Commotion: Accusations Of Political Motivation Behind Florida COVID Miscount

On August 10th, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a count of positive coronavirus cases for the State of Florida the preceding Sunday, stating that the number was 28,317. Shortly after this figure began to be reported, Florida’s Department of Health Twitter account began retweeting tweets sharing this news and stating that the CDC had incorrectly combined multiple days of data into one. 

Soon, a number of Twitter users began to speculate or even claim that the CDC had intended to combine the data in a partisan attempt to make the Republican governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, look bad. These tweets have become popular, gaining hundreds or even thousands of interactions.