Advocacy/Outreach Project
Thank you for taking a moment to consider assisting with this project.
[Overview]
The purpose of this will be to get the DHSS to include deaths that are identified through antigen testing in the overall numbers. I have confirmed that the DHSS is collecting this data, but is not providing it. The DHSS does include data on individuals who have active COVID-19 infections when identified by antigen tests. This is an inconsistent practice.
This could result in, and I believe does reflect an inaccurate count of the number of COVID-19 related deaths in Missouri. Transparency is essential during a public health crisis, and Missourians deserve to use complete data to make decisions about how they go about their lives during this difficult time.
There will be four channels to utilize to advocate for this change:
1) Direct communication to government phone and e-mail accounts, including the governor and the governor's office, and state representatives.
2) Outreach to media outlets across the state who are willing to assist in advocating for the release of this information.
3) Outreach through social media platforms, including Facebook and Twitter, to official government pages including the governor, the governor's office, and elected officials when applicable.
4) Cautiously enlisting local health departments in advocating for this change. This one is tricky, because I certainly don't want to inundate them because they are already understaffed and underpaid as it is. I have spoken with at least a dozen administrators who are on board. We won't reach 100% participation, but I am really optimistic about a good deal of participation. I will add: for as long as I have provided this, I have never been told by anyone in any health department that they did not want the most accurate data available to be made public.
For a list of elected officials in Missouri, including e-mail addresses and phone numbers, click here.
Not sure who your representatives and senators are? Click here to type in your address and get a list.
My ask is that you copy and paste this by e-mail to your elected officials, as well as to the office of the governor. I would also recommend using social media channels to do the same. I will be working on and developing the other objectives listed above over the course of this week.
...
I am reaching out today to ask for your support in identifying a solution to a concern with COVID-19 data that the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services [DHSS] provides.
As the pandemic continues to present new challenges, Missourians are tasked with making difficult decisions regarding the safety of themselves and their families on a daily basis. In order to do this, it is important that Missourians have access to regularly review comprehensive data for their respective jurisdictions.
In March of this year, the DHSS added probable cases to their dashboard, which meant that individuals who met one of the following three criteria were now included in the data:
- Exhibiting symptoms *and* had close contact with someone who tested positive
- Positive antigen test *and* is exhibiting symptoms *or* had close contact with someone who tested positive
- COVID-19 is listed as a cause of death but did not receive a laboratory test
On March 08, the DHSS added over 81,000 cases to their dashboard, which represented 17% of all cases previously identified. The decision to make this data public was an important step towards restoring public confidence in our state government. Considering that ample evidence exists indicating antigen testing is accurate [can accurately rule out COVID-19 in individuals with symptoms at a 99.5% rate, and can accurately rule out COVID-19 in individuals without symptoms at a 98.9% rate; DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD013705.pub2], this was clearly a statistically-founded move.
Unfortunately, to date the DHSS has yet to share the number of deaths that meet the aforementioned probable criteria. The DHSS’ willingness to share these cases but withhold deaths stands out as an inconsistency among the public data, which could reasonably be interpreted as deceptive.
This is critically important information for Missourians to access. Furthermore, research indicates that individuals who have clear and concise messaging and public data available from their respective governing bodies are more likely to initiate or comply with mitigation strategies [PLOS ONE 15(6): e0235112]. It is reasonable to assume that providing this data may also encourage Missouri residents to consider taking the COVID-19 vaccine, especially now that the FDA has granted full approval to the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccination for all individuals [ages 16 and up].
Over half of US states currently share this data publicly, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as state-specific COVID-19 dashboards. Numerous press releases from Missouri Governor Mike Parson can be found on the governor.mo.gov website indicating that he, too, is a strong advocate of transparency when it comes to making COVID-19 data accessible.
I ask that you join me and reach out to the Missouri Governor’s Office and to the DHSS as an advocate of comprehensive and consistent data reporting.