At least North Carolina honestly reports its COVID data and has it reviewed by researchers at multiple universities. Our Governor's consistent message is that COVID is a significant issue.
I'm sure the people sick and dying appreciate that they are sick and dying in a state where the data is reviewed by multiple universities! That probably takes some of the sting out of it.
I'm sure that people sick and dying in a state that has much higher cases and deaths per capita than N.C. appreciate their state hiding the COVID data and having none of it shared with medical experts at universities. It probably takes the sting out of burying grandma.
You would think that. The rest of us living in reality know that if we bury grandma, nothing takes the sting out of it.
Nothing like your governor lying to you, hiding the data, and claiming that it is safe for everyone to go out and visit grandma in the nursing home -- because he claims the prevalent community infection is low --- while John Hopkins states your actual positivity rate when calculated correctly is above 17% -- and likely the highest in the nation. Would you go visit grandma in the nursing home if your governor told you the truth about the actual COVID statistics?
Can you please show me where DeSantis said it was safe for everyone to go out and visit grandma in the nursing home? Also, could you post the link for the Johns Hopkins positivity rate showing us as the highest in the nation?
Are you actually denying that DeSantis opened up nursing homes and urged people to visit them? Despite all the articles and and quotes from DeSantis about this found already in this thread. Let's just provide one reminder... DeSantis loosens restrictions on those visiting Florida’s long-term care facilities https://www.wftv.com/news/local/wat...-home-visitations/MWHMNX5CSJAU3C4CPHKUR4S5EI/ Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday that he will loosen restrictions on visitors to nursing homes and other long-term care facilities in Florida. Last month, DeSantis allowed visitations to resume at the facilities, but visitors had to make appointments and wear personal protection equipment. Residents were also limited to a maximum of two visitors at a time. DeSantis said while speaking in Fort Myers on Thursday that facilities will now be required to allow outdoor visits even if a facility has reported a case of COVID-19. He also said children will now be able to visit the facilities, and he is leaving it up to facilities to determine how many visitors may be allowed at one time. Are you actually claiming you missed all the articles in the Florida local media about the positivity rate calculated by John Hopkins compared to Florida's non-scientific calculation of positivity. At the time this came out Florida was the highest in the nation according to John Hopkins -- this has changed over the past two weeks due rapidly accelerating critical COVID breakouts in other states. Let's provide a reminder from two weeks ago. Florida puts a positive spin on COVID-19 data, misleading the public on pandemic https://www.sun-sentinel.com/corona...0201014-tfho3kvw7jaabmlv2d7gwndgii-story.html Florida has obscured the true extent of its COVID-19 pandemic by using a misleading measure of positive cases to justify reopening schools and businesses, state data indicates. While Florida has publicized that its “positivity rate” has regularly fallen below 5%, other health organizations are publishing data that shows the rate may be dramatically higher. Independent experts, including Johns Hopkins University, consistently list Florida’s positivity rate at 10% or higher, twice the recommended level for widespread reopening.
So you claim DeSantis said "everyone can go out and visit grandma" and, as proof, you offer an article stating how DeSantis "loosened restrictions" on nursing homes by: visitors had to make appointments and wear personal protection equipment. Residents were also limited to how many visitors they could have at a time. He said while speaking in Fort Myers on Thursday that facilities will now be required to allow outdoor visits even if a facility has reported a case of COVID-19. This, in your scatterbrain, means the same as "everyone can go out and visit grandma". Wait. Two weeks ago? You said this just an hour ago: So are you saying it isn't the highest in the nation now? But it was 2 weeks ago? Then why did you just make this statement now?
CDC says Florida could already have 23,000 pandemic dead COVID-19 is claiming more lives than official data indicates https://www.sun-sentinel.com/corona...0201028-ybisyj645be6zcjfus6djv7b3a-story.html Patrick Hidalgo died on the second day of March, in his apartment, at 41 years old, after complaining to his family of waking up in the middle of the night and gasping for breath. The Miami-Dade county medical examiner attributed the death of this former Obama staffer to heart disease. His family says it was COVID-19. Hidalgo isn’t counted as a virus death in Florida, but he illustrates that the pandemic has claimed far more people than the official death count indicates. Today, official coronavirus deaths stand at 16,505 in Florida. Yet the true number of dead from the pandemic could be up to 25% higher if you include people who are listed as having died of other causes brought on by the pandemic, according to a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Researchers at the CDC found that up to 22,861 people more than normal may have died between Jan. 1 and Oct. 3 — 8,000 above the official COVID-19 tally at that time. The CDC tried to measure the entire toll from the pandemic, including casualties that weren’t officially caused by the virus itself, such as those who waited too long to go to the hospital for fear of the virus; who overdosed after relapsing because they lost their jobs; or who probably died from the virus but were never tested. Scientists have employed similar methods to compare the deadliness of flu pandemics like the one in 1918 and the one in 1968. Researchers establish a baseline for the average number of deaths likely to occur in an area. Then they either count or estimate the number of deaths that exceeded that expected amount. Researchers call those extra deaths “excess deaths." Just as Florida’s legislators and health leaders are debating what counts as a virus death, the CDC is finding there’s been a lot of excess deaths this year in the Sunshine State. Hidalgo was one of them. “He was really the light of the family, without a doubt,” said Manny Hidalgo, his older brother. The family released a statement Friday announcing that doctors at Columbia University had analyzed tissue samples from Hidalgo’s lungs and found evidence of damage consistent with a novel coronavirus infection. The full pandemic toll Andrew Piascik worked side by side with his brother Chris at a Palm Beach dental clinic, until the 35-year-old Chris went to the hospital on June 15 with a stomach ache and diarrhea. Chris Piascik, a 6-foot-10 former football player for the University of South Florida, never made it out of the hospital alive. Days after seeking medical attention, he was placed on a ventilator, never to be taken off. Records from the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner’s Office list him as a fatality of COVID-19. “We didn’t know he had a positive COVID test," Andrew Piascik said. “We had an open casket funeral. They said if he had COVID we’d have to incinerate his body.” Chris Piascik left behind a wife and daughter. “It’s just sad that you have a 36-year-old not with you,” his brother said. The death is among about 16,500 official coronavirus deaths in Florida so far. But the CDC estimates that excess deaths in the state probably ranged from about 16,200 to almost 23,000 between Jan. 1 and Oct. 3. On that date, the state had only about 14,600 declared coronavirus deaths, meaning up to 8,000 people might have died as a result of the pandemic even if they weren’t infected, or if their infections killed them without being detected. And experts say the state’s official tally from the virus is still probably an undercount. “Its undoubtedly that way in Florida," said Jason Salemi, associate professor at the University of South Florida’s College of Public Health, said of the extra pandemic deaths. “It’s just unclear to the degree. Is it 5%, 10% more deaths? Is it the same within age groups? But undoubtedly, it’s there." “It’s most likely an underestimation,” agreed Dr. Tali Elfassy, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Miami and an epidemiologist by training, speaking of the state’s official virus death count. CDC data appears to support those suspicions. The data shows that the spikes in extra deaths appear to happen right as COVID-19 deaths spike. That means the excess deaths appear to be concentrated in the weeks when the pandemic was at its deadliest, indicating they may be related to the surge in infections. (More at above url)