Florida Department of Health

Florida Department of Health data show the bug seems to be affecting kids the most, with a majority of state outbreaks in child care facilities.

Public health initiatives have long been divisive, but the pandemic turned up the volume to painful levels in Florida, Texas and other states amid a surge of growing mistrust of scientific institutions.

An administrative law judge issued an order allowing a challenge by Sanctuary Cannabis to proceed and granted an emergency motion to force health officials to provide info used to calculate the new fee.

The state adopted a rule creating a formula that set the renewal fee at $1.33 million every two years — more than 22 times the $60,000 biennial operators had been paying.

The latest data from the state Department of Health showed yet another decrease in cases during over the past month, with 6,380 positives during the week that started Oct. 6.

Then-Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith sued after the Department of Health denied his public records request for COVID-19 data in 2021. He says the settlement requires the department to provide COVID-19 data to the public for the next three years.

It's the first time counts have gone down after a late-summer uptick, according to the latest state report. Meantime, the number of residents who have died with the virus is nearing 91,000.

The groups say the state's process for redetermining coverage eligibility is unfair to recipients who are Latino, immigrant or Black.

Florida is seeing an increase of RSV positivity rates. For most, the virus is mild — but experts say the virus can be more severe for infants, young children and older adults.

Researchers are scratching their heads over the number of leprosy cases in Central Florida, leaving some to believe it may be endemic to the area.

The increase is nowhere near the numbers of the past two years as the disease has entered an endemic phase. The state also says nearly 90,000 residents have died with COVID.

There have been 10 cases in South Florida this year. Eight in Miami-Dade and two in Broward.