APRIL 2021 • LONGISLANDPRESS.COM 11
IN THE NEWS
COVID EMERGING STRAINS DATA WITHHELD
BY TIMOTHY BOLGER
The UK and South African strains of the
coronavirus have been confirmed on
Long Island, but New York State and local
health officials are refusing to specify
where beyond which county — a lack of
disclosure that some find troubling.
Nassau and Suffolk county health
departments have for years publicly
disclosed the town of residence for patients
diagnosed with novel infectious
diseases — oftentimes West Nile Virus
cases — but despite repeated requests to
apply the same policy to the new Covid-19
strains, agency representatives refuse to
disclose such information.
“We cannot release further details
due to patient privacy,” Jill Montag, a
spokesperson for the state Department
of Health told the Press. “In instances
where the number of cases is small,
patient confidentiality prohibits the
Department from disclosing this
information.”
There were 154 confirmed cases of the
UK strain statewide, including 11 in
Nassau and 12 in Suffolk, as of Feb. 23,
the last date the state released data on the
variant. There was also a second South
African variant identified in Nassau that
day.
“We are referring questions about more
specific hometowns within Suffolk to the
state,” Grace Kelly-McGovern, public relations
director for the Suffolk County
Department of Health Services, told the
Press when asked for the towns of the 12
patients in that county.
MaryEllen Laurain, spokesperson for
Nassau’s health department, echoed the
sentiment.
“New York State and Nassau County Departments
of Health have not released
that information,” Laurain said.
By citing patient privacy, the state is
effectively invoking the federal Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability
Act of 1996 (HIPAA), which is meant
to keep medical information from being
shared without consent. But critics say
HIPAA doesn’t apply if the patient’s
identity isn’t disclosed.
“HIPAA only applies to personal information,
not general data,” said Dr. David
Belk, an internist from California. “For
example, publicly saying that Ms. Smith
Colorized scanning electron micrograph of an apoptotic cell (greenish brown) heavily infected with SARS-COV-2
virus particles (pink), also known as novel coronavirus, isolated from a patient sample. (NIH/Handout via REUTERS)
got Covid without Ms. Smith›s permission
is a HIPAA violation. Providing
public data showing 20,000 people in
Smith County is not a HIPAA violation.
As long as the medical information
provided cannot be traced back to any
particular person, making it public is
not a HIPAA violation.”
Good government advocates also cried
foul.
“I don›t see a HIPAA issue with releasing
Covid numbers by town and agree that
such information should be provided,”
said Paul Wolf, president of the New
York Coalition For Open Government.
«All should know where these cases are
located,» said another critic. «What info
they won›t tell the people will be to the
detriment of neighbors.»
The lack of disclosure comes after Gov.
Andrew Cuomo has been increasingly
under fire for failing to release the
pandemic’s death toll in nursing homes
statewide; a judge recently ordered the
administration to turn over the data to
advocates who filed a public records request
for the information. The governor
has since been embroiled in accusations
of sexually harassing at least eight
women, including current and former
staffers. His office did not respond to
multiple requests for comment on why
it’s refusing to release the town information
for the emerging strains.
The coronavirus variant first identified
in the UK, known as B.1.1.7, is deadlier
than other variants circulating there, a
new study appears to confirm. Reuters
reports that rsearchers analyzed data
on 184,786 people in England diagnosed
with Covid-19 between mid-November
and mid-January, including 867 who
died. For every three people who died
within four weeks after being infected
with another variant, roughly five died
after becoming infected with B.1.1.7, according
to a paper posted on medRxiv
ahead of peer review.
Overall, the risk of death with B.1.1.7 was
67 percent higher than the risk with other
variants in England, the authors said.
As with earlier variants, patients› risk of
death increased with age, male gender,
and pre-existing medical conditions.
B.1.1.7 is now prevalent across Europe
and predicted to become prevalent in
the United States.
«Crucially,» the researchers wrote,
«emerging data suggest that the currently
approved vaccines for SARS-CoV-2 are
effective against the B.1.1.7.
Part of the reason the agencies refuse to
release which town the patients with the
emerging strains live in is that they may
be everywhere.
Kelly-McGovern said, “We believe that
the UK strain is circulating throughout
Suffolk County.”
-With Reuters
“I don›t see a HIPPA issue with releasing Covid
numbers by town,” said Paul Wolf, president of the New
York Coalition For Open Government.
/LONGISLANDPRESS.COM
