Governor McMaster deserves praise for setting DHEC straight on giving COVID-19 info

When a state is battling an invisible threat like the coronavirus, its citizens shouldn’t find it just as difficult to see how much of a menace the virus has become in their communities.

That’s why the Editorial Board salutes Gov. Henry McMaster for ordering the Department of Health and Environmental Control to release data on the number of positive coronavirus cases in every ZIP code in every county across South Carolina.

That’s exactly the type of specific, extensive information that South Carolinians need and deserve to have as our state continues to battle this pandemic. Yet it was information that the Department of Health and Environmental Control was reluctant to provide until it was formally ordered to do so by McMaster.

Yes, ultimately we got to the right outcome: there’s now more openness from the health agency on the true impact COVID-19 is having on every community.

But it’s still worth asking this:

▪ Why was it so hard to get to this point?

▪ Why was an order from the governor required to reach it?

The reality is in that the weeks since COVID-19 began making its steady, grim march through our state, the Department of Health and Environmental Control has too often appeared to adopt the shortsighted mindset that giving South Carolinians all the information is akin to giving them too much information.

In addition to dragging its feet on providing in-depth data on positive cases in every ZIP code, the health agency has often been slow to share complete information on issues ranging from the state’s ability to perform widespread coronavirus testing to the number of ventilators on hand to fight a respiratory virus that continues to claim life after life in South Carolina.

When it comes to COVID-19 ignorance really is potentially deadly — and doing anything that promotes a lack of knowledge is myopic at best and reckless at worst.

The Department of Health and Environmental Control must embrace the concept that during the age of the coronavirus, it is impossible to give citizens too much information on what’s happening or where it’s happening — or on how well the state is prepared to keep it from happening on an even wider scale.

This is simply about fully serving the public’s best interest, and McMaster should be applauded for demanding that the Department of Health and Environmental Control meet that responsibility by providing comprehensive COVID-19 data for every community.

Transparency is an asset in fighting a war against a malady we can’t see, and we can never allow it to become a casualty in our state’s effort to win this battle.

This story was originally published April 7, 2020 at 6:22 AM.