Florida changed its COVID-19 data, creating an 'artificial decline' in recent deaths

[Nevilledog]

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Tweet text:
Thomas Kennedy
@tomaskenn
As COVID cases ballooned in August, the Florida Department of Health changed the way it reported death data to the CDC, giving the appearance of a pandemic in decline. They are misleading the public.

Florida changed its COVID-19 data, creating an ‘artificial decline’ in recent deaths
As the delta variant spreads through Florida, data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest this could be the most serious and deadly surge in COVID-19 infections since the...
miamiherald.com
8:09 AM · Aug 31, 2021

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article253796898.html

As the delta variant spreads through Florida, data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest this could be the most serious and deadly surge in COVID-19 infections since the beginning of the pandemic.

As cases ballooned in August, however, the Florida Department of Health changed the way it reported death data to the CDC, giving the appearance of a pandemic in decline, an analysis of Florida data by the Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald found.

On Monday, Florida death data would have shown an average of 262 daily deaths reported to the CDC over the previous week had the health department used its former reporting system, the Herald analysis showed. Instead, the Monday update from Florida showed just 46 “new deaths” per day over the previous seven days.

The dramatic difference is due to a small change in the fine print. Until three weeks ago, data collected by DOH and published on the CDC website counted deaths by the date they were recorded — a common method for producing daily stats used by most states. On Aug. 10, Florida switched its methodology and, along with just a handful of other states, began to tally new deaths by the date the person died.

*snip*

[BlueIdaho]

1. How is that even legal? nt.

[rgbecker]

2. Wasn't there a young lady put in jail for calling out Florida's Covid counting?

Lost her job anyway.

WTF?

[Hugin]

3. I have a few guesses as to what the other handful of states are...

I'm getting whiplash watching them on COVIDActNow.

[Phoenix61]

4. They can play games with the numbers all they want

but in the end all those people are still dead and nothing is going to change that. All that data will be clear by the time the primaries start.

[Hugin]

5. It'll come out in the excess deaths reporting...

I'm not sure how often those come out. Quarterly?

[lagomorph777]

7. All that data will be clear - IF reporters can dig it out.

From what I see in the OP, the accounting trick itself would cause only a temporary dip in the numbers, by taking some deaths and "moving them back in time" to an already-reported period, so they sort of disappear. However, that dip would only persist for a few days. Then the calendar catches up with them.

Now, are there other shenanigans going on? Most assuredly. Reptilian coroners will falsify MAGAT death certificates to prevent embarrassment to families whose members died of antivaxxism and maskholery.

[dalton99a]

6. Little fuckwad wannabe Mussolini is cooking the books

[Champp]

8. Republicans creating "fake reality" are a disgrace

They earned the term deplorables by being deplorable.