Whether Floridians know it or not, Gov. Ron DeSantis is pursuing a policy that will allow the virus to spread freely in the state until most of the population becomes infected — or is vaccinated vaccine — while attempting to protect those thought to be most vulnerable. Critics say it is an irresponsible herd immunity policy. Advocates call it "focused protection."

An outgoing and healthy 95-year-old mother decided to stop eating after isolation in a Florida ALF left her lonely and confused. Her daughters blame flawed and inconsistent COVID restrictions.

More than 6,700 staff and residents at nursing homes and assisted living facilities have been infected with COVID-19 in the month of July, a 129% rise that regulators blame on vendors and staff who unwittingly bring in the virus. But the state also played a role.

Since the onset of COVID, even as infections and deaths have soared, Florida Gov. DeSantis has delivered a shifting narrative focused on defending his actions.

Is the Florida Legislature ceding its oversight of the growing budget deficit and public health crisis over the coronavirus to the governor? Democrats say it is but the leaders of Florida’s Republican-controlled state House and Senate disagree. Florida’s elected leaders say they have no plans to return to Tallahassee until after the election.

When Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that most of the state would reopen for business on May 4, he cited his administration’s “data-driven strategy” and success at achieving “critical benchmarks in flattening the curve” to contain COVID-19. But a review of the data the governor was using shows his public pronouncements were often in conflict with real-time facts. He either wasn’t aware the data showed that community spread, regional outbreaks and death tolls were worse than he was telling Floridians, or he selectively focused on outdated statistics to make his case.

Gov. Ron DeSantis reversed course and ordered universal testing at nursing homes and assisted living facilities, revealing the devastation COVID-19 has wrought on facilities in Florida.

As Florida’s government built a plan to contain the effects of a global pandemic, it elevated one tool above all others: data. But unlike the way the state has handled other infectious diseases, the COVID-19 records have been incomplete, changed without explanation, dropped from the Department of Health website without warning, or don’t match the public narrative advanced by the governor. The Miami Herald investigated.

A hefty offer, a special arrangement with a law firm, and a promise of 1 million N95 masks got Florida emergency management officials into a Shark Tank-style deal for the precious pieces of protective equipment.

Barred from visiting their relatives in the midst of a pandemic, people with relatives in nursing homes and assisted living facilities across the state say they are also being deprived of information that could reassure them that their loved ones are safe.

With its stockpile of protective masks low, Florida embarked on a buying frenzy three weeks into the state emergency. More than $600 million in deals have resulted in virtually no product.

After weeks of resisting a statewide stay-home order, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced on April 2 that he would sign an executive order limiting all activity in Florida to essential services for the next 30 days to try to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Data from smart thermometer company Kinsa Health found that as social-distancing measures are enacted across the country, the number of people who got sick in a community depended on how early mitigation efforts were implemented.

Gov. Ron DeSantis took to the airwaves Monday to vigorously defend his decision not to order people to stay home. “You simply cannot lock down our society with no end in sight,’’ he said at a teleconference from the governor’s office with only television reporters in attendance.

There is no handbook for governing in the time of the coronavirus, but as the number of positive cases of COVID-19 has grown more than seven-fold in Florida in the last week, Gov. Ron DeSantis has proven to be more cautious than governors in similarly situated states, including some with even fewer fatalities.

A company that makes Internet-connected thermometers found “widespread atypical illness” throughout Florida that can’t be explained by the late flu season and, public health experts warn, it may be a sign that coronavirus infections may be more widespread in the state than previously reported.