OPINION:

In announcing the plan to reopen the state, Gov. Ron DeSantis intended to present a positive turning point. He brought graphs and charts to illustrate recovery, but he also brought anger.

Gov. Ron DeSantis is taking measured steps to gradually reopen most of Florida. Based on what we know, it’s the right approach. That’s the first problem: We don’t know enough.

Outside of South Florida, restaurants and retail stores can reopen at 25 percent capacity, starting Monday. Outdoor dining is allowed if people follow social distancing limits. Elective surgeries can resume statewide, but bars, gyms and movie theaters will stay closed, as will schools.

Groups of more than 10 people will still be off-limits. People are expected to wear face masks to help protect themselves and others from the coronavirus, but those who don’t won’t face fines.

For now, Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties are excluded from the partial lifting of the lockdown. That makes sense. The big three counties, densely populated and home to nearly a third of all Florida residents, account for nearly three-fifths of the state’s infections and COVID-19 deaths. DeSantis also consulted county leaders before he acted, a welcome gesture.

In announcing the “safe, smart, step-bystep” plan Wednesday, DeSantis intended his nearly hour-long TV appearance to present a positive turning point in the pandemic. You could tell: DeSantis made unusually extensive preparations. He brought colorful graphs and charts that showed the recovery has gone better than predicted and better than other states.

He brought something else he should have left at the Governor’s Mansion: anger.

DeSantis spent the first 15 minutes berating the news media for coverage he said caused hysteria and deep-seated fear. “We need to focus on facts and not fear,” he said.

Then he did what has become too common: leave out relevant information.

What annoyed DeSantis were news accounts of epidemiological forecasts in late March. One model said that if government did nothing to mitigate the contagion, Florida’s hospitals could be overrun with over 465,000 patients by April 24.

The governor failed to say, however, that if a mandatory shelter-in-place order were issued, that same model showed just 18,000 hospitalizations by July.

It wasn’t just the media that focused on these forecasts, either. With its own graphs and charts, the White House used them to tell Americans we could face up to 210,000 deaths from the coronavirus. “I want every American to be prepared for the hard days that lie ahead,” a somber President Trump warned on March 31.

At the time, DeSantis was under intense pressure to issue a statewide stay-at-home order, something he resisted because of its impact on the economy. In his stead, cities and counties began issuing a patchwork of stay-at-home orders. The cry for state leadership rose to a chorus.

After DeSantis finally issued the order on April 3, the trend line began to bend, though Florida reported 83 deaths on Wednesday, a record for a single day.

That’s the same day a combative DeSantis spoke in his I-told-you-so tone.

It wasn’t what Floridians expected to hear. Businesses expected to hear when and how they could reopen. Working parents wanted to hear about schools. We all wanted to hear un-spun details about where things stand.

But the governor holds information tight. He refuses to say how many nursing home residents have died and where. He prohibits medical examiners from reporting deaths because their numbers of COVID-19 deaths are higher. He refuses to discuss infection rates in jails and state prisons and among first responders. Neither does the state share how many people are hospitalized in each county, a better barometer for local decision-making.

To hear the governor speak, you’d think the supply of tests is greater than the demand. Yet we continue to hear there aren’t enough tests to go around.

When a National Guard strike team showed up at St. Anne’s Nursing Home in Miami last Thursday, for example, only 10 of the home’s 200 residents could be tested.

Mary Ross Agosta, director of communications for the Archdiocese of Miami, said Catholic Health Services was “begging” for test kits for all residents.

DeSantis also brags that Florida ranks third among states in total tests, but that raw number is a function of the state’s size. When adjusted for population, Florida ranks 23rd among the 50 states and District of Columbia, according to the Covid Tracking Project.

Next week, DeSantis says he expects the state will be able to offer 30,000 to 40,000 tests a day, which is good news. More tests mean more data that could show a spike in cases. DeSantis anticipates this, but framed it as unwelcome news. As he said Wednesday: “That’s not necessarily a bad thing.”

Indeed, more data is a good thing. Better we know the breadth of this outbreak and who’s infected so that people around them can be contacted and tested. DeSantis said the state has “added a bunch of epidemiologists” to do contact tracing, which is more good news.

Aside from the sniping, the bigger message on Wednesday was bright. Florida does appear positioned to come through this crisis without experiencing the tidal wave of cases and deaths seen in China, Italy and New York.

Our fear is that DeSantis’ triumphant messaging will make Floridians believe the worst is over, that they can let their guard down and that they can throw that face mask away.

Remember, it was not long ago that DeSantis’ surgeon general, Dr. Scott Rivkees, said people will have to wear masks and practice social distancing until a vaccine is available — a process that could take more than a year.

In the early days of this pandemic, when DeSantis allowed beaches to stay open during spring break, he faced criticism for doing too little, too late.

Now, as doors across Florida swing back open, we have to trust he doesn’t do too much, too soon.