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Tonight’s newsletter will involve a little housekeeping.
And while I won’t be running around with sanitizing wipes, I do want to try to help the province clean up the mess it created last week when it suddenly changed how it was updating the public on the state of the pandemic.
After last Thursday’s briefing, I heard from a number of you who were concerned not only about the initial delay in the release of the weekly data, but also confused by what was finally released late on Friday afternoon.
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While the addition of a breakdown on the flu’s impact is welcome, the subtractions from what was once there isn’t.
The old report used to include detailed data that allowed users to see what tweaks had been made to previously reported numbers of “severe outcomes,” which is what epidemiologists call trips to the hospital, the intensive-care unit and the morgue.
For instance, were more COVID-linked fatalities added to the body count reported last week?
The new reporting system still notes that “numbers are subject to change” and subsequent reports will be updated to reflect any reporting delays. That’s all well and fine except for the fact there’s apparently no way to access the updated numbers. And without that data, how can the public really know what is actually happening?
We’ve been trying to get an answer from the province for almost a week on that key question, and finally, as I was writing this note on U.S. Thanksgiving, we got an answer. However, it’s not one I’m thankful for receiving.
Some key points from the province’s explanation about why things now look different from the historical reports. The first is that the change supposedly aligns us with how other provinces are reporting on COVID. The second is the changes ensure accuracy and reduce the risk of “data being misinterpreted given the evolving approach.”
Further explanation provided Thursday afternoon: “As a result of the changes, the data presented in the combined report cannot be compared in the same way with previous data, i.e. the numbers in this new report are no longer directly comparable to the previous weekly COVID-19 reports.”
Tonight’s housekeeping won’t go as far as to suggest the province is trying to whitewash the pandemic. Lord knows it is far too late for that.
But when government officials say they want to reduce the risk of misinterpretation, it’s hard not to read that as a desire to also reduce the amount of information they’re willing to share with the public.
As for the public — who presumably are the focus of our public health efforts in this extraordinary public health crisis — why wouldn’t the province have made this all clear as part of the change to the new reporting system? Why not include an explanation in the report? Why take nearly a week to answer media questions about the changes?
If the province is really concerned about reducing the risk of misinterpretation or miscommunication, it’s got a funny way of showing it.
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