We are profoundly disappointed in the latest Trump PAC ad falsely attacking Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for his handling of COVID.

Trump seized on the old Data Tracker on the CDC website, which showed Florida with more total COVID deaths than New York, probably because New York did not include probable deaths and Florida did.

We always preferred the death certificate count, which is now the only one CDC publishes. That count actually shows slightly higher total COVID deaths in New York than in Florida. More significantly, on a per capita basis, Florida had lower COVID deaths than New York. With age-adjustment, much lower.

Nationally, the age-adjusted COVID death rate is 283, making New York’s 312 higher than average and the 17th highest state, while Florida at 245 is well below average and ranks 36th.

But more importantly, Cuomo destroyed the New York economy and a generation of school children with strict lockdowns while Florida remained open for business and the sunshine state has been about the economically hottest place on the planet. We like what DeSantis has always said about Covid: “In Florida, we chose freedom over Fauci.”