Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, an independent member of the Florida Cabinet, held a virtual press conference to release and discuss school district COVID-19 data which Governor Ron DeSantis’ administration has worked to block.
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This data shows clear evidence that school districts requiring masks resulted in up to seven times lower COVID-19 cases per capita than school districts that did not require masks.
Commissioner Fried released the data in advance of Board of Education meeting, which will determine punishment for eleven Florida school districts requiring masks.
On August 12, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services public record requested COVID-19 data from the Florida Department of Health, including daily cases, deaths, and hospitalizations for every Florida county and every age, as well as ICU capacity.
Nearly two months later, these public records have not been provided; Commissioner Fried therefore directed her department to compile and analyze all publicly available COVID-19 data from school districts, so that the public may know how COVID-19 has impacted Florida schools and the effects of mask-wearing policies.
Key findings within the data include:
Three times lower student COVID-19 cases per capita in school districts starting the school year with mask requirements (Alachua, Broward, Miami-Dade) than school districts without mask requirements
School districts with mask requirements enacted at any time had just half the student COVID-19 cases as school districts without mask requirements
Four times higher student COVID-19 peak cases per capita in school districts without mask requirements than school districts requiring masks
Seven times higher student COVID-19 peak cases per capita in the smallest school districts, without mask requirements, than in the largest school districts, where masks were required
600 times higher peak cases per capita in maskless Highlands County (12 cases per capita) than in masked Miami-Dade and Broward Counties (0.02 cases per capita)
0.69 peak cases per capita in school districts requiring masks; 0.98 peak cases per capita in school districts with mask parental opt outs; 2.90 peak cases per capita in school districts with no mask requirements
Five largest school districts had average 0.48 peak cases per capita, while five smallest school districts had 3.51 peak cases per capita.
For months, Governor DeSantis has worked to undermine masks in the fight against COVID-19, releasing misinformation about so called ‘forced masking’ at every turn, despite nearly all experts agreeing that masks work.
"When brave local elected school leaders dared to defy the Governor and require masks in schools, his petty response has been to defund our school districts. Because his Administration has refused to provide the COVID-19 data I requested months ago, I have directed my staff to compile all publicly available COVID-19 school data. This data clearly shows the truth: the Governor is lying about masks in schools,†said Commissioner Fried.
“Every way you look at the data, kids were better off in schools requiring masks than those that did not. School districts that did nothing suffered four times higher COVID-19 cases than school districts that required masks, in direct contradiction to the Governor’s disinformation. I stand with students, parents, teachers, and President Biden in support of our school districts that have taken action to keep kids healthy, keep parents working, and keep communities safe.†■