Noticed something intriguing about the FL COVID data yesterday.

[Pacifist Patriot]

Last edited Fri Sep 11, 2020, 08:30 AM - Edit history (1)

I've been tracking just the number of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths each day for the state of Florida and my county since about the middle of March. Yes, I know the data is crap overall. But you do see some interesting things.

Florida's new cases per day went down quite noticeably starting about four weeks ago. So I took a little closer look at the past four weeks (August - September) verses the previous four weeks (July - August). See if you spot the tell here, but keep in mind it is when data is reported, not necessarily when things actually happened. That's why I averaged a four week period.

(August - September)
Average daily new cases: 3,485
Average daily hospitalizations: 295
Average daily deaths: 123
Hospitalization rate: 8.5%
Mortality rate: 3.5%

(July - August)
Average daily new cases: 8,620
Average daily hospitalizations: 454
Average daily deaths: 152
Hospitalization rate: 5.3%
Mortality rate: 1.8%

Just sitting here scratching my head pondering the increase in hospitalization and mortality rates despite theoretically falling case numbers. Hmmmmm....gee, wonder if poor governance and DeathSantis' pathological drive to keep schools open might be contributing to this. https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2020/09/10/florida-schools-defy-desantis-order-to-keep-virus-stats-under-wraps-1316272

[FloridaBlues]

1. I noticed the decrease in testing in Florida for several weeks as well

In comparison to last 2 months of testing after all we have mini trump running our state

[Pacifist Patriot]

2. Yep. Can't find what you don't test for.

He's vile and needs to go!

[Phoenix61]

3. DeSatan fired Quest labs when they had a data

dump recently of 70,000 plus. The official word was some of the data went as far back as April. Later it was said most was within the previous two weeks. I think it was just an excuse to get rid of one of the largest providers of testing.

[Pacifist Patriot]

4. Hard to say on that one.

One of my colleagues got a Quest COVID test in mid-July. He hounded them for his results and heard nothing until two days after the data dump last week. Thank goodness it was negative. Another colleague got a Quest COVID test about the same time period and was told they lost his sample and he'd have to come in to get a new swab done.

It may very well be a little of both. Quest screwed up and Florida took advantage of it rather than demand better protocols. Who knows at this point!

[Phoenix61]

6. Quest notified everyone who had a positive test result

but I can see how your friend would be very upset. Firing Quest before there is a replacement is the issue. Quest was resolving issues or there wouldn’t have been a data dump.

[Pacifist Patriot]

7. No argument from me on that!

[Baitball Blogger]

5. Yesterday they had no new numbers for Sumter County.

And in Seminole County it was negative 73 in the tested category two days ago.

They are playing with the numbers. You can't trust anything with this anti-science pro-political Republican leadership.

[lostnfound]

8. I'd heard there was a massive backlog of tests not reported yet

Close to a million?
Can’t trust numbers out of Florida.

[Roland99]

9. It's mostly due to non-reporting of likely Covid-19 deaths in the first few months in FL

It suppressed the actual CFR