What is HIPAA and how does it affect our understanding of the coronavirus? – Poynter

What is HIPAA and how does it affect our understanding of the coronavirus? – Poynter

The widely misunderstood act is being invoked to limit access to COVID-19 data and to block journalists from documenting shortages and the illness itself.

via Poynter: https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2020/hipaa-and-coronavirus/

Hospitals are blocking journalists from documenting what it’s like inside their walls and the shortages of ventilators and other supplies, so we rely on social media and interviews with doctors. But seeing is believing, the old saying goes. It is true in war, it is true in disasters, and this is both a war and a disaster.