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Information is critical

Last Thursday, the Ohio County Health Department in Wheeling revealed that an animal there had tested positive for rabies.

It was a raccoon, found in the Woodsdale neighborhood of Wheeling.

People in and near that area now know to be especially cautious about raccoons, because it is now more likely that other animals of that type are infected.

There are now 10 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ohio County, nine in Belmont County, 11 in Jefferson County.

Public health officials in Ohio will not say where the patients live. In West Virginia, those with the information will not even say how old they are, whether they are male or female or where they may have traveled, both locally or elsewhere.

Is there anything wrong with this picture?

In Ohio, top health officials decline to say even where health care workers who died of the virus had been employed.

Throughout West Virginia and, to some extent, in other states, officials refuse to provide any details about COVID-19 cases, except the counties where patients reside. That is very little detail — some counties are very large in terms of geography or population. What harm would there be in identifying the community where someone who tests positive lives?

Any more information could invade the privacy of those with the disease, they insist.

Let us say it once more: No one is asking for names or addresses — just information that could save lives.

It could do this in two ways: First, knowing more about patients could help people avoid becoming exposed to the coronavirus.

Second, realizing that someone who lives near you has COVID-19 could prompt people showing early-stage symptoms of the disease to seek medical help sooner than they might have otherwise.

By the way, there are treatments to cure humans of rabies. Doctors are still attempting to find one for COVID-19.

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