The Chatham-Kent Public Health Unit is defending the amount of information it releases to the public.
Chief Medical Officer Dr. David Colby says that while some people may want to know every detail about who, what, when, and where COVID cases are spreading, he won’t sacrifice people’s right to privacy in favour of public opinion.
“Chatham-Kent is a very small community, people tend to have a high awareness of going on,” Dr. Colby says. “Information that would be untraceable in a larger community is easily traced through the activities of social media and word of mouth in our community, so I am extremely wary of releasing any information that will allow specific identification of individuals.”
The public health unit has come under fire recently for not being more forthcoming with details about the community outbreak at a church in Blenheim or where specific workplace outbreaks are located.
“We always have to balance the public’s right to know versus the privacy rights of those (involved.) We make our decisions based on whether the release of information would be a safety adjunct to the community.”
For example, Dr. Colby says in a situation where a workplace is not open to the general public and the public is not at risk, it is a private concern for those directly affected.
Some areas, like Lambton County, now have a community breakdown of COVID cases, but Dr. Colby says that won’t be happening in Chatham-Kent.