Finally, an end to daily COVID updates

OPINION
BY JENNIFER CABRERA
Today, there was no daily COVID-19 report from the Florida Department of Health (FDOH), and the dashboard is no longer being updated. FDOH has announced that we can expect weekly updates for a few more weeks, and then they will no longer be reporting COVID-19 data to the public. Data will still be reported to the CDC as required, and data will be available by public records requests, but the daily reports and dashboard updates are a thing of the past. Our first update was March 12, 2020, and the last was June 3, 2021. In between, we provided reports on every day that FDOH provided reports.
I am grateful to Jon Taylor at FAU and to my husband Len Cabrera for the charts that I published every day; I thought it was important to put the data in context instead of simply reporting numbers of cases and deaths, and their faithfulness in producing charts every single day has been extraordinary.
I honestly don’t know how many people found the updates to be helpful; I tracked everything myself so I would have the data I needed to counter what I called “panic porn” – the tendency in many media outlets to put the biggest number of the day in the headlines. Since I was tracking it anyway, I thought my readers might want to have the information available, too. I know many of you have been ready for this day for some time, and so have I, but I was determined to keep watching as long as the reports were available. As you know if you’ve been paying attention, many of the reports included deaths from months ago and sometimes over a year ago. I’ve seen these updates as part of our mission of holding government accountable.
However, I’m glad to put this task down and spend more time reporting on meetings, doing public records requests, and keeping you informed about community events. As always, let us know here if we miss anything newsworthy in Alachua County.
Oh my goodness!! I’m so happy for you!! Now you can get your life back a little bit.
Thank you so much for your faithful reporting and all the time you spent researching and interpreting the data for all of us.
What a happy day!!!
Thank you for your reports. I found your reports to be very good!
I’ve been quietly following your reports daily for many many months. Thank you so much –
1. Does this mean the crisis is over? There’s still lots
Of people walking around wearing masks… 2. Will the
GNV CC still require that people wear masks or provide proof of
Vaccination in order to participate in-person? I.e., can I address the city commission in person without a mask on and without Covid shot without threat of arrest or trespass warrant? 3. Will they keep
Paying people not to work and is that coming to
end too? 4. Are they still making kids wear masks
To go to school? 5. Are they going to require that
Children get Covid shot in order to go to school?
6. Does this mean we’ve reached herd immunity?
FDA AUTHORITY SAYS EXPERIMENTAL (EUA) VACCINES ARE OPTIONAL — Emergency Use Authorization for Vaccines Explained — “FDA has authorized the emergency use of the vaccine, of the known and potential benefits and risks, the extent to which such benefits and risks are unknown, that they have the option to accept or refuse the vaccine”.
https://www.fda.gov/vaccines-blood-biologics/vaccines/emergency-use-authorization-vaccines-explained
Jennifer, Thanks to you, Jon & Len for stepping up and maintaining this public service to our community. I used your charts many times to show people the reality of the situation and how different things were from the what the city and county politicians were spouting.
While mourning the early loss of so many frail and elderly, this is truly a great day for everyone. It was a wonderful feeling to look at the charts back in mid-January to see that the vaccine was taking hold in the elderly population and that we were finally winning.
Thanks, Jennifer and Len, for all you have done to keep us accurately informed in the midst of all the lies, misinformation and just plain deceit from the MSM.
Thanks to all of you for doing these reports. I have shared them with so many. Your reports also helped me to identify when one of my best friends was documented as a death case. And that case may have been removed due to several other pre-existing conditions.
We know the push for creating Covid cases whether real or not. My Primary Care Physician was and is still very concerned about reported cases as well as us serving in essentially clinical trials. I submitted for vaccination based on my opinion due to my pre-existing conditions. I was not directed to do so.
What you Jennifer, Lynn and Taylor did was to help us know what our governments were doing. I’m am so thankful for your efforts.
Thanks to the entire crew. Your twitter page was my go to for Covid both in Florida and the rest of this great country.
This report was my favorite way to track cases locally and I really appreciate your efforts!!!
Thank you for the work you and your team did! I found it very useful and much appreciated.