AUDIT: Florida Undercounted COVID Cases And Deaths

Miami’s ABC News affiliate reports:

A review of Florida’s COVID-19 case and mortality statistics produced by the state’s Auditor General found the amount of cases and deaths reported by the Department of Health were underreported due to data collection issues.

The report, published on June 1, comes after a Florida Dept. of Health Office of Inspector General investigation concluded claims by self-styled whistleblower Rebekah Jones that the state had modified data to downplay COVID-19 numbers in the state were false.

The findings concerning Jones’ whistleblower allegations, that FDOH was directed to falsify positivity rates, that new case data on positivity was misrepresented, and that Jones was directed to restrict access to underlying data, were all reported false in the OIG report.

The Miami Herald reports:



Covering the state’s pandemic response from March to October 2020, the yearlong analysis by the Florida Auditor General found missing case and death data, unreported ethnic and racial details, and incomplete contact tracing as the coronavirus spread across the state.

In addition, the report concluded that state health officials did not perform routine checks on the data to ensure accuracy and did not follow up on discrepancies. Auditors also found more than 3,000 cases of COVID-19 deaths reported by physicians that didn’t appear in the state’s list of deaths.

Many missing records were likely due to typos or clerical errors, the report concluded. However, the report found state records were missing or significantly delayed for almost 40% of missing deaths it reviewed.