ACLU Filing Lawsuit Against RI Dept. of Health on Behalf of GoLocal Over CDC Vaccine Emails

ACLU Filing Lawsuit Against RI Dept. of Health on Behalf of GoLocal Over CDC Vaccine Emails

A GoLocal request for the state’s revised vaccination plan as well as emails between the Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), were responded to by RIDOH officials with a claim that there is no revised vaccination plan and a bill for more than $3,147.50 for retrieval of the emails.

GoLocal has paid RIDOH's demand for payment.

Now, the RI ACLU is following with litigation against the RIDOH.

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“The Department of Health’s response to a legitimate request for public information by a local news organization is truly unfortunate and legally unnecessary. The Access to Public Records Act makes clear that state policy favors broad public access to government information and that an agency is not required to condition production of public records on advance payment of speculative costs or fees,”  said Lynette Labinger, cooperating attorney for the ACLU of RI.

“But the Department of Health is taking the opposite approach. Instead, it is insisting that a bona fide news organization make an advance payment of fees before it will search for or produce public records, and it is demanding a very large prepayment, by ‘estimating’ that an electronic records search limited to just six weeks’ of emails in one department between two public agencies on one topic will take over 200 person-hours to conduct,” said Labinger.

A GoLocal investigation published in January unveiled that RIDOH’s draft vaccination plan to the CDC was riddled with significant errors, after the publication of GoLocal's report, RIDOH officials told GoLocal that the plan was being revised.

RIDOH has been under fire for its disjointed vaccination rollout -- and public confusion relating to priorities. Multiple national analyses rank Rhode Island among the bottom states for percentage of dosages implemented.

"A major responsibility of any government agency is to be accessible to the public and to ensure transparency and accountability in its actions. Members of the public should not be forced to pay exorbitant fees for the 'privilege' of ensuring that transparency. The goal of the Access to Public Records Act is severely undermined when, as here, agencies misuse the law to deter the public's access to important government documents,” said Steven Brown, Executive Director of the ACLU of Rhode Island.

“In the middle of a pandemic, transparency is critical. Rhode Island has the 4th highest death date and is also ranked 4th for number of cases per capita. The state's vaccination was flagged first by GoLocal and now nationally as being among the least effective at getting Rhode Islanders vaccinated,” said Josh Fenton, CEO and co-founder of GoLocal.

 

RIDOH Vaccination Plan Riddled with Errors

The January 6 report by GoLocal titled,  INVESTIGATION: RI’s Vaccination Plan Is Outdated and Includes Major Errors, unveiled that the 53-page plan subbmitted to the federal government outlined that one of Rhode Island’s priorities is to immunize children. The document formally submitted to the CDC states, “Rhode Island will nonetheless prioritize the following critical populations for vaccination:  Young adults, children….”

The GoLocal Investigation wrote:

Just one problem with the state's report -- neither of the two vaccines now approved for usage by the FDA and the CDC were approved for use by children.

Moreover, as early as March when Moderna and then Pfizer announced their Phase 1 trials of their respective vaccines that they never intended to seek approval by federal agencies for use by children.

But seven months after the two pharmacy giants announced their drug trials, RIDOH officials were either confused or were unaware of the two vaccines' intended usage.

 

Lack of Transparency by RI Department of Health

“RIDOH has been unable to control deaths, infections and been unable to build a competent vaccination program. Rhode Islanders need to see how this happened and how it can be corrected. GoLocal will continue to press forward to unveil these documents so decision-makers can develop a competent plan," added Fenton.

“At this critical time, when so many people are frightened by the pandemic and frustrated by the State’s COVID-vaccination rollout, the Health Department’s assertion that a local news organization must first pay a large fee in order to gather and share critical information with the public—aside from creating a substantial deterrent to newsgathering—sends entirely the wrong message and is legally unnecessary," said Labinger. "The Department should reconsider and reverse its decision immediately and make these records available without payment of any advance fee."