Opening up about COVID

We understand some people don’t believe COVID-19 is a problem or wish it would go away, but sticking heads in the sand and failing to let others know when COVID strikes won’t solve anything.

When a major outbreak occurred at Peabody Health and Rehab, the only notification provided by the nursing home or county health officials was to let a state agency know so it could post a number in an online form that only the most diligent and least pressed for time citizens would ever bother to look at. We’re still getting a runaround trying to confirm what, from monitored radio transmissions, appeared to be a death there.

The same lack of being forthcoming holds true about 10 deaths from COVID that occurred at Bethesda Home in Goessel. Not even that much notification occurred until well after the fact when more than a quarter of students in Centre schools were exposed and had to be tested repeatedly. The list goes on.

Yes, people who get COVID have privacy rights, but the public also has a right to know that isn’t being served by officials and businesses attempting to keep everything quiet.

We applaud Tabor College for being forthright when 18 of its students tested positive one day last week. It tried to spin the story to make it seem as if everything was OK, but it still had faith enough in the public to get the information out there and let the public decide what to do with it.

Too many groups seem to want to control not just how information is “spun” but also whether the information is made available in a way the public can find it.

If we learn nothing else from COVID-19, we should learn that sunshine, not shadowy secrecy, is the best disinfectant against misinformation. It may quite literally be a life-saver.

— ERIC MEYER