Florida is back in the news again. Really, it looks like reporters and media outlets are trying to create controversy about very little.
Florida is doing a phased reopening, with restaurants in most locations allowed 50 percent capacity, and most other businesses opening up with similar restrictions.
Florida has a population comparable to New York, it has several beaches, and is home to Disney World and other theme parks. Florida's government was heavily criticized for not mandating via executive order the closure of beaches for a few weeks into the known outbreak.
Florida was expected to be a hotspot that emerged after New York. Instead, Florida has 47,471 total cases and only 2,096 COVID-19 related deaths as of yesterday. The number looks large, but it's a fraction of other places considered hotspots. Florida has continued testing, and has had less than ten percent, and often less than that, of those who are tested return positive. It is believed the outbreaks in Broward and Dade counties primarily stem from people fleeing New York for warmer climates. Since Florida's governor was criticized for having a negligent and/or slow response to close things down, like beaches, it has since been determined sunlight can help provide defense against COVID-19, and yesterday, the CDC began reporting that it isn't likely the virus spreads much via contaminated surfaces, which, from my personal knowledge suggests social distancing and masks are probably the best way to prevent getting sick.
Anyway, in the last few days, an employee for the state was fired and the press created an uproar over the incident. The employee was one that worked in GIS (Geographic Information Services), which is a fancy way of saying she worked on maps and displaying data with/on maps. Where I work, we have a GIS department, and their primary responsibility is assigning 9-1-1 street addresses and accurately pinpointing the locations of various buildings, apartments, and the like on maps used by the local government and first responders. The state's GIS map for COVID-19 allows anyone to visit and see information on those who have been infected at some point by COVID-19. It's done using the same GIS system, Arc GIS, as the worldwide John Hopkins tracking map, however, it has many more methods to track and compare data, even to the point that you can view infection counts by zip code, and so much more.
This particular employee, from reports I've read, is not the only one who worked on the map. She allegedly was fired because she refused to manipulate data to make Florida look better. If I'm reading the latest response from Florida correctly, she was actually fired because she refused to listen to the actual scientists and epidemiologists who said including the data of people who were potentially infected with the virus early on, but were never tested or actually diagnosed with it would be inaccurate, and requested she not add them into the data pool being considered. I don't know if they were previously included. I've seen reports saying the employee worked 16 hour days several times and was responsible for half a million lines of code for the Florida COVID-19 GIS map. Without working directly on GIS, myself, I suspect that the code is generated based on parameters and formulae entered into a GUI, rather than by rote coding. I know our GIS department has done some work involving similar systems to Arc GIS, and the head of that department definitely does not know anything about coding. Anyway, if I had to guess, I'd say the 16 hour days with no breaks caught up to her, and she probably was going crazy from the stress. I'm disappointed to see her leadership didn't force her to take time off, though the woman did state she won't be paid for some of her time, suggesting she elected to work through the time off she was supposed to have. I can say Florida's GIS map has been functional for well over a month, so the extended hours she had been working don't make much sense to me.
From the respect of data manipulation, the GIS map couldn't be used to manipulate the numbers directly, but instead, it could be used to spotlight some numbers and obscure others. Florida has released PDF reports automatically generated daily with whole accounting for every new person identified with a positive test. I'm confident this is the case. I had COVID-19, myself, little over a month ago, and was able to go into the PDF and definitely identify myself in this PDF. No names are included, but age, county, and dates of the (first?) positive test are. I don't believe subsequent positive tests for an already diagnosed person are included, as there's no indication someone has been tested more than once.
Anyway, long story short, I stand by my earlier claims that Florida did well all things considered. It's been interesting to watch, but at the same time, I've been frustrated because so much of what I've seen almost universally with the news has been based on fear and irrationality.
Topic: The COVID-19 Virus is Coming For Us All Thread (Read 188453 times)
