Ohio leaders are so busy sending restaurant workers to the unemployment line over fears of the coronavirus they apparently do not have time to actually test for the presence of the virus among their citizens, nor do they want you to know how many they have tested.
As Monday afternoon, Ohio had 50 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, according to The COVID Tracking Project. Out of 551 tests that have been taken, 140 were negative and 361 results are pending.
After today, you may not know how many tests have been carried out. That’s because the state, with no warning, took that information down off its coronavirus information page Monday, available here. They still tell you the number of confirmed cases, the counties involved and a couple of other statistics.
The COVID Tracking Project says it gathers its data from the various state agencies, so their data on Ohio will suffer as a result.
The Project shows that Ohio lags 12 states — a quarter of states — in testing.
Here are the states that have conducted the most tests:
- Washington State, 10,220
- California, 8,316
- New York, 5,272
- Minnesota, 1,893
- Florida, 1,339
- Illinois, 1,025
- Oregon, 800
- Maine, 781
- Pennsylvania, 746
- Colorado, 758
- New Mexico, 583
- Wisconsin, 551
- Massachusetts, 516
- South Dakota, 504
But why worry about numbers during a pandemic?
As The Ohio Star reported Saturday, Dr. Amy Acton, director of the Ohio Department of Health, said she was “guesstimating” when she estimated 100,000 Ohioans had the coronavirus.
“I am not saying there are absolutely for certain 100,000 people,” Dr. Amy Acton, the director of the Ohio Department of Health, said at a press conference Friday. “I’m saying I’m guesstimating. If I’m guesstimating community spread, that’s my best number.”
Community spread occurs when individuals become infected with a disease without having traveled to places with known outbreaks, or having contact with someone known to carry a virus.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine amplified Acton’s estimate Friday, saying on Twitter that it is likely that 100,000 residents in the state are “walking around” with coronavirus. He also cited Acton’s claims in an interview on Fox News.
Acton’s inaction compares to President Donald Trump, who on Friday declared a national emergency to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, The Star reported. He provided $50 billion for local and state efforts and announced a partnership with the private sector to “increase and accelerate” testing for the virus.
When one can “guesstimate” coronavirus cases, it stands to reason she can take any action she sees fit.
The Star reported in December that Acton put a notorious abortionist back in business after the Ohio Supreme Court shut him down.
Ohio Pro-Life groups expected to see Dr. Martin Haskell’s abortion clinic in Dayton closed for good. The abortionist notorious for claiming to have invented partial-birth abortion, failed to abide by the law requiring his facility to have a transfer agreement with a local hospital and as a result, had his license to operate denied. Haskell fought the revocation from 2014 all the way to the Ohio Supreme Court and lost on appeal twice.
But in a surprise turn of events, pro-life Governor Mike DeWine’s Director for the Ohio Department of Health provided Haskell with a new license just days after the court loss. Haskell changed the name of his clinic from Women’s Med Center of Dayton to Women’s Med Dayton, then filed for a new license and received it.
Some pro-life groups are linking Director Amy Acton to abortion supporters NARAL and Planned Parenthood. Also noted was her political support for former President Barak Obama, insinuating that she does not share her Governor’s pro-life values.
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Jason M. Reynolds has more than 20 years’ experience as a journalist at outlets of all sizes.
Image “Dr. Amy Acton” by The Ohio Channel.
