The CDC has been turned into a dithering, incoherent mess under Joe Biden — to the extent that it hasn’t always been that at some level. But the politics being injected into bureaucracy have certainly reached a level not previously seen. RedState has chronicled many of the CDC’s twists and turns (and outright corruption at times), but this one may take the cake.

Yesterday, the CDC reported Florida’s COVID data, something that is part of a normal cycle after a weekend, claiming that the Sunshine State saw over 28,000 new cases on Sunday. That would have been a record high, and it helped drive another round of anti-Florida media coverage.

The problem? The CDC’s reporting was false.

The number of cases @CDCgov released for Florida today is incorrect. They combined MULTIPLE days into one. We anticipate CDC will correct the record. https://t.co/NjjUmIgM9h

— Florida Dept. Health (@HealthyFla) August 10, 2021

What was done here is that two days were combined into one to make one big number for Sunday that wasn’t actually the number for Sunday. Here are the true numbers which show a decrease over the three days in question.

Incorrect. Here’s the data: Friday, August 6 (21,500), Saturday, August 7 (19,567), and Sunday, August 8 (15,319). https://t.co/JwQvXTskBO

— Taryn Fenske (@tarynfenske) August 10, 2021

This leaves a lot of questions to be asked. Was this an honest mistake? I suppose that’s possible, but it’s hard to ignore that the White House and CDC are currently locked in battle with Gov. Ron DeSantis over mask mandates. Joe Biden himself has gone after DeSantis, claiming he’s “standing in the way” of stopping COVID despite the fact that the governor’s approach is to preserve the rights of parents. In other words, it’s the opposite of standing in the way of anything.

Also, if this was a mistake, why did the CDC not rush to correct it immediately? As far as I can tell, it’s the next morning and still nothing has been released to rectify the situation. Will they try to push the conspiracy theory that Florida is hiding data by obfuscating here? I guess we’ll find out, and nothing would surprise me at this point.

Of course, the usual suspects are lying in order to try to blame Florida for the CDC’s screw-up.

Eric Ding is a super-spreader of COVID disinformation. @HealthyFla did not retract anything. The CDC released an inaccurate figure. https://t.co/u3HcBRviNJ

— Christina Pushaw (@ChristinaPushaw) August 10, 2021

The conspiracy theory that Florida is misrepresenting COVID data was originally started by Rebekah Jones, a grifter who claimed to be a “data scientist” in charge of Florida’s data entry. But her mantle has been picked up by many, including Feigl-Ding, another person who has used wild COVID allegations to raise their profile.

In short, the cynic in me says this data error wasn’t an error at all but was purposeful. It just so happens to throw red meat to the conspiracy kooks during a time when the White House wants to take down DeSantis. That such an allegation is even possible is a result of the rank politicization of the CDC and their constant, partisan incoherence.