News Archive
Professor Terry Quoted in Washington Post Analysis
10/05/2020
The White House is declining to release the number of aides infected with COVID-19, citing "privacy concerns,” but legal experts including IU McKinney Professor Nicolas Terry agree that there is no legal reason for that and no actual risk to privacy, either, according to a news analysis in the Washington Post.
Professor Terry, Hall Render Professor of Law and Executive Director of the Hall Center for Law and Health, said neither HIPAA nor the federal Privacy Act prevents such a disclosure.
“Neither should be a barrier for the White to release the number of aides,” Terry said. “The only caveat I would raise is if there are a very small number of aides whose identity is known when releasing the number would be tantamount to identifying them. That doesn’t seem to be the case here. So, I would suggest citing privacy concerns is likely pretextual.”
Professor Terry is Hall Render Professor of Law and Executive Director of the Hall Center for Law and Health at IU McKinney, where he teaches healthcare and health policy courses. He serves on Indiana University’s Grand Challenges Scientific Leadership Team working on the response to addictions. He blogs at Harvard Law School’s Bill of Health, his “The Week in Health Law” podcast is at TWIHL.com, and he is @nicolasterry on twitter.
