Quote:Over past 3 weeks, COVID-19 might be Florida's leading cause of death.

The number of people dying of COVID-19 in Florida continued to get worse in the past seven days, as the state set another record Friday with a weekly report tallying 1,727 new deaths acknowledged since last Friday.

With that report, Florida has averaged reporting more than 200 new COVID-19 deaths per day over a three-week stretch of August — the worst period of mortality seen in the Sunshine State’s entire 18-month coronavirus pandemic.

That level also means that in recent weeks COVID-19 might be the leading cause of death in Florida. COVID-19 deaths are being reported at a pace that exceeds what is typical for either heart disease or cancer, normally the two biggest killers in Florida.

That level also is far higher than what any other state is suffering this summer.

There has been much political gnashing of teeth recently as some state officials have sparred with journalists over high death numbers being reported. Reporting on Florida’s COVID-19 death rate is a task fraught with difficulty, as the state no longer publicly discloses dates of deaths for COVID-19 fatalities.

The way COVID-19 death reports percolate from local officials to state officials, and then to federal officials, information from those reports can take days or weeks to be tabulated, and often finally reaches the public domain in big, mixed batches some days, which federal authorities often release on Mondays and Thursdays in multi-day bundles. Meanwhile, on other days almost no new Florida COVID-19 death reports get tabulated for public disclosure.

For example, on Thursday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services daily report showed that Florida had just presented 901 new death cases, as reported Thursday by the Miami Herald. The day before though, the federal agency showed that Florida sent information on just nine new COVID-19 fatalities. The day before that, Florida presented just six. And there is no clear way to trace those 901 deaths to any given day or days.

“A lie of omission is still a lie,” Gov. Ron DeSantis‘ press secretary Christina Pushaw blasted in a tweet about the Herald’s story, charging that it could have led some people to the false impression that 901 Floridians had died of COVID-19 in a single day.

Yet each and every death in the 901 total is real — a unique, tragic fatality. And available information says the most probable cause was COVID-19.

The Governor’s Office has said little publicly about Florida suffering record levels of COVID-19 deaths lately — or about the anguish all of those deaths is causing. Pushaw did not respond Friday to an inquiry from Florida Politics.

With the assumption that a three-week sample should cover enough time to absorb most anomalies or quirks in bureaucratic processing, Florida Politics compiled three weeks worth of data released by the state and by the federal government.

Florida’s COVID-19 mortality picture over the past three weeks is grim, based on the data the Florida Department of Health releases itself, weekly, late each Friday afternoon.

Over the past three weeks, Florida has tallied 4,284 COVID-19 additional deaths: 1,727 were added in the weekly report released Friday afternoon; 1,486 in the weekly report released a week earlier on Aug. 20; and 1,071 in the report released Aug. 13.

The cumulative deaths data in those three reports show Florida’s rate of uploading death reports is rising quickly. For the seven-days ending Friday, Florida averaged reporting 246 deaths per day, including the 901 reports reported by the federal government on Thursday and the nine posted the day before.

Over three weeks, Florida has averaged 204 COVID-19 death reports per day. No other cause of death tracked by the Department of Health tops that level, at least on an annual basis.

Weekly reports are not available for other causes of death, but the Florida Department of Health’s Division of Public Health Statistics does compile annual reports.

Over the past three years (with 2020 data still considered provisional,) Florida has tabulated heart disease deaths that averaged about 180-190 per day in each year, according that division’s Death Count Query System.

Over the past three years, Florida has seen cancer deaths averaging about 120-130 per day in each year.

Florida’s previous worst week for reported COVID-19 deaths was the week ending on Friday, Jan. 29, when Florida reported an average of 185 deaths per day over a seven-day period. The previous worst three-week period was the one ending Feb. 12, when Florida reported an average of 173 deaths per day over 21 days.

Texas also is seeing a dramatic spike in COVID-19 death reports, but not yet at Florida’s rate. Texas averaged 155 new death reports per day last week, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reports. Over the past three weeks, Texas has been averaging 106 death reports per day, according to federal data.

Louisiana and Mississippi have endured higher COVID-19 death rates per capita in recent weeks, according to federal data. However, Florida has suffered the nation’s third-highest per capita death rate in recent weeks, twice as high as the death rate in Texas and five times the death rate in California.

Here is the Florida Department of Health’s report for this week:

Quote:About 200 new COVID-19 deaths are being recorded every day in Florida.

This month Florida is seeing its deadliest days yet of the COVID-19 pandemic.

At no time in the coronavirus pandemic has Florida recorded more deaths attributed to COVID-19 than last week. And trend lines are skyrocketing.

