Posted on 06/14/2020 11:52:22 AM PDT by EBH
The legislation would require the Ohio Department of Health, as well as local health boards, hospitals and coroners to report every coronavirus test given, and mandate that ODH release that information, as well as the test results, in the form of a chart or table broken down by ZIP code, as well as infection rates for nursing homes, hospitals and prisons.
It would also require the state health department, when it releases COVID-19 modeling projections, to provide supporting information and documents, as well as a margin of error.
Supporters of the measure said that the Ohio Department of Health’s presentation of coronavirus statistics has created unnecessary public fear, as it provides statistics on cumulative deaths and cases but not numbers on how many Ohioans currently are being treated for or dying from the disease.
They also criticized early projections from state officials, which predicted that Ohio could see up to 10,000 new cases per day. As of Wednesday, there was a cumulative total of nearly 40,000 Ohioans infected with COVID-19, 2,457 of whom have died.
“Unfortunately, the early modeling information, coupled with the media drumbeat of fear and death created this huge atmosphere of fear across our state,” said state Rep. Diane Grendell, a Geauga County Republican sponsoring the bill, during a floor speech Wednesday. “This atmosphere of fear could have been abated in mid-April if we had started informing the public of the whole truth.”
House Majority Floor Leader Bill Seitz, a Cincinnati Republican, criticized DeWine and state health director Dr. Amy Acton for not reporting during their regular public briefings about how many Ohioans currently have coronavirus, which he said was about 600 people.
"If I went on TV every day, and I gave the people of Ohio the cumulative number of fatalities from automobile accidents since the time the automobile was invented, I will bet a Dunkin Donut that no one in Ohio would drive,” said state Rep. Bill Seitz, a Cincinnati Republican, during a floor speech.
The bill passed 61-34, with no Republicans voting against it.
No House Democrats voted for the bill, and they raised concerns with the legislation and the arguments behind it.
State Rep. Allison Russo, a Columbus-area Democrat, said much of the information mentioned in the bill is already available in Ohio Department of Health data files. What the bill does, though, is create “problematic” limits on how ODH should present the information, she said.
Russo noted that state and federal privacy laws prohibit medical data from being publicly released for groups of fewer than 20,000 people. She also said that the bill provides no money for health officials to report and compile such information.
“The last thing that those local entities need from us – the General Assembly – is another unfunded mandate,” she said.
State Rep. Beth Liston, a Columbus-area Democrat who is a practicing physician and president of the Columbus Medical Association, said state lawmakers shouldn’t be “prescriptive in how scientific information is presented, because then we are hamstringing the response.”
Liston continued: “We’re making it less transparent, because people that study it best aren’t showing the information that’s most important in the way that it is.”
No...we're asking to make it more transparent to the public.
I think We are all done with this stupid virus now, Jim
It is completely laughable the Liberals are trying to shut down the economy again and say oh the virus!!! it’s totalkg a laughable.
The other thing that’s funny is they’re trying to turn this obvious set up in fraud of this guy with the knee on his neck into some giant movement and they keep saying “ not only do you need to be angry and get out there and protest but you need to vote !! “
Gee I wonder they’re trying to get us to vote for
The question is ...
If they try lockdowns again are WE willing to get out a protest?
OHIO PING!
Please let me know if you want on or off the Ohio Ping list.
Life has gotten in my way the last week.....I am behind on ping list.
Bill to change how state health officials collect, report coronavirus information passes Ohio House
Cleveland.com ^ | 06/11/2020 | Jeremy Pelzer
Posted on 6/14/2020, 2:52:22 PM by EBH
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