Florida to release more COVID-19 data following lawsuit settlement

Florida's Department of Health agreed to a settlement requiring it to provide more detailed COVID-19 data, after a group sued in 2021 for the release of records during the state's COVID-19 surge.

The new data will detail vaccination counts, case counts and deaths. It'll be aggregated weekly for the next three years, grouped by county, age group, gender and race.

The department provides more general COVID-19 data every two weeks.

"COVID-19 data will shift from the previously published Biweekly Reports and now solely be available on Florida CHARTS alongside all other public health data," Jae Williams, the department's press secretary, said.

The court did not order the state to display the data but the department decided to do so, he said.

The department will also have to pay $152,500 in legal fees. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit included former Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, D-Orlando; the Florida Center for Government Accountability; the USA TODAY Network; the Miami Herald; the Associated Press; Scripps Media Co.; The New York Times; The Washington Post; the Sun-Sentinel; the Tampa Bay Times and the First Amendment Foundation.

“All Floridians have a constitutional right to public records and the right to receive critical public health data in a timely manner in order to make informed decisions impacting the health and safety of their families," Smith said in a Monday press release.

"The Department lied about the existence of these public records in court and did everything to restrict information and downplay the threat of COVID even while the delta variant ripped through Florida – a decision that cost many lives," said Smith, who is running for a state Senate seat. "The DeSantis Administration settled in our favor because they knew what they did was wrong."

The governor's office referred a media request to the Florida Department of Health.

Williams, the department's press secretary, called Smith's news release a "political stunt" and its characterization strange, pointing to a line in the settlement agreement that reads it "is not and shall not in any way be construed as an admission by any Party of any wrongdoing or any violation of any law."

"It is unfortunate that we have continued to waste government resources arguing over the formatting of data with armchair epidemiologists who have zero training or expertise," Williams told the USA TODAY Network in an email. "While some individuals may continue to grapple for political relevancy and disregard providing the public with the truth, we will continue serving Floridians by executing our core mission of protecting, promoting, and improving the health of all people in Florida. "

What spurred the lawsuit?

An Orange County Board member requested Smith gather data from the state Department of Health on pediatric hospitalizations and cases. This happened as the state was the epicenter of the COVID-19 surge during the summer of 2021 from the delta variant and ranked No. 1 in pediatric cases.

The department denied Smith's request, stating in part, that the data for Orange County is "confidential and exempt from public disclosure” under Florida statutes and rules.

The nonprofit watchdog organization Florida Center for Government Accountability made the same records request for all of Florida's 67 counties and the request was denied for the same reasons.

The watchdog group and Smith filed suit. Several major news media companies, including the USA TODAY Network, joined the suit. So did the First Amendment Foundation.

The department claimed in court that the requested records didn't exist, according to a press release. But the department released the records in March following a state appellate court order.

The parties agreed to a settlement after the watchdog group informed the department that those records satisfied the public records requests made almost two years before, according to the release.

Michael Barfield, director of public access initiatives at the Florida Center for Government Accountability, said the department hid the records to validate a narrative the state was open for business.

“Transparency and accountability are not negotiable. The Constitution mandates it,” he said.

DeSantis uses COVID-19 record to build support

The settlement comes during Gov. Ron DeSantis' presidential campaign. The Republican has used his COVID-19 record to try and gain more support in his White House bid.

He rose to conservative stardom early in the pandemic in large part due to his COVID-19 policies, such as penalizing mask and vaccine mandates.

His administration, at the same time, slow-walked or refused coronavirus-related public information requests, drawing controversy and lawsuits, such as those by Smith and the Florida Center for Government Accountability.

He picked Joseph Ladapo as Florida's surgeon general. Ladapo, who's also named in the lawsuit, frequently defies medical consensus to boost vaccine skepticism.

Attempting to chip away at some of the MAGA vote, DeSantis has elevated coronavirus and vaccine skepticism conspiracies and attacked Trump for the COVID-19 restrictions that happened during his presidency.

"Why are we in this mess? Part of it, and a major reason is because how this federal government handled COVID-19 by locking down this economy," DeSantis said during the first GOP presidential primary debate. "It was a mistake. It should have never happened. And in Florida, we led the country out of lockdown."

News sources joined lawsuit: USA TODAY Network, other Florida news organizations join public records lawsuit

How it started: Two months later, finding Florida COVID data by county can be frustrating — but possible

This reporting content is supported by a partnership with Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners.

Reporter Douglas Soule can be reached at DSoule@gannett.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @DouglasSoule.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Florida releasing more COVID-19 data after settling records lawsuit