The state’s official death toll rose 1,486 in last Friday’s weekly COVID-19 report from the Florida Department of Health. That one-week increase was by far the single-biggest weekly increase since the Sunshine State’s first COVID-19 fatalities were confirmed in March 2020.

While Gov. Ron DeSantis barnstorms Florida encouraging people to try monoclonal antibody treatment if they get COVID-19, and while he and his staff battle with news media over how that effort is being reported, an average of more than 200 new COVID-19 deaths are being quietly tallied in Florida every day.

Previously, Florida’s worst one-week increase in cumulative deaths was recorded during the week leading up to the Jan. 29 state report, when 1,296 new COVID-19 deaths were added to the state’s total.

COVID-19 deaths are difficult to track day-to-day or week-to-week in anything close to real time because local officials can take days or even weeks to determine and report a cause of death. Consequently, the weekly number of new deaths the state reports for any given week is only a fraction of the total number of people who actually died of the disease during that week. The true grim toll is not revealed except over time, as those delayed COVID-19 fatality reports eventually arrive and get added into the state’s running total.

That means most of the 1,486 deaths recorded last Friday likely were of people who died of COVID-19 complications during previous weeks.

Nonetheless, the deaths are real. The cumulative total remains the most reliable measure of mortality. And the surge in fatalities is real — a very recent, tragically-huge loss of life — even if it cannot be easily assigned to any specific day without more detailed information, which the state no longer publicly releases.

What’s more, trends don’t suggest the worst is over, or that things will get better anytime soon.

Past trends from the pandemic have shown that death tolls peak two to four weeks after case totals peak. Florida recorded its worst week for new COVID-19 cases for the pandemic with the Aug. 13 weekly report, showing cumulative cases increasing by 151,764. That was up from 134,751 the week before, and 110,724 the week before that. The Aug. 20 report showed the cumulative total of new COVID-19 cases perhaps plateauing, with 150,740 added in the previous week.

Prior to the past four weeks, Florida had only ever recorded more than 100,000 new COVID-19 cases in a seven-day period once, in early January.

Florida’s death toll also has skyrocketed over the past month, to last week’s record of 1,486 newly recorded fatalities. Florida added 1,071 COVID-19 deaths to its total in the previous weekly report issued Aug. 13; 616 the week before that; 409 the week before that, and 282 with the weekly report issued July 23.

The state’s previous one-week high of 1,296 deaths for a Friday-through-Thursday period — the same seven-day cycle now covered in Florida’s weekly reports — was recorded on Jan. 29, three weeks after the previous high point for new cases was recorded, Jan. 8. That Jan. 29 report marked the fourth in a string of seven consecutive weeks in which more than 1,000 Floridians were recorded each week to have died of COVID-19.

That tragic period of late winter was the worst Florida had ever seen, until now.

In the summer surge of 2020, Florida’s worst week was the one leading into the Aug. 14, 2020, state report, when the state’s death toll went up by 1,214 newly recorded COVID-19 fatalities over seven days. That was the third of four consecutive weeks of more than 1,000 newly recorded deaths. That summer surge came and went more quickly than the winter surge.

Federal authorities compile and post state COVID-19 data through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s HealthData.gov website. However, while the federal government’s posted numbers are usually similar to those publicly released by Florida, they never quite match, day-to-day or week-to-week.

In its most recent report, posted late Monday with data through last Thursday, the CDC site had added 1,380 new COVID-19 deaths to Florida’s running total for the seven-day period.

The federal numbers can be used to compare Florida with other states. No other state is seeing nearly as many people die of COVID-19 as Florida.

With the CDC’s latest report Texas saw its death toll increased by 777 new COVID-19 fatalities over seven days. Louisiana, which has a higher per-capita death rate than Florida’s, saw 389 new deaths recorded in that period; California, 346.

Quote:tates ranked by COVID-19 death rates: Aug. 30
Mackenzie Bean - Updated 2 hours ago Print  | Email

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As of Aug. 30, more than 637,000 people in the U.S. had died after contracting COVID-19, according to The New York Times.
The Times used data from reports of coronavirus cases and deaths by U.S. states and counties. The database includes cases and deaths that have been identified by public health officials as probable coronavirus patients, which means they did not have confirmed tests for coronavirus infection but were evaluated using criteria developed by national and local governments. Read more about the data here. 
Here is a breakdown of average daily COVID-19 deaths and COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 people over the last seven days in all 50 U.S. states and Washington, D.C. The data was last updated Aug. 30. 
Note: States are ranked by deaths per 100,000. The list includes ties. 
Mississippi
Deaths per 100,000: 1.38
Daily average deaths: 41.1


Louisiana
Deaths per 100,000: 1.36
Daily average deaths: 63.

