DeSantis admin condemns 'misleading' Miami Herald report on state COVID data: 'Irresponsible at best'

The office of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, R., hit back at the Miami Herald this week for a report it said "misrepresented" the Public Health Accreditation Board's (PHAB) evaluation of the Florida Department of Health's reporting of COVID-19 data.

Miami Herald reporters Sarah Blaskey and Ben Conarck published a piece Monday claiming that the Florida DOH received a "reprimand" from the Public Health Accreditation Board for not releasing accurate information on COVID-19 in schools. An investigation into the Florida DOH was launched in response to a complaint from John Silver, a parent in Broward County, who was trying to obtain COVID data before deciding to put his son back in the classroom. 

The headline read, "'A slap on the wrist.' FL Health Department required to improve public COVID information." The DOH called the headline misleading and the report "inaccurate" in a press release titled, "Setting the Record Straight: Florida Department of Health Addresses False Miami Herald Claims."

"As a result of this investigation, the Board concluded that DOH ‘demonstrated strong capacity related to epidemiology, data management and communications’ and found 'nothing concerning about the department's data collection or analysis,' specifically COVID-19 data and surveillance," the DOH said. "The department's accreditation was not placed on any type of probation or revoked."

DOH added the Miami Herald report was published with "inherent bias." 

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The governor's office put out a similar statement in response to the Miami Herald report, listing several points they termed, "Media Myths." They note, for instance, that "no official representative of PHAB gave any indication that DOH was ever in any danger of losing accreditation" and that the Miami Herald even quoted PHAB president Paul Kuehnert praising the department for doing an "excellent job." DeSantis' office observed that the outlet didn't share the quote until the 19th paragraph of the piece.

"These are Kuehnert’s own words, quoted in the Miami Herald article — albeit in the nineteenth paragraph. Miami Herald’s decision to ‘bury the lede’ in this story is irresponsible at best and negligent at worst," DeSantis' staff wrote.

The Miami Herald responded to the claim in a statement to Fox News. 

"Throughout the pandemic, Florida media outlets including the Miami Herald, have had to beg, plead, fight and threaten legal action against the Florida Department of Health to obtain important, basic information about the scope of the impact of COVID-19, especially in long-term care facilities and schools. The experience of the person whose complaint [sic] to the Public Health Accreditation Board was not unique," executive editor Monica Richardson said.

"Our story on the board's report didn't ‘bury the lede’ as DOH suggests," she continued. "It focused on the original nature of the complaint: Important data about COVID cases in schools was not available to parents who wanted it. In that regard, the report says DOH could and could have been more transparent. The fact that the report complimented the department on its overall performance is included in the story. In fact, the quotation in the Department of Health press release is directly out of our story - from an interview we conducted." 

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This was the second time that DeSantis or his associates have sparred with the Miami Herald this week. On Tuesday, he shut down a reporter who asked him if his new bill to let residents sue Big Tech was "for" former President Donald Trump, who was deplatformed from Twitter this year. DeSantis replied the measure was for all Floridians.

DeSantis has long pushed back at a media narrative trying to paint Florida as a danger for its comparatively relaxed guidelines during the coronavirus pandemic. On Fox News' "Hannity," the governor reflected on the past year's "phony narratives," such as how the media at one point tried to suggest that Florida was in a worse spot than New York.

DeSantis signed an executive order on Monday granting him the ability to invalidate local emergency orders, limit emergency orders to one-week intervals and block state or local governments from closing businesses or prohibiting in-classroom learning.

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The bill also blocks businesses or schools from requiring "vaccine passports."