The unknown: How the Maryland Department of Health’s transparency differs by disease

Since announcing the first cases of COVID-19 in Maryland, Gov. Larry Hogan’s administration has touted its transparency, going as far as to write the word in all caps on Twitter.

When the governor announced Maryland’s first cases on March 5, he revealed the first three cases were all Montgomery County residents, even giving details about their travel history.

From then on, cases would be announced by county, with details such as gender, race and age range. If there needed to be more details, like a place of public exposure, local health departments would announce it.

“COVID-19 is a new disease and this is a rapidly changing situation; Maryland is reporting certain information regarding confirmed cases — including age range, county, gender and potential for close public contact — as part of a containment strategy to prevent COVID-19 from becoming more widespread in our state,” Maureen Regan, deputy director of integrated media with the Maryland Health Department, said in an email on March 12.

While the governor’s strategy for COVID-19 is releasing large amounts of data, the state does not allow the same level of transparency for diseases that sicken thousands of Maryland residents every year.

For example, anyone can know how many COVID-19 cases there are in Frederick County. They can also learn how many cases of gonorrhea or chlamydia are in the county. But if someone tries to determine the number of cases in each county of influenza this flu season — a disease that has sickened nearly 44,000 Marylanders and killed 63 as of May 2 — it is nearly impossible to find out.

Read more | The Frederick News-Post