New studies confirm what we already suspected about Florida and the coronavirus - they’re undercounting the number of people who died by thousands of cases.

Florida, under the leadership of Ron DeSantis, was one of the first states to open up and, until recently, there were comparative analyses done showing how California fared compared to Florida.

We were told more than 30,000 Floridians have died from the virus - but the real number might actually be higher.

The accusation comes from the American Journal of Public Health.

Researchers from the AJPH "came to that conclusion by comparing the number of estimated deaths for a six-month period in 2020, from March to September, to the actual number of deaths that occurred, a figure known as “excess deaths” because they exceed the estimate. There were 400,000 excess deaths across the United States in 2020," reports Yahoo News.

"In the case of Florida, the researchers say, 4,924 excess deaths should have been counted as resulting from COVID-19 but for the most part were ruled as having been caused by something else, thus lowering Florida’s coronavirus fatality count. That’s possible because people who die from COVID-19 often have comorbidities, such as diabetes and asthma," the report further reads.

"Officials in Georgia and Florida have been having a field day with this virus and their approach and meanwhile there have been people dying who don't have access to healthcare or information," said cohost Aida Rodriguez.

"You have a whole bunch of people who still don't believe that it's real - and then there are people dying who are older and in marginalized communities. So it is very possible that they are manipulating numbers because as usual in America those people don't matter," she explained.

Ana Kasparian agreed, noting that "Florida is the second state in terms of elderly population. They have a giant elderly community," she said.

But at the same time she points to another loophole.

"Depending on where you are in the country, they count the deaths as a coronavirus death or consider the death that was caused by comorbidities. It just depends on the health officials discretion and they'll decide whether it's due to Covid or a heart issue," she explains, pointing to a study by The Yale School of Public Health.

“Some states classify a death as due to COVID if a positive molecular test was obtained, while other states allow the death to be classified as due to COVID if there is a suspicion that it was caused by COVID (even without a molecular test),” the study reads.

"It's fascinating and should be investigated further that Florida somehow did not follow any social distancing guidelines beginning in August 2020 and somehow their numbers are much lower than states that had more stricter numbers," concluded Kasparian.