LAST MINUTE MUSINGS: The right to privacy in the COVID-19 era
I know the name of the first COVID-19 death in the county.
Several of my co-workers do too.
I’m sure many of you reading this — if you have an inquiring mind and a Facebook account — also know who it was.
However, we will not be printing the person’s name, at least not unless a member of the victim’s family gives us the go-ahead to do so.
It’s just not how we operate.
In this industry, there is a constant push and pull between a public’s right to know and a person’s — especially a victim’s — right to privacy.
If, for example, one of your neighbors was arrested for sexual misconduct with a minor, I feel I have a moral obligation not to do anything to reveal the victim’s identity. There’s a reason we don’t allow comments on those stories — so no one else uses our website as a forum to identify or shame such victims.
On the other hand, it is worth letting you know that the predator was targeting someone in his own family and not picking up random kids on the street.
As reporters, we walk a thin line in those cases.
I’ll admit, an infectious disease is a different beast. But the same general principles apply.
As a member of the public, you feel you need as much information as possible on the positive COVID-19 cases — age, address, place of work, other associations and, heck, name if you can get it.
On the other hand, those people have the right to choose just how public or private they make their own health battles.
Furthermore, our main source of information in this crisis, the Putnam County Health Department, has the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) to consider. If you’re not familiar with HIPAA, it’s a 1996 federal law that ensures the privacy of patients.
As a journalist, HIPAA can be maddening at times. As a citizen, it’s a great reassurance.
Workers at the Health Department and healthcare facilities will do everything they can to abide by HIPAA. They will make sure they err on the side of too little information rather than too much. I get it. That’s just being responsible in their jobs.
At the Banner Graphic, we count on the Health Department to help do our job in these times. We’re going to listen to what they have to say. We’re going to ask questions. But we’re not going to push them to the point of jeopardizing the relationship of trust we’ve built and continue to build.
We also count on the Health Department to do the work of identifying the patient’s family, friends, co-workers and anyone else with whom they may have come in contact.
As contrary as it may be to our instincts, it’s one place we journalists are having to leave the dissemination of information to others in these trying times.
As for the easy availability of information on social media? That’s great. Feel free to use it to educate yourself and console those touched by the disease.
But in this business (and life in general) social media should always be approached with an abundance of caution. Not everything you read on Facebook is real. The last few years have taught us that the hard way.
And so, the only way we will be printing the names of any COVID-19 victim is if A) the Department of Health or some other authority gives it to us; or B) the victim or his or her direct family member tells us.
I can assure you that A will not happen and B will only happen if they reach out to us.
The last thing I intend to do is approach someone who is scared, hurting, ailing, perhaps mourning, and ask them for comment on the situation. That’s never been how I like to do this job and I’m confident my co-workers feel the same.
I’ve never chased ambulances and I don’t plan to start now.