Legislators slam DeSoto and Red River Parish officials for not showing up to a hearing about claims made by those parishes that the Department of Health was reporting duplicate COVID case counts.
Legislative Audit Advisory Councilmembers blasted the officials for making claims that were later debunked by the Legislative Auditor. Baton Rouge Representative Barry Ivey was frustrated by their failure to attend.
“They went on social media and provided misinformation and anyone acting on that misinformation could have been infected, could have infected a family member,” says Ivey.
Both the DeSoto parish Sheriff and the Red River Department of Homeland Security made the claims on Facebook posts.
LDH says there is evidence lists of infected people’s names in those areas had been disseminated as part of the effort to attack the department’s COVID case reporting. Ivey called that a clear HIPPA violation.
“I believe it is an extremely egregious violation,” says Ivey.
The Legislative Auditor’s report indicates the two parishes’ misinterpreted the data they were being sent, and that the LDH dashboard of COVID case numbers is accurate to within 1-2 percent.
Alexandria Senator Jay Luneau called the parishes’ actions unacceptable and says their refusal to attend cannot happen again.
“This is of primary importance as far as I am concerned when you are talking about public health issues, especially when you are looking at an office of homeland security,” says Luneau.
Comments