19 Reports, Nikki Fried Will

TALLAHASSEE, FL — Florida's only statewide elected Democratic official, Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, said she'll do what Gov. Ron DeSantis has refused to do.

Starting Wednesday, she began giving COVID-19 briefings to provide the public with updates on public safety guidance, case counts and vaccination rates in Florida.

Fried held her second briefing at 12:30 p.m. Thursday in the Cabinet Room at the Florida Capitol and is livestreaming the updates on the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services' Facebook page.

Fried, who has announced plans to run for the gubernatorial seat, blasted the governor for refusing to provide regular updates on the surge in coronavirus cases occurring throughout the state with the introduction of the delta variant. She also called him on the carpet for failing to direct the Florida Department of Health to provide daily updates on new cases, hospitalizations and deaths.

In early June, when the state dropped below a 5 percent positivity rate, the DOH announced it would no longer publish daily coronavirus statistics. The DOH has stated it has no plans to resume the daily updates even though Florida ranks highest in the nation along with Arkansas for the number of new coronavirus cases, with Florida making up a quarter of all new cases in the nation. The DOH will continue updating its coronavirus tracker on a weekly basis.

“What’s the point of tracking these cases the way we’re tracking the cases if, in fact, we believe the vaccines protect you from severe outcomes but may not necessarily protect you from testing positive?” DeSantis asked when questioned about his decision not to resume daily updates.

“As Floridians in the middle of hurricane season, can you imagine if we had a report saying a storm is coming but that is all the information you get? No daily information on the track of the hurricane or how it is increasing in size," Fried said. "That is what is happening here in the state of Florida. The people of Florida need and deserve access to regular, timely updates as it relates to the ongoing pandemic. That is why I am holding regular briefings to provide needed information and coordination from the federal government, filling the COVID information-sharing void that currently exists in our state.”

In Florida, 66 of 67 counties are listed as having "high" levels of community transmission. Glades County is listed as having a "substantial" level of community transmission.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers a county to have "high" transmission if there have been 100 or more cases of the coronavirus per 100,000 residents or a test positivity rate of 10 percent or higher in the past seven days.

"This scourge is real," Fried said. "Be smart, Floridians. We know how to stop the spread."

According to the CDC's data tracker, five Florida counties — Duval, Hillsborough, Orange, Miami-Dade and Broward — have had 5,000 or more new cases in the last seven days.

The statewide average is 49 new cases per 100,000 people each day, more than three times the average rate in the United States of about 16 new cases per 100,000 people each day. On Wednesday, the CDC reported there were 16,038 new cases of coronavirus in Florida and 92 deaths.

Without the DOH's daily tracker, Fried said it's difficult for state health officials to quickly identify hot spots and take appropriate action.

In Florida’s last two weekly reports, the number of new cases shot up from 23,000 to 45,000 and then 73,000 on Friday, an average of 10,452 new cases. Hospitals are starting to run out of beds for coronavirus patients in some counties.

There also were 7,452 hospital admissions for coronavirus in Florida over the past week, nearly twice the number from the previous week.

Hospital officials say the majority of coronavirus patients they're seeing in the hospital have not been vaccinated. However, the delta variant of the virus has increased the severity of the symptoms, and doctors say the intensive care units are filling with patients who require respirators.

The crisis prompted health officials to send an urgent plea to DeSantis to resume mandatory mask, especially with children returning to school next month.

A statement released by DeSantis' office said the governor will not mandate the use of face masks.

“Gov. DeSantis believes that parents know what’s best for their children; therefore, parents in Florida are empowered to make their own choices with regards to masking," read the statement. "Experts have raised legitimate concerns that the risks of masking outweigh the potential benefits for children, because masking children can negatively impact their learning, speech, emotional and social development and physical health (e.g., infections from bacteria that’s often found on masks, difficulty breathing while exercising in masks, etc.). Fortunately, the data indicate that COVID is not a serious risk to healthy children, which is why schools in most countries were among the first institutions to reopen."

“Information and transparency are essential when it comes to getting information out to our communities and making sure that we are working together to fight this virus,” Fried said at a news conference Wednesday.

She criticized DeSantis for hosting a closed-door roundtable on the wearing of masks in schools Monday with no notice to the media.

Florida public school officials also rebuked DeSantis for not including them in the discussion.

The panel included three doctors who previously participated in a March 18 roundtable arranged by DeSantis that was later removed from YouTube by online video platform for false statements about the efficacy of children wearing masks in schools. The panel also included a charter school director, a parent and a student.

“It wasn’t really meant to be a media event, although we know it’s of interest to the media. That’s why we sent you guys the link to the transcript,” said DeSantis' press secretary, Christina Pushaw. “It was supposed to be more of a discussion between the governor and these stakeholders, the doctors as well as the mom and kid and the (charter) school director.”

Fried said her department plans to distribute information through news releases, social media updates and news conferences “as frequently as we feel that we need to," using coronavirus data provided by the CDC and the White House's COVID-19 Task Force.

“The people of Florida need and deserve access to regular, timely updates as it relates to the ongoing pandemic, not secret meetings or sporadic information sharing,” Fried said.

She also questioned the coronavirus data that the DOH is providing, noting discrepancies between the DOH data and what's being reported by the CDC.

The Florida Department of Health reported 78 COVID-19 deaths last week, while the CDC reported 358 deaths in Florida, she said.

“It’s been one of our concerns from Day 1 when it came to this pandemic is what information is out there, what is trusted information and reliable," Fried said.

See related stories:

• After YouTube Removal, DeSantis Hosts Second COVID-19 Roundtable
• In The Early Days Of COVID, Florida Health Officials Reported Cases Twice Daily; Now It's A Weekly Report
• FL Hospitalizations Surge As COVID-19 Delta Variant Spreads