Reopening the county requires openness
Greater transparency will make us all safer
As states and localities around the nation move at varying paces toward reopening their economies, the refrain from health experts still seeking to tamp down the spread of COVID19 is clear: testing, testing, testing.
And yet in our own Allegheny County-operated facilities that have become the largest centers of the outbreak locally — the Kane Glen Hazel nursing home and the county jail — the county resists testing all residents and staff who may be at risk for exposure.
As of April 29, there were 100 positive cases in the Glen Hazel nursing facility and 27 in the county jail. Yet because we know up to half of those infected carry the disease asymptomatically, according to health experts, it is essential for the county to test all residents and inmates.
Montgomery County, in Eastern Pennsylvania, recently tested all inmates of its jail. According to county Commissioner Dr. Val Arkoosh, out of 740 test results returned, 169 were positive and none of these were symptomatic.
Dr. Arkoosh, a physician, called reopening without comprehensive testing “like a pilot flying without radar on a moonless night.” But to date this has not been done in our facilities, in spite of my repeated requests. When I and others have asked why not — crickets.
Even a response that it cannot be done currently because of shortages in tests would be welcomed, because that would allow us to ask local partners such as UPMC — a “purely public charity” charged with “reliev[ing] the government of some burden” — why they are able to test patients undergoing elective surgeries but not provide tests where they are now so sorely needed. In places where there are outbreaks and employees come in and out, workers can unknowingly spread the contagion throughout our community.
At a briefing last Wednesday, the Health Department informed us that the capacity exists regionally to do 2,000 tests per day, but only between 200 and 500 are being conducted every day.
We must hope that this failure to pursue widespread testing is not a prelude to what the general public will face. Comprehensive testing is a prerequisite to reopening our economy to any great extent, determining who can return to the workplace and daily activities and who must continue to isolate.
Currently, what we hear from the county echoes the empty assurances from the federal government: The tests are coming. But they never seem to arrive in any sufficient number.
The questions must be answered: How many tests are on hand in our region and how are they being deployed? Have other test distributors been identified and orders placed? What are our expectations for how many tests will be received and when? What are turnaround times for results currently? What partners and communities have capacity and which are lacking it?
Before we can have confidence in a gradual reopening of our local economy, our government — namely County Executive Rich Fitzgerald — must embrace these outstanding questions. Mr. Fitzgerald should publicly convene not only experts in his Health Department, but also those from our local health care providers to be completely upfront with the public about what we know, what we don’t know, what resources we have and what we lack.
Transparency has never been the strong suit of this county administration, particularly on matters of public health. But the need for a government that welcomes questions and embraces openness is greater than ever. People’s lives depend on it.
County administration and Health Department leaders have not held a truly open question-andanswer session for news media since the COVID-19 outbreak began locally on March 14. At subsequent sessions, questions have been screened, no follow-up questions have been permitted and the duration has been strictly limited.
Since then, the county has deflected many probative questions, and for inquiries on its most critical facilities facing outbreaks, the public and media are told to check a website. This administration has simply fed us the information it believes we should have without depth or responsiveness.
By contrast, Erie County Executive Kathy Dahlkemper has held near-daily briefings disclosing where new cases identified in her county are believed to have been contracted and taking direct questions and follow-ups. There are models for what transparency from local leaders looks like.
The public deserves nothing less than a truly open forum in which any pertinent question could be asked and county officials would provide answers to the best of their ability, with the understanding, of course, that there remain many things about this virus that we don’t know and attendant plans that will necessarily be in progress. But, please, treat us like adults who deserve the information.
Opening will require openness. I am hopeful that Mr. Fitzgerald will rise to the occasion and understand that transparency will make us all safer and more secure and that the public deserves nothing less.
As Gandhi said, “Truth never damages a cause that is just.”