University of Florida finds COVID-19 data wasn’t suppressed

The University of Florida investigation said it found no merit to allegations that state or university officials “applied pressure to destroy or impede access to COVID-19 research data” or put barriers in place to its publication. 

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the university said a committee comprised of three University of Florida faculty members were tasked with investigating the anonymous allegations included in a report.

The report released in December by the Faculty Senate Ad Hoc Committee on Academic Freedom stated that staff felt “external pressure to destroy” data and imposed “barriers to accessing and analyzing” data in a timely manner.

However, the university said that after “numerous” interviews, the investigation found that the allegation “likely stemmed from a single event in October 2020 in which a Florida Department of Health (FDOH) representative expressed concerns regarding the university’s use and management of Health Department data that was gathered exclusively for use in FDOH public health surveillance, or PHS, activities.”

It added that the person or persons who raised concerns to the Faculty Senate did not come forward and were not identified.

The nine-page report, shared with The Hill, said that the committee formally interviewed the six ad hoc committee report authors and eight other individuals.

According to UF, several university employees with public health expertise — who had been hired to help with contact tracing in the summer of 2020 — participated in a Zoom call with FDOH and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials in October 2020 in which they shared data “in a manner inconsistent with the scope of the confidentiality agreements” according to the FDOH rules. 

In order to work with the Florida Department of Health, UF employees “had to sign an agreement to follow FDOH rules regarding the handling of COVID-19 data and an affirmation not to release COVID-19 data collected for, or provided by, FDOH,” which it said is a standard practice consistent with handling FDOH data for other infectious diseases.

The university added that once informed of the breach by the FDOH, they reminded team members of the proper use of confidentiality data, concluding that the “matter was quickly resolved and the collaborative efforts between FDOH and UF continued without pause.” 

The report also concluded that while there can be barriers to accessing FDOH data, “those barriers are inherent in handling sensitive PHS data and are not unique to COVID-19 data or data from other research sponsors.”