Florida cites 'privacy concerns' for not making COVID-19 data public

Rescue workers push a stretcher with a patient outside the ER area at Holy Cross Hospital amid the coronavirus outbreak in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, U.S., April 20, 2020. /Reuters

The U.S. state of Florida is trying to block medical examiners from releasing data related to the COVID-19 death toll, local newspapers have reported.

The numbers and names of COVID-19 fatalities should be public information and taxpayers have the right to know, Dr. Stephen Nelson, chairman of the state's Medical Examiners Commission, told the Tampa Bay Times.

This came after the newspaper reported that the commission's real-time release of COVID-19 death toll is 10 percent higher than the state's number.

The health department cited "privacy concerns" as a reason to pause the commission's data release.

But Nelson told media that the record should be public under the state's law.

"This is no different than any other public record we deal with," Nelson said. "It's paid for by taxpayer dollars and the taxpayers have a right to know."

Nelson said death records have been kept and made public since 1992 until being paused by the government more than a week ago.

The reason behind the inconsistency between data from the commission and the government department remains unclear. It's too early to assume any party is concealing the number of deaths because the two could be using different counting methods.

But Tampa Bay Times said it's hard to extract public information from the Florida government after the COVID-19 outbreak hit the state. They have to file lawsuits to get the data that should have been made public.