For several weeks now, journalists in Florida have been trying to get their hands on a series of documents.

The White House Coronavirus Task Force Red Zone reports.

These get sent out every week, tailored to each individual state.

They sum up infection data, make recommendations, stuff like

begin warning about any gathering during the December holidays, ensure masks at all times in public.

Pretty basic stuff. Some governors simply release these documents. In Florida, journalists had to

fight for it. They got a break last Friday when the

Center for Public Integrity published them. These reports indicate that they're strongly recommending

that the governor take immediate action to do things that will slow the spread because they're

watching the numbers rise.

Mary Ellen Class writes for the Miami Herald.

Are those things that Governor DeSantis has done?

Well, what he has done is the reverse of that.

At the beginning of September, he opened everything.

He eliminated all capacity limits in dining establishments. And he imposed a rule that said that local governments could not impose anything stronger or enforce anything stronger. They can impose curfews and limits, but they can't enforce them. So that's not very useful.

Exactly. Their hands are tied.

For Mary Ellen, what's happening with these reports,

it's a good example of what's happening around the state with COVID information.

It flows erratically. The Department

of Health collects a massive amount of data, but holds some of it back. There's also a private

competitor in the mix. They calculate their infection rate in their own way. The city of Miami

created its own data hub, and in the absence of consistent information, the state has yet to implement consistent COVID policy.

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