Tennessee accused of not releasing public White House data on COVID-19

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) — Tennessee is again in the ‘red zone’ when it comes to COVID-19 recovery. That’s according to documents from the White House Coronavirus Task Force.

But according to a recent report, Tennessee isn’t releasing COVID-19 data as freely as other states are.

The Center for Public Integrity compiles the state reports. Liz Essley Whyte, a reporter there, said the White House sends these reports to governor’s weekly.

But she says 13 states will not release the data, including Tennessee. Whyte said the state told her to submit a public records request for the report. FOX 17 News was told the same thing when reporter Rachel Tiede reached out to the governor’s team for comment.

In comparison, states like Illinois, Oklahoma, and Kentucky posts theirs to the state websites.

This matters, Whyte said, because the reports include COVID-19 data, but also recommendations from the Task Force to governors about how to reopen safely. See an example from Idaho here.

Whyte said by the time public records requests come through, the information will be outdated.

“Other states-- when those have been made public-- people have realized, ‘Hey, the task force is telling you to do this, and you’re not doing this, governor,’” Whyte said. “So, it’s a way of introducing accountability into the coronavirus response, and I think it’s worth hazarding a guess that some states don’t want that accountability.”

Tennessee does have some data from the White House Task Force listed.

This map is credited as from the Task Force, but the report itself isn’t available. The State also releases its own COVID-19 data. Click here to see that.