An article from the Tampa Bay Times discusses how medical examiners were told to stop releasing data surrounding the deaths and cases of COVID-19 in the state of Florida. This comes after the concern amongst the public grows that the state government is intentionally under-reporting the number of cases, and therefore underreporting on the severity of the virus and the situation/implications it has caused.
The inquiry into data numbers and statistics came after discrepancies were found between death numbers reported by individual counties and the Florida Department of Health. I wanted to write about this article because I find it interesting how many media outlets, national, local and online, are pointing their finger at, and blaming China for their underreporting of cases and deaths. I understand the supposed scale difference in the omission of data between China and Florida, but does that mean that it’s okay? We are so quick to put the blame elsewhere and criticize others, but shouldn’t we sometimes be critical of ourselves a little more? Each state and its governor needs to be held accountable.
Another topic that made me want to write this article was due to the recent protesting of the ‘lockdown’ across the United States. I want to emphasize how ridiculous it is that there are Trump supporters who are protesting social distancing measures and claiming that the government is over-reporting and exaggerating the data- it is clear that is not the case, but rather, Florida (who’s probably not alone in this endeavor) are systematically hiding cases and deaths.
Current Issues In Media Management 