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Hiding COVID-19: How Trump Administration guidance suppresses photography of the pandemic

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  1. arghdos
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    I find the interlocking systems at play here fascinating. On the face of it, Severino’s guidance: Seems fairly reasonable, but as the article states: Which leads to significant reductions in...

    I find the interlocking systems at play here fascinating. On the face of it, Severino’s guidance:

    HIPAA does not permit covered health care providers to give the media, including film crews, access to any areas of their facilities where patients’ personal health information (PHI) will be accessible in any form (e.g. written, electronic, oral, or other visual or audio form) without first obtaining a written HIPAA authorization form from each patient whose PHI would be accessible to the media.

    Seems fairly reasonable, but as the article states:

    it comes down to the amount of legal risk a hospital is willing to assume and the amount of time it is willing to devote to figuring that out. A hospital has to wade through a lot of regulatory questions before deciding to let a journalist inside, and that means tapping into legal resources that might be scarce or expensive. And if a decision is made to grant access, there’s always a chance that something could go wrong and a privacy breach could happen...

    Which leads to significant reductions in photographic documentation of this pandemic, possibly causing the virus to be taken less seriously.

    2 votes