FL Must Share COVID Data In Lawsuit Settlement With DeSantis Officials

FLORIDA — Florida health officials must release three years of COVID-19 data as part of a lawsuit settlement with a former Democratic state representative and a government watchdog group.

In 2021, then-Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith sued Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration after the Florida Department of Health denied his public records request for coronavirus data after the agency stopped publishing the information online. He was joined by the Florida Center for Government Accountability in the lawsuit.

The state stopped publishing daily COVID-19 updates on its online dashboard in June 2021 because cases decreased as the number of vaccinations against the virus increased.

The settlement requires the state to publicly share COVID-19 data for the next three years. This includes weekly statistics on the number of cases, deaths and vaccinations by county, age group, gender and race.

The state must also cover the legal fees and costs for Smith and the FCGA, totaling more than $152,000.

Smith announced the lawsuit’s outcome in a social media post on Monday.

“After a 2-year battle, the DeSantis administration has agreed to settle my public records lawsuit against them for illegally hiding COVID health data while the Delta variant ripped thru (sic) Florida killing 23,000 people,” he wrote in a Facebook post. “The DeSantis administration LIED. We persisted. We held them accountable and we WON!”

In a statement, Smith said 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.”

The Department of Health admitted no wrongdoing as part of the settlement, noting that it’s always provided data to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The lawsuit was nothing more than “a political stunt,” a spokesperson for the department, Jae Williams III, said.

“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,” he said.

This article includes reporting from the Associated Press.