Fort Myers’ PBS affiliate reports: After winning a decisive appellate court battle that required the Florida Department of Health to turn over COVID-19 data withheld from the public during the height of the pandemic, the legal battle over the records has ended with a settlement agreement. A media release from the Florida Center for Government …

After winning a decisive appellate court battle that required the Florida Department of Health to turn over COVID-19 data withheld from the public during the height of the pandemic, the legal battle over the records has ended with a settlement agreement.

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    On Aug. 16, 2021, FLCGA made the same public records request of the Department for all of Florida’s 67 counties and was denied for the same reasons.

    On Aug. 31, 2021, the FLCGA and Smith filed suit against the state health department over the denied release of public records.

    …news outlets including the Associated Press, USA Today, New York Times and the Washington Post filed a motion to intervene in the case to support the FLCGA and Rep. Smith in their pursuit of public records that detail COVID-19’s spread throughout Florida. The parent companies for the Miami Herald, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the Tampa Bay Times, and television company Scripps Media joined in the motion. The First Amendment Foundation also joined.