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The Cuyahoga County Board of Well being continues to confound us by again and again opting to supply the general public with much less somewhat than extra – and through the first time in additional than 100 years when all eyes are turned to the board for info and steerage.
The newest and maybe most perplexing instance is the board’s choice to switch from reporting weekly totals of new coronavirus infections which are in the future outdated, and as an alternative reporting six-day-old totals throughout its Friday briefings.
It must be evidently that when new infections attain new highs practically daily, six-day-old totals are all however ineffective to the general public generally and, particularly, to school districts that rely on timely information to resolve how greatest to guard our kids.
Cleveland.com and The Plain Supplier have sought explanations for the pivot, and in equity, explanations have been provided. However these explanations are troubling in that they recommend the board cares extra about protocol and comfort than about serving the general public.
Amongst different causes for the change, the board says that reporting six-day-old numbers brings it into alignment with the practices of the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention for reporting flu instances.
Why is that essential? Board spokesman Kevin Brennan informed cleveland.com reporter Courtney Astolfi that the change will enable the overtaxed board to concurrently monitor coronavirus instances with rising flu instances.
“It isn’t possible for us to proceed to conduct surveillance in two completely different methods,” Brennan wrote in an e-mail. “We don’t have the capability to do this, nor wouldn’t it be environment friendly for us to take action.”
And finally the board’s web site plans to unveil a brand new dashboard that may present extra well timed details about COVID-19. Brennan acknowledges that by finally he means someday through the first quarter of 2021.
Within the meantime, the board means that the general public flip to the Ohio Division of Well being’s web site for extra well timed reviews, although Astolfi notes in her story that the state web site lacks some essential native details about COVID-19.
Right here is one other risk. For the reason that board now reviews weekly totals as of Saturday, why not transfer the board’s weekly briefing from Friday to Monday? That means, the board could be reporting numbers which are solely two days outdated, somewhat than six.
We posed that query to Brennan, and haven’t gotten a solution.
We talked about above that each one of this could not have to be mentioned. But it evidently must be shouted, and never simply within the ear of the tone-deaf well being commissioner, Terry Allan, that ready till first quarter 2021 for well timed info shouldn’t be acceptable.
So, we name on you, the voters, to take a brief break from right this moment’s leisure actions of selection, and pen a line to the Board of Well being at 75 Erieview Plaza, Cleveland, OH 44114. If you want to personalize the observe, listed here are the board members: James T. Gatt, Gregory Corridor, Debbie L. Moss, Doug Wang and Sherrie Williams.
Remind them who’s the boss.
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