Florida
Deaths per 100,000: 1.15
Daily average deaths: 246.7

Arkansas
Deaths per 100,000: 0.97
Daily average deaths: 29.3

(08-30-2021, 12:20 PM)Wes Mantooth Wrote: I'm going to give you a completely honest answer with some explanation, and I hope you'll respond.  My answer is I don't know.  You can scoff at this if you'd like, or you can choose to continue reading. (Fwiw, I hope you choose the latter.)

I'm going to break this down into two distinct timeframes:  March 2020-June 2021 and July 2021-August 2021.

The first timeline, which is the start of pandemic though the month of June of this year.  No, I do not think he shit the bed.  Despite so many people saying his policies were a disaster, the numbers just weren't there to support he had done a terrible job.  (You can read through earlier in the thread for many of those numbers) 

They were essentially average in cases, and slightly below in deaths, which is rather suprising.  Not only because of the policies so many bemoaned but because of things like population density, having numerous "big cities", travel into the state, and average age (Florida is an older state).  Despite all of these things working against them, and despite so many people claiming he was setting them up for disaster, their case rates and death rates fared no worse than any number of more heavy handed approaches by others.  In fact, in some case they were better than states who were much more agressive in their approach.

Quote:Now were onto the second timeframe, the one where it's been very bad for Flordia.  You can see their numbers gradually start to rise in early July and steadily go up reaching a peak in the middle of August and still remaining high.  This is not at all a good thing of course, and it is certainly not a good look.  There are people such as yourself that now seemingingly have all of the ammuntion they need to hammer Desantis.


But here's where I'd really like you to focus on this post.  I'd really love some answers to some questions.  Don't be "pathetic" and avoid them.  I'm asking these in real-time not digging up a post from 6 months ago like you did with mine.

1.) What policies are currently in place in Flordia that you think have contributed to the extreme rise in case from July 1st today?  Or more simply put, what do you think Densantis has done wrong or what should have he done since this time?

2.) Assuming you've answered question #1 with some examples, can you point me to any other states that are following a similar approach?  Is Desantis alone in these lack of restrictions; is he on an island in his approach?

3.)  Do you feel they are any things outside of Desantis control, or that are inherent to Florida that lead this rise?  i.e. Tourisim, being a destination for a lot younger crowds and partying, having 8 of the top 10 biggest theme parks in America, being an older state, etc.

Quote:I'm not asking loaded questions, I swear.  Perhaps there are policies I'm unaware of that are contributing to this, perhaps there is much he could have done.  I honestly have not been following the Covid stuff all that close lately.  I finally tuned out when things started looking like we were through the woods, and haven't picked it back up.  I'm covid'd out.  


But here's the thing.  You're going to have to do better than you just showing me numbers and assigning blame.  I want to know what you think is causing this and how it could have been avoided.  How is he specifically repsonsible?  Because I can't buy the "the state is totally open" when most states are totally open.  I can't buy the "he doesn't have mask mandates" when most states don't have mask mandates.  I can't buy the masks in school argument just yet because they're irrelevant to the numbers seen from July through August.

So fill me in.  What am I missing?  What are his failures in July and August and how do they differ from everyone else?  I look forward to your reply.  Maybe I'll learn something.  I mean that honestly

Quote:Scott Powers
September 2, 2021
4min
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Florida hospitals are seeing “very encouraging trends” in hospital admissions for COVID-19, Florida Hospital Association President Mary Mayhew told a national TV audience Thursday morning.

She credited Gov. Ron DeSantis‘ frequent promotion of monoclonal antibody treatments, and his efforts to make them widely available in Florida, as among the reasons for recent improvement and for hope that the summer surge may be waning in the Sunshine State.

Mayhew started out on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” show Friday noting Florida has been on the front-end of the nation’s summer surge of COVID-19, with “a dramatic increase in hospitalizations over a seven week period.”

But the tide has shifted, she said, since a peak of 17,000 COVID-19 hospitalizations a couple of weeks ago.

“Right now we are seeing very encouraging trends. Our hospitalizations have dropped dramatically. We are now down to 14,800 hospitalizations. This is extremely encouraging. Our admissions are dropping as well,” she said after co-anchor Willie Geist asked her to provide a snapshot of what’s now happening in Florida.

“So there are signs that we have peaked and are headed in the right direction,” Mayhew said.

