The publication this week of locations where coronavirus outbreaks have happened in San Diego County has intensified the debate over public health orders and about freedom of information.
San Diego’s public media station published an investigation that disclosed the addresses of just over 1,000 community outbreaks of the virus since March.
The investigation found that about 20-percent of the outbreaks have been at senior living or nursing homes, another 20 percent at restaurants or bars and another 20 percent at manufacturing and other businesses, with a about 12 percent at grocery and retail stores. So, you might say, the outbreaks have been happening pretty much everywhere.
The county defines a community outbreak as three cases of infection among people not in the same household at the same location. And while the county, from the start, has been releasing the number of outbreaks and the type of location where they occur, such as a restaurant setting, a retail setting, a health care setting or a business setting, they do not release the name or address of the locations.
Public health officials say that releasing identities of where the community outbreaks happen can hurt their efforts to contact and trace the spread of the virus because people can be less cooperative.
But a lot of people say they want to know and have a right to know where the community outbreaks happen so they can be better informed and decide for themselves whether the information is important.
In other words, when it comes to a pandemic, too much information may be a cure for reducing the fears that go along with it.
SEE MORE DETAILS ABOUT COMMUNITY OUTBREAKS INVESTIGATION.
(Photo Getty Images)