Florida changed its COVID-19 data, creating an 'artificial decline' in recent deaths
Source: Miami Herald
August 31, 2021 10:12 AM
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.
If you chart deaths by Florida’s new method, based on date of death, it will generally appear — even during a spike like the present — that deaths are on a recent downslope. That’s because it takes time for deaths to be evaluated and death certificates processed. When those deaths finally are tallied, they are assigned to the actual data of death — creating a spike where there once existed a downslope and moving the downslope forward in time.
Shivani Patel, a social epidemiologist and assistant professor at Emory University called the move “extremely problematic,” especially since it came without warning or explanation during a rise in cases....................................................................................
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Read more: https://amp.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article253796898.html?__twitter_impression=true
People voting Gov DeSantis and his crooked Admin back into office are as crooked as he is!
“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.”
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Aerial view shows cars lining up at Tropical Park’s COVID-19 testing site in Miami, Florida on Friday, July 30, 2021.
COVID-19 Deaths reporting delays can distort trends for weeks
It often takes weeks after someone dies of COVID-19 for that death certificate to be processed and reflected in death data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As a result, deaths reported by date of death will initially appear to decline, even if more people are dying each day, because data are incomplete.
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Seven-day trend using Aug. 26 data
Seven-day trend using Aug. 10 data
Report date:
Date of Death
COVID-19 Deaths
COVID-19 death data used in this chart were downloaded from the CDC on Aug. 26, Aug. 23, Aug. 17 and Aug. 10, 2021. The CDC confirmed these data are reported by date the death occurred.
Chart: Sarah Blaskey and Ana Claudia Chacin Source: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Get the data
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