[DoughtyOne]

Public officials have no grasp of what HIPPA is all about.

They think they are abiding by the law by not reporting out the facts.
Baloney!

As long as patient's names are not given out, there's no violation
of HIPPA.

Telling us the ages and contributing health conditions for a broad body
of people who succumbed to a disease, is not a breach of a single
person's private information.

You address the issue of the press and panic. And this does play
into it.

[Susquehanna Patriot]

“Public officials have no grasp of what HIPPA is all about.
They think they are abiding by the law by not reporting out the facts.”

The physician in charge of the DC health department should know better about HIPPA; and she wouldn’t give any relevant info.