For the past 10 months the @OHAOregon disclosed detailed death information for nearly 2,000 Oregonians with COVID-19 who died.

That ended without warning Wednesday.

Here's the state's explanation, with no response from @OregonGovBrown's office. https://www.oregonlive.com/coronavirus/2021/01/oregon-stops-sharing-details-of-each-covid-19-death-reports-20-new-fatalities-731-cases.html

Of note: @OHAOregon argues that it is now providing a more complete picture for Oregonians because it created a data page summarizing the underlying health conditions for people who died with COVID-19.

That page is here: https://public.tableau.com/profile/oregon.health.authority.covid.19#!/vizhome/OregonCOVID-19CaseDemographicsandDiseaseSeverityStatewide/DiseaseDeathData

As you may remember, the @Oregonian requested just such data on underlying health conditions back in August, and @OHAOregon refused to provide it.

Story here: https://www.oregonlive.com/coronavirus/2020/08/coronavirus-in-oregon-247-new-cases-and-seven-deaths-as-state-stays-mum-on-underlying-conditions.html

A spokesman for @OHAOregon says the idea of ending the daily detailed death reports has been on the table for months because it is too much work for epidemiologists.

The decision was made in conjunction with the looming 2,000th death.

@OregonGovBrown has come under intense criticism for choosing to vaccinate teachers before the elderly.

Now, each day's death toll will be released absent the specific ages, locations and dates of death for those who died -- just as attention on elderly fatalities grows.

To be sure, we can track aggregate death data to see how many more people age 80-plus, 70-79 and 60-69 have died.

But we won't know specifically where they lived, where they died or when they died.

In any event, @OregonGovBrown last March told @OHAOregon, under pressure to improve transparency, to “share all COVID-19 information with the public that does not compromise patient privacy.”

Asked about Wednesday's change?

Brown's office didn't respond.

One final and very important point I didn’t make:

@OHAOregon was disclosing the date someone tested positive and the date someone died.

So now it won’t be possible to know precisely how many elderly Oregonians tested positive and died in the weeks teachers are vaccinated.