Floridians have never been able to trust the number of coronavirus cases reported by the DeSantis administration.
Not when it fired a data scientist who wouldn't manipulate the figures.
Not when state health officials wouldn't release real-time hospitalization figures.
Not when we couldn't get solid answers about COVID's rampage through nursing homes.
And not when, as the governor did on Monday, he embraced the guidance of the new White House's coronavirus adviser, Scott Atlas.
Atlas recommends only testing people with coronavirus symptoms, despite experts' warning that symptoms don't have to be present in order for a person to be coronavirus positive _ and contagious. (However, there is the added "benefit," at least for this administration, of being able to boast of a declining number of cases, no matter the human cost.)
'DUMP' OF OLD TESTS
But on Tuesday, Gov. Ron DeSantis appeared genuinely incensed that the state reported more than 7,500 additional COVID-19 cases, a huge increase over recent days. It turns out the daily number was inflated by what the governor called a "dump" of old tests from Quest Diagnostics, which had withheld test results from the state dating back as far back as April.
Unbelievable, even for Florida.
DeSantis was livid. So should every Floridian whose tax money paid for this shoddy service.
The governor fired the testing lab, a straightforward and solid decision.
Now he needs to show that he's is committed to fighting, not hiding, COVID's continued presence.
From the start, the number of coronavirus cases in Florida has been in dispute _ spurred by DeSantis injecting President Donald Trump's preference for scoring political points at the expense of science-based policies. That's why there's no mask mandate. News reporters and the governor's office have been going back and forth, and round and round, on the correct count for months, with the state suspected of underreporting cases.
Those suspicions are well-founded.
Tuesday, there was simply more evidence for concern. DeSantis immediately, and rightly, severed ties with Quest Diagnostics.
'STALE' DATA
It wasn't the first time the lab was derelict. Last month, Quest, headquartered in New Jersey, reported a smaller dump of historical testing data from a lab in Miami Gardens that skewed that day's numbers.
The law requires all COVID-19 results to be reported in a timely manner.
"To drop this much unusable and stale data is irresponsible," DeSantis said. He's absolutely correct. The governor added that, "Quest has abdicated their ability to perform a testing function in Florida that the people can be confident in."
Quest's failure significantly threw the numbers off and, with them, the solidity of every decision made by mayors in South Florida as to when to reopen _ because they were relying on the numbers.
We commend the governor for firing Quest. Better still will be if his administration refuses to let bygones be bygones and doesn't rehire Quest for a future gig.
The very recent example of the state bringing back on board Deloitte Consulting, the company that made a mess of the unemployment benefits website, should be enough of an embarrassment.
