MA Shares Addresses Of People Who Tested Positive For Coronavirus

BOSTON —A March 18 order from Massachusetts Department of Public Health Commissioner Monica Bharel allows local boards of health to share addresses where residents have tested positive for the new coronavirus with police and other first responders.

The order does not allow the local boards to share the name of the person who tested positive for COVID-19. Bharel said the order was necessary "to ensure effective and continued operation of public health and safety services" during the state of emergency Gov. Charlie Baker declared on March 10.

The order shall "only be used for responding to emergency calls and not for any other purpose," Bharel wrote. It also instructs police departments to discard the information after the state of emergency is lifted.

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Alabama is the only other state with a similar order. Doctors have criticized the policy, saying it is based on outdated information about how COVID-19 spreads and violates patient privacy. In a letter to Baker, Harvard Law School Professor Robert Greenwald said the order is "misguided" and "is not sound public health policy."

Dr. Deborah Peel, founder of the advocacy group Patient Privacy Rights, told Vice News may put first responders at greater risk, since many carriers of coronavirus are asymptomatic.

"It’s based on an early and mistaken idea that the disease was only spread by people who were obviously symptomatic," she said. "We now know that that’s wrong, so it makes no sense. Everybody should act in a careful, social distancing way to interact with anybody’s door they have to knock on."

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Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).