She called the monoclonal antibody treatment “a very effective treatment” in reducing hospitalizations.

“Gov. DeSantis has set up 21 sites around the state. Over 40,000 individuals have received treatment over the last several weeks. That is absolutely contributing,” Mayhew said.

(09-05-2021, 12:21 PM)bengaloo Wrote: Im very happy to see Ron DeSantis rolling out very effective treatments for covid. Monoclonal antibody treatments can and will save many lives if its being used across the US and the world. This is not the only treatment that can saves lives but its one of them and good to see them actually using it instead of politicizing it. This decision by DeSantis will most likely boost the chances of him being the RNC presidential candidate if he so chooses. We've spent way over a year with most medical doctors not even offering early treatment for active covid cases, until they end up in the hospital 2 weeks into covid. That has been criminal, imo. We need more public servants to begin pushing covid treatments, because the vaccines are failing at this point. We need more doctors to grow a pair and treat their patients early with the treatments that have shown potential. Yes, and that means the "horsepill" that won the nobel prize in 2015 for saving human lives from parasite infection complications, and then was modified to also be able to treat animals. Good stuff. ( https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2015/press-release/ )

https://floridapolitics.com/archives/454561-hospital-associations-mary-mayhew-touts-very-encouraging-trends-for-covid-19/

(09-05-2021, 05:14 PM)BmorePat87 Wrote: How are vaccines failing? 

(09-05-2021, 05:14 PM)BmorePat87 Wrote: I doubt this will help him become the RNC nominee. The Trump side of the tent is the only side that is going to support him in the primary, and they care more about his irresponsible fight against masks than promoting treatments. This move alone isn't enough to make a Neo Con suddenly support him after everything else he has done.

How are vaccines failing? 

(09-05-2021, 12:21 PM)bengaloo Wrote: Im very happy to see Ron DeSantis rolling out very effective treatments for covid. Monoclonal antibody treatments can and will save many lives if its being used across the US and the world. This is not the only treatment that can saves lives but its one of them and good to see them actually using it instead of politicizing it. This decision by DeSantis will most likely boost the chances of him being the RNC presidential candidate if he so chooses. We've spent way over a year with most medical doctors not even offering early treatment for active covid cases, until they end up in the hospital 2 weeks into covid. That has been criminal, imo. We need more public servants to begin pushing covid treatments, because the vaccines are failing at this point. We need more doctors to grow a pair and treat their patients early with the treatments that have shown potential. Yes, and that means the "horsepill" that won the nobel prize in 2015 for saving human lives from parasite infection complications, and then was modified to also be able to treat animals. Good stuff. ( https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2015/press-release/ )

https://floridapolitics.com/archives/454561-hospital-associations-mary-mayhew-touts-very-encouraging-trends-for-covid-19/

(09-06-2021, 03:59 PM)jason Wrote: I spent 15 hours in a vehicle with 2 people who are sick as **** with covid. I'm still negative. The vaccine isn't failing homeboy... Critical thinking and basic understanding of science are.

(09-07-2021, 10:12 AM)bengaloo Wrote: Pfizer is rushing out a booster shot because so many vaccinated people are getting covid. The raw data suggest it offers only 39-40% protection against delta. I would call that a failure. Just my opinion though homeboy. 

(09-07-2021, 10:41 AM)Nately120 Wrote: Isn't 40% more than 0%?  

(09-07-2021, 10:49 AM)bengaloo Wrote: 500 million doses of monoclonal antibody treatments were shipped all over the US a long time ago. 

(09-07-2021, 10:52 AM)Nately120 Wrote: Wait, so you are saying the US government is intentionally withholding 500 million life-saving treatments that outnumber our population as a whole while letting people rack up insane medical bills and/or die?

(09-07-2021, 10:55 AM)bengaloo Wrote: No, I'm not saying that at all. The treatments have been shipped to hospitals, nursing homes. clinics, etc. The doctors who are using them are doing it with great success, but not enough are using them. Monoclonal antibody treatments are legit and should be used hands down if it can save lives. Dont you think? 

(09-07-2021, 11:00 AM)Nately120 Wrote: Well yes, but you are saying that doctors engaging in what seems like a widespread conspiracy to withhold life-saving treatments from patients.  That's a pretty substantial accusation, is all I'm saying.

So can I just go get this treatment, or what?  Have you gotten it yet?

(09-07-2021, 11:31 AM)Nately120 Wrote: But why are we just letting people die of covid if we have enough of this stuff to give damn near everyone in the country a dose and still have 100 million+ left over?  Are other countries using this stuff or are they also just sitting on it and letting people die?