Who sued the Florida Department of Health for not releasing COVID-19 data? Details explored as Ron DeSantis' administration settles lawsuit

Two years after the Florida Department of Health was sued for not releasing COVID-19 data to its public dashboard under orders from Ron DeSantis, the lawsuit has been settled. According to documents released on Monday, October 9, 2023, the department will post detailed data about the disease every week for the next three years.

On August 30, 2021, then-state representative Carlos Guillermo Smith filed a lawsuit against the Florida Department of Health and Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo, alleging that they violated public records law by denying requests to release COVID-19 data. Several media outlets and the Florida Center for Government Accountability (FCGA) would later join the plaintiff.

"All Floridians have a constitutional right to public records and the right to receive critical public health data in a timely manner," remarked Smith at the time.

As per the recent agreement in the lawsuit, the department will now provide detailed COVID-19 stats, including vaccination counts, case counts, and deaths, all complied each week, by county, age group, gender, and race. Additionally, the state is required to pay more than $152,000 in legal fees toward the plaintiff's legal expenses.

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In a series of posts on X, Smith slammed DeSantis and the Florida Department of Health for downplaying the COVID-19 threat

Florida restricted access to COVID-19 data after Governor Ron DeSantis opened the state for business back in June 2021, citing a decrease in cases and an increase in vaccinations. The approach was later mimicked by other states.

At the time, the Delta variant of coronavirus was spreading throughout the state of Florida, with thousands dying due to the disease.

In July 2021, democrat Carlos Guillermo Smith sought out counts of pediatric hospitalizations, deaths, and positive cases in Orange County. FCGA submitted a broader request for the data from all of Florida's 67 counties. Both requests were denied at the time, eventually leading to the lawsuit.

Following the settlement, Smith took to X to comment on the win and criticize the DeSantis administration for downplaying the threat of the disease, which cost many Floridians their lives. He commented:

"(They) 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. We persisted. We prevailed. We held them accountable."

According to the Florida Department of Health's recent report on September 28, 2023, more than 91,000 Floridians have died from coronavirus, and over 10,000 new cases are reported each week. According to Newsweek, to date 7,813,431 Floridians have tested positive, which is more than a third of the state's population.

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Despite the settlement, neither the Florida Department of Health nor Ladapo admitted to any wrongdoing and added that they provided necessary data to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Press Secretary for the department, James Williams criticized Smith and called his actions a "political stunt." He stated that they just wasted government time and resources "over the formatting of data with armchair epidemiologists who have zero training or expertise."

Smith further explained that despite the existence of public records, they restricted information to "fit their political narrative."