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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTexas will not release info about coronavirus clusters at state homes for Texans with disabilities
After two residents at a state-run home for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in Richmond tested positive for the new coronavirus, Fort Bend County officials announced publicly March 30 that they were launching an epidemiological investigation into the facility, vowing to test anyone who came into contact with the patients.
Since then, its been radio silence. There have been no additional public updates and no new cases announced. Asked about how many staff members and residents at the home are infected, local officials wont say.
Were all asking questions about how many people have it, said a parent of a resident at the Richmond center, who asked to remain anonymous, fearing their child would be penalized. Families are getting angry. Were not asking for residents names or dorms, we just want to know how many people are sick.
None of the 13 state supported living centers which house about 3,000 vulnerable Texans and employ 13,000 staff members provided case counts to The Texas Tribune. Eleven of the centers did not respond, and two directed inquiries to state officials. The local health department in Denton County stands out as the lone agency providing daily updates about the cluster of cases at the Denton home.
Residents' families, restricted from visiting in an effort to stop the spread, are pleading for information. Even they arent being told how severe the outbreaks are where their loved ones live.
Texas officials, citing medical privacy laws, are refusing to disclose comprehensive data on the number of cases among staff and residents at state supported living centers, where 43% of residents are medically fragile and more vulnerable to COVID-19.
https://www.texastribune.org/2020/04/22/coronavirus-texas-sslc-disabilities/
TexasTowelie
(112,189 posts)request with the Department of Health and Human Services. If they have, then the agency must respond with 10 days indicating whether they will provide full, partial, or no information. The entity can follow up that response take it to the attorney general, and even take it to court to attempt to get that information disclosed.
At this point, I'm not sure how far the Texas Tribune pursued the request or if their objective was to write a clickbait story. Usually, they provide good journalism; however, this article seems incomplete and I believe that I've only noticed this journalist's work one time previously. I don't know if I would deem this story as being ready to publish, but I also understand the pressure within the journalism community.
JCMach1
(27,558 posts)greenjar_01
(6,477 posts)I'll just leave that here.
duforsure
(11,885 posts)Expect them to be hiding the true numbers of the virus outbreak, that's what trump supporters like Abbott does. This is going to backfire on them, then trump will use another excuse to distance himself with , but Texans will remember who was behind this. Abbott and trump are turning Texas bluer from their complete failures with this.