Richmondites claim transparency trumps privacy during COVID-19 pandemic
While the Ministry of Health stresses the need to protect patient privacy, many residents insist that they should be given more details on the eight confirmed coronavirus cases in Richmond.
Eight cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in Richmond on Thursday, leaving many residents wanting to know what neighbourhoods these patients live in and where they might have recently visited.
However, the provincial health officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, told the Richmond News in a statement that respecting patent privacy will better enable public health providers to do the work they need to do to keep everybody safe。
However, some Richmond residents believe that the benefits of providing the general public with more information regarding cases in their area outweigh privacy concerns.
A Richmond resident, who only gave his last name as Wang, told the News that transparency is more important than patients' privacy at this stage.
Another resident, who gave his last name as Wu, told the News the lack of detail regarding each confirmed case causes more panic and hysteria in the local community.
"Our social media is already flooded with COVID-19-related hoaxes and misinformation. For example, people shared a photo of an emergency vehicle parked outside of a residential building, leading many netizens to think this might mean one of the residents of the building tested positive for COVID-19," said Wu.
"However, the truth could be that a resident fell on the floor. Unfortunately, some people would rather believe in rumours. Someone told me gossip doesn't come out of nowhere, being overcautious is a wise decision at the moment because the information we’re being given isn't clear enough."
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