Show Us The Data:
LANSING, MI, May 18, 2020 – Michigan Freedom Fund Executive Director Tony Daunt today asked Governor Gretchen Whitmer and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services to show residents the data and release the number of early COVID patients in Michigan who attended large events at the beginning of March.
According to data released by MDHHS and reported in the Detroit News, Michigan patients began experiencing symptoms as early as March 1. 365 patients who later tested positive for COVID-19 later reported their symptoms started by March 9 or earlier.
MDHHS spokeswoman Lynn Sutfin told reporters that the state could not determine how many Michigan COVID patients attended these events because the state uses a reporting system with “text fields” and “there is not a way to extract this info without manually going through eacy and every report, almost 50,000 in all.”
To the contrary – instead of searching 50,000 records, the state need only narrow the search to the 365 individuals who reported symptoms beginning by March 9 – or the few hundred additional who reported the onset of symptoms by March 10 – to determine how many attended political events, basketball games or voted in the March 10 presidential primary.
“Governor Whitmer’s decision to use MDHHS spokespeople to mislead the press and the public about state health data raises serious questions about the data and her refusal to release it,” said Daunt. “The state needn’t search 50,000 records to learn how many COVID patients attended presidential rallies – they only need to search a few hundred. Why hide this data?”
Governor Whitmer began locking down state residents and job sites on March 13, only after the presidential primary and candidate rallies.
###
