The coronavirus story: Our role, what we knew when

By Scott Pickering
Posted 3/2/20

EastBayRI and the East Providence Post helped break the news about the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in Rhode Island, and our handling of that story deserves an explanation — and some …

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The coronavirus story: Our role, what we knew when

Posted

EastBayRI and the East Providence Post helped break the news about the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in Rhode Island, and