Mucarsel-Powell Raises Alarm On State’s Concerning Pattern Of Sharing Misleading And Incomplete COVID-19 Data, Calls On Counties To Release More Data To Increase Accountability And Response Effectiveness

Miami, FL – Today, U.S. Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (FL-26) released the following statement after a Miami Herald article reported that the State of Florida is significantly under-reporting the state’s COVID-19 testing backlog:

“I am extremely concerned by what appears to be a pattern by the State of Florida to share incomplete and misleading COVID-19 data. Florida’s COVID-19 apex is expected in April, and in order to confront the spike in coronavirus infected patients, combat the virus’ spread, and save lives, we must have trustworthy data so that we can make informed decisions about whether to continue our state-at-home order or keep schools closed. This is not the first time I have raised strong concerns that the information we are receiving from the state is inadequate and inaccurate,” said Mucarsel-Powell.

“On a call with Vice President Pence and the White House Coronavirus Task Force earlier this week, the Vice President informed me that Members of Congress play a critical role in empowering our communities with the latest information to keep them healthy and safe. I wholeheartedly agree, but we cannot effectively perform this duty if we are not given complete and accurate information. I call on county officials to release testing data so that at very least, South Florida can have a better idea of the extent to which this virus is impacting our community and inform next steps in our response.

“We cannot effectively respond to this threat to our community if the information we’re receiving is incomplete or misleading. If reports about data inconsistencies by major news outlets are true, then local county officials must step up because the Governor‘s actions pose a major disservice to Floridians and are endangering our public health. This must be addressed now.”

On March 23, Mucarsel-Powell sent a letter to Gov. DeSantis citing a March 21 WRLN report on inconsistency in the cases being reported and with patients disappearing from the state’s case data, and called for increased transparency.

On April 9, Mucarsel-Powell called on the State of Florida to regularly publish racial and ethnic demographic data for COVID-19 on their website and surveillance dashboard to understand the full effect of this virus and better respond to the needs of specific populations. This includes county-level data regarding the demographics of the amount of confirmed COVID-19 individuals, persons under investigation, and who has been tested.

On April 11, the Miami Herald reported that “Florida is significantly under-reporting the state’s COVID-19 testing backlog, a blind spot in the data that could obscure the pandemic’s size and hamper efforts to decide when it’s safe to end restrictions such as social distancing — even as Gov. Ron DeSantis touts the state’s transparency when it comes to coronavirus.”

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