rjocolorado

Thank you for taking the time to do this, I have two questions. How does not reporting negative test results benefit private companies, why would they keep that information to themselves? And what can we citizens do in order to make this, and other important data, available to the public?

This message was on the website for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Envrionent (CDPHE), which is why I'm highlighting private companies (emphasis mine).

"**Now that private labs are conducting testing, the positive cases number represents all positive cases in the state. The negative and total numbers represent just the confirmed data from the state lab. Private labs are not required to report negative numbers to the state. "

Anything the government does, unless classified, is property of the US citizenry. FOIA requests are available to anyone, and we even have access to things like military handbooks.

Absolutely, I don't think anyone would accuse the government (especially the feds) of being quickly and efficiently, lol. That being said, at least public entities (governments) are required to make data available. I'm genuinely curious why a company wouldn't want to share that data, though. I don't mean to levy criticism, I'm just seeking understanding.

Is it about trust? I could see that - don't tell the gov't too much, or else you could open up the company to liability, etc.

This is also why I'm curious if there should be a legislative or governmental response to this, and what we as citizens can do to encourage/compel companies to act in the interest of the general population.

Thanks for the quick response!

I suppose my question of "benefit" came out of wondering why a company wouldn't want to report negative results, even if they aren't required to. Is it just good practice for a company to only give the government data that's requested? Or, to look at it from the other direction, why would the CDC allow for such a exemption to occur?

I'm so glad that you (and others, I'm sure) are creating grassroots ways to analyze and understand the situation by examining data points. I suppose my question was whether there was anything legislatively we could do in order to make sure the data we collect is as valid as possible. Could the CDC's guidelines regarding negative result reporting be changed with enough public pressure?

Again, thank you for doing this! Concrete data is critical, now more than ever.