With the new delta variant of the coronavirus vaccine, COVID cases are on the rise again, and it is rising disproportionately in red states. Instead of aggressively taking measures to save their citizens, some of these states would rather bury the information than do what’s best for the health of their state:

This is outrageous and unacceptable, from the AP:

Several states scaled back their reporting of COVID-19 statistics this month just as cases across the country started to skyrocket, depriving the public of real-time information on outbreaks, cases, hospitalizations and deaths in their communities.

The shift to weekly instead of daily reporting in Florida, Nebraska, Iowa and South Dakota marked a notable shift during a pandemic in which coronavirus dashboards have become a staple for Americans closely tracking case counts and trends to navigate a crisis that has killed more than 600,000 people in the U.S.

And this is especially outrageous in Nebraska and Florida:

In Nebraska, the state actually stopped reporting on the virus altogether for two weeks after Gov. Pete Ricketts declared an end to the official virus emergency, forcing news reporters to file public records requests or turn to national websites that track state data to learn about COVID statistics. The state backtracked two weeks later and came up with a weekly site that provides some basic numbers.

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Stopped, and then “some” basic numbers. And it’s no better in Florida and perhaps even more outrageous. It has been well-reported that 20% of the new COVID cases in the United States come out of Florida. Stunning.

Nearly 20 percent of the nation’s new coronavirus infections are now happening in Florida alone, according to a White House official.

Cases are rising across the nation as a whole as the more transmissible delta variant spreads but are concentrated in areas with low vaccination rates. 

“Just four states accounted for more than 40 percent of all cases in the past week, with 1 in 5 of all cases occurring in Florida alone,” White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients told reporters during a briefing. 

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But Florida’s Governor is “Ron Don Santis” and he’s going to follow the Trump model and attempt to protect his big tourist industry, Orlando, cruises, and the beaches that ring the state, by slow-walking the reporting? In other words, he’ll put lives at risk in order to keep the dollars flowing. How Trumpian. DeSantis is proud of his effort to allow COVID to infect people all naturally, no vaccines:

Once again, MAGA-thinking, or the lack thereof, is going to cost a significant number of lives. It is outrageous, but that’s what we’ve come to expect. It is also why 20% of the new cases are coming from Florida and why it must be covered up.

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