September 23, 2016 – Miami Herald
by Daniel Chang
At a court hearing Friday for the Miami Herald’s lawsuit against Miami-Dade seeking the locations of traps in Miami Beach where mosquitoes carrying the Zika virus were captured, a county attorney said the Florida Department of Health had instructed local officials not to disclose the information — a statement the state agency strongly denied afterward.
The suit seeks disclosure of the Zika-positive mosquito trap locations on grounds that the information would help the public make decisions about precautions to take if they live or work nearby, and also inform the community debate on the use of the controversial insecticide naled.
Rachel Walters, an assistant county attorney, told Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Samantha Ruiz-Cohen during a scheduling conference that the county plans to file a motion to dismiss the Herald’s lawsuit. Walters said the motion to dismiss would be based on the idea that an “indispensable party” — Florida’s health department — is not included in the lawsuit.
“We’re going to continue speaking with the Department of Health and asking them to release us from their instruction that we maintain confidentiality,” Walters said.
After learning of Walters’s statements in court, however, Florida health officials issued a written statement denying the agency ever muzzled the county. [READ MORE]