Worldometers www.worldometers.info/... has been my go to site for tracking COVID cases and deaths, but now I shaking my head about the data reported for Florida. Typically the trend in deaths lags the trend in cases by two or three weeks. The 7 day moving average for cases has moved fairly smoothly up from 1626 cases per day on 6/23 to 14,201 cases per day on 7/28, and now 21569 cases per day on 8/18. The 7 day moving average of deaths on 7/14 (3 weeks after 6/23) were 36, reached a peak of 106 on 8/4, and have declined for two weeks now to reach a moving average of only 15 deaths on 8/18. The last time the moving average was this low in Florida was March 30 of 2020.
Given DeSantis’ hard line stance that COVID isn’t that bad, and that Florida need to just get back to business, it is rather easy to believe that by business they mean cooking the books. DeSantis gets into a major political fight over mask mandates, and at the same time the death rate drops in an unprecedented way? The timing looks like deliberate fraud in aid of DeSantis’ bid to outlaw mask mandates.
The CDC, and the media need to get on this, and they need to do it now, while the fight over the mask mandate law is happening.