DeSantis Opponent Nikki Fried Accuses Governor of Lying About Masks as She Lies About Masking Data – RedState

Nikki Fried’s efforts to begin her gubernatorial race continue to fail.

Florida’s Agriculture Commissioner and Democratic challenger to Ron DeSantis next year, Nikki Fried made a frontal assault yesterday in a press conference, targeting DeSantis regarding the ever-controversial mask ordinances for schools within the state. According to her, the COVID mask data refutes DeSantis’ positions. “Ron DeSantis is lying to you about masks in schools … In every single case, kids were better off in school districts that required masks than school districts that did not,” Fried said in her official statement.

This speaks volumes about her willingness to use distorted data to support her claims. The masks are not shown to be safe in the pandemic. However, she hired her own team to compile the numbers. She came up with a mess.

Sample size is the first sign of trouble. Measurement is what it is. Only half the schools are accreditedAs Fried’s calculations come from 33 of Florida’s 67 counties that publish weekly COVID-19 data for schools. Florida Department of Health commented on the issue, noting that her analysis excluded large numbers of students. The only thing she used was her health dashboard. This means that 40% of students in areas where mask mandates are not required were not recorded. 

Ron DeSantis press secretary Christina Pushaw offered up their clear dispute of Fried’s contentionsThese are the facts.

“Fried’s office claimed that the “3.5 times” figure (since retracted and revised to 2 times) is based on data from three school districts in Florida. This paints an inaccurate picture for many reasons — first of all, Florida has 67 school districts. Since school began, COVID-19 incidences have fallen by more than 95%. Comparing districts without and with mask mandates, the magnitude of COVID-19 infections among children aged 5-17 years has not shown statistically significant differences.“

Another factor that botched her study — they did not account for various districts having schools opening at differing dates, so the timelines were inaccurately compared. Another issue was that a middle-range school district was mischaracterized as being rural. She also provided a data point that was out-of-character.

School districts that required masks from the first day of school — @AlachuaSchools @browardschools @MDCPS — saw 𝟯.𝟱 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚𝙨 𝙡𝙚𝙨𝙨 #COVID19 total cases per capita than school districts that didn’t require masks. pic.twitter.com/XUAkmfQncE

— Commissioner Nikki Fried (@NikkiFriedFL) October 7, 2021

In order to rectify the inaccuracies found, the DOH of the State had to issue a response statement. 

It is not clear that schools pose a high risk of spreading disease. Study supported by CDC, and conducted by the State Epidemiologist and other top specialists at the Department of Health. It found that less than 1% of school-related COVID-19 was present in students. 

Joseph Ladapo (M.D.), the state surgeon general, adds to the dispute by pointing out that the Fried study wasn’t epidemiologically correct. He gave a threadI took her to task because she was uttering results that were a complete departure from the norm. Accuracy in science

Your team’s analysis doesn’t account for important factors beyond masks, such as testing frequency, community spread, etc. All these schools collected data the same, defined cases the same, and managed spread in the exact same manner.

As for media corrections, critiques, or even questions regarding Fried’s claims? These are rare. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel tried to come up with their own data to buttress Fried’s delivery. 

“Children make up over 25% of all new COVID-19 cases in the United States, but only half of those eligible children 12 years and older have been fully vaccinated as of today. In Florida, children make up more than a half-million cases statewide.”These manipulations are obvious. The need for a nationally representative statistic that is a qualified measure of the number of cases in a state, then linking it with the total number of cases in the state. To support one politician, this is how the media should behave. 

Think about all the instances since the pandemic when Ron DeSantis was criticized in the media for alleged infractions and mistakes. Most of these errors have been proved inaccurate. Yet, here we have a state official delivering provably false data — actually coming out to later correct some misstatements — and the muted media reaction speaks volumes. We can see the extent to which the media desires critical coverage at both the local and national level.

These media professionals are also the ones who lecture on the importance of medical accuracy in reporting. They are permissive with a politician pushing out inaccurate data…as long as that politician is on the correct side of the COVID debate.