Voice of OC Public Town Hall Motivates County Leadership to Be More Open About COVID-19 Data

Voice of OC’s public town hall this month not only got residents more information on Covid-19, it motivated county leaders to resume regular public updates on the virus in Orange County.

Voice of OC is a nonprofit and nonpartisan newsroom, but we are unafraid to push to make information public.

Republicans, Democrats, Independents — it doesn’t matter, we push on all leaders to bring the public into the decision-making process, starting by making information accessible.

The county of Orange stopped offering public information updates on the Coronavirus pandemic. Then the Delta variant took off locally, kids starting returning to classrooms and new information on long COVID started coming out.

So Voice of OC journalists went to work.

We organized live public town hall virtual updates where we gathered reader questions and asked them of public health officials and experts (watch the latest town hall).

We wrote stories calling out government leaders for a lack of information:

• OC Supervisors Bury Public COVID Updates, Shut Down Effort to Have Experts Answer Questions
• Every County in So Cal Offers Residents Public Updates on Covid, Except OC
• Orange County Supervisors Accused of Strangling Public Comment

And just on the heels, County Supervisor Katrina Foley announced her own county health updates. First it was weekly, then daily. And then, county officials relented.

Orange County yet again has weekly opportunities to learn the latest information on Coronavirus and all media organizations again have an opportunity to ask questions.

We’re not here to tell the stories elected officials want you to hear. We’re not here for a political party or any power brokers. We do all of this for you.

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