Sunburn â The morning read of whatâs hot in Florida politics â 3.1.21
With apologies to the late, great
Tim Russert ⦠The top three issues facing the 2021 Florida Legislature are COVID, COVID, COVID.
Itâs no surprise that just about everything that will happen during the 60-day Session will be directly or indirectly related to the pandemic or influenced by the countless ways it has changed life in our state.
From health care policy to the budget, from education policy to the environment, the Session will seem like all COVID-19, all the time. Even where legislation doesnât directly link to COVID-19 â say, school choice â lawmakers will be factoring in what it will cost in a pandemic-battered economy or how it will help kids whose schooling was turned upside down.
Floridaâs sunshine laws dim as DeSantis decides what to disclose
Open government advocates say the state of Floridaâs sunshine laws are darker this year because of Gov. Ron Desantis and his attempt at times to shield critical details about the crisis from the public.
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Updated Mar. 1
TALLAHASSEE â For months, Thomas Hladish, a research scientist at the University of Floridaâs Emerging Pathogens Institute, asked the Florida Department of Health to let him use information from thousands of contact tracers the state had hired to interview Floridians who tested positive for COVID-19.
He and his colleagues wanted to better understand where transmission was occurring in Florida so officials could put more effective policies in place.
Mar. 1 TALLAHASSEE For months, Thomas Hladish, a research scientist at the University of Florida's Emerging Pathogens Institute, asked the Florida Department of Health to let him use information from thousands of contact tracers the state had hired to interview Floridians who tested positive for COVID-19. He and his colleagues wanted to better understand where transmission was occurring in .
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Presented by CVS Health
Hello and welcome to Friday.
The daily rundown Between Wednesday and Thursday, the number of Florida coronavirus cases increased by 6,640 (nearly 0.4 percent), to 1,892,301; active hospitalizations went down by 115 (2.8 percent), to 3,962; deaths rose by 138 (nearly 0.5 percent), to 30,478; 2,838,326 Floridians have received at least one dose of the vaccine.