Why is Stanislaus County keeping vital COVID information from its residents? It’s wrong.

People in neighboring Merced County find it helpful to know the exact name and location of recent COVID-19 outbreaks pinpointed at 30 specific businesses, care homes and schools. Anyone with an electronic device easily can find that information at a tab on the county’s dashboard.

This public service is provided in a spirit of transparency. It’s meant to help workers take extra precautions when their employers land on the list, and parents of students at the half-dozen schools currently shown no doubt appreciate the information as well.

“It’s another tool for us to limit the spread of the virus,” said Mike North, Merced County spokesman, in an email. If you’ve been to Dole in Atwater, for instance, or the In-Shape gym on Yosemite Avenue in Merced, seeing those places on the outbreaks list might prompt you to be tested and to self-isolate.

Oregon has a similar transparency policy. Los Angeles County goes a step further, publishing lists of restaurants, stores and places of worship where at least three people have been found with COVID. As of Monday, 279 such workplaces with 2,805 infected employees found themselves on LA County’s list.

“It’s fundamental data that should be readily available,” said Dr. Melissa Perry, epidemiologist and chair of the Environmental and Occupational Health department at George Washington University, in a CalMatters report.

In a pandemic that’s destroying lives, and affecting every single life, that sort of information should be shared with everyone, everywhere.

Unbelievably, it’s not.

People here in Stanislaus County, and many others, are deprived of such helpful knowledge. On purpose.

Wait, you say — surely there must be some mistake. Maybe Stanislaus officials would reveal this common-sense information if someone would just ask nicely?

The Modesto Bee tried that. The county’s response: Forget it.

Why? Because doing so might make others less inclined to report future outbreaks, County Counsel Tom Bose wrote in his denial.

Similar arguments were raised when California legislators recently weighed transparency rules like Oregon’s. Business groups argued that shaming companies could harm them, never mind how the information might help wage-earners heading to work in an infested environment, or customers.

So legislators in Sacramento decided to leave reporting up to individual counties, whose leaders must know what’s best, right?

Let’s see how that’s working out for us: California’s case rate is 2,412 per 100,000, while Oregon’s 1,116 rate is less than half, CalMatters said, citing a New York Times database.

A few states, including Colorado, New Mexico and Arkansas, adopted workplace transparency rules similar to Oregon’s, while compromise legislation in California taking effect Jan. 1 will report outbreaks only by industrial sector. No names will be named, to protect fearful businesses.

Do what’s right, Stanislaus County

Erring on the side of fear might make some sense in normal times; 2020 has been anything but.

As of Monday, more than 22,000 Stanislaus people had tested positive for the coronavirus, and 426 of our people have died. Our test positivity rate is through the roof, and the governor is considering a strict stay-home order similar to the one we suffered under in March.

Stanislaus leaders must prove that the commitment to transparency they boast of is not just lip service. They can do this by simply adding outbreaks info to the county’s COVID-19 dashboard.

Stanislaus leaders have responded to previous virus-related requests. For example, this editorial board in April called for COVID case reporting by ZIP code as opposed to one number for each city; when the county complied, people in Modesto began receiving 10 data points instead of just one. In May, The Bee called for mobile testing, and the county soon complied.

So there is hope that Stanislaus leaders will decide to trust our people and give them the information they deserve — the same information that people only a few miles to the south get with a few keystrokes in Merced County, without having to fight and beg for it.

There is no excuse for hiding information that might help people navigate a life-altering and life-threatening pandemic.

This story was originally published December 1, 2020 at 5:00 AM.