It is amusing you say this on the very day that the Federal Coronavirus Task Force started to directly release the report for the State of Florida publicly rather than only sending it to the DeSantis administration which kept hiding the weekly reports and only released them when sued by the media. This week's Federal report for Florida shows that coronavirus infection rate fell 19% last week but deaths continued to climb. It also appears to indicate an under-counting of the death numbers reported by the State of Florida. The Florida profile, for the week ending Jan. 23, found that 12.3% of laboratory COVID-19 tests were positive for the virus, above the national 10.6% average, but that the rate of new cases was falling. Deaths, which lag behind infections by several weeks, climbed 7% compared to the previous week.
Sorry, can you clarify what you are implying here? Are you saying the Federal CTF doesn't match with Florida's data? Which data? Or are you saying that Florida is doing worse than the national average? Or are you just cherry picking which stats to look at?
Let's start with the COVID positive test rate -- Can you explain why Florida's positive test rate data does not align with Federal standards -- and always shows a lower rate of positive tests. First lets take a look at the Federal information "The Florida profile, for the week ending Jan. 23, found that 12.3% of laboratory COVID-19 tests were positive for the virus, above the national 10.6% average" This period is for the 7 day week of the 17th to the 23rd. Now let's take a look at the chart from the Florida COVID dashboard. Tell us why the Florida data is different than the Federal data. And the Florida data always attempts to paint a more rosy picture of the COVID situation in the state.
Let's start with the very obvious questions. What is the source data for the Federal information, and what is the source data for the "Florida" data? Second, are there are states that don't match the Federal data? I'll bet there are!
So the bottom line is that you cannot tell us why the Florida data is different than the Federal data. And why the Florida data always attempts to paint a more rosy picture of the COVID situation in the state. At this point it is not even worth discussing the Florida data -- several leading statisticians in the U.S. have already pointed that since October the State of Florida data is not reliable. I expect that the Feds will step in and establish standards that all states must follow when reporting COVID data. I can only hope this happens sooner rather than later. This will stop of the distortions and lack of transparency coming out of Florida. In the long term once the COVID threat is reduced via vaccinations, I expect the Federal government will provide a public audit of every state's figures and come out with final information. At this point I expect some state officials may face federal charges if they have been found to deliberately manipulate COVID data.
That's not the bottom line at all. I asked questions anyone would ask when two data sets differ. At least anyone who was being honest. Why can't you answer the questions? What is the source data for the Federal information, and what is the source data for the "Florida" data?
Stop re-directing. Explain why the Florida data does not align with the Feds and ALWAYS is more rosy. If this was just a source differential then the two data sources would be close and sometimes the Florida data would be above the Fed data and other times below. But this is not true.... the Florida data always paints a more rosy COVID picture in the state. I am looking forward to when the Feds will step in and establish standards that all states must follow when reporting COVID data. This will put an end to the endless data asshatery coming out of Florida. Since under the Biden administration the data will be based on science rather than the politics pushed by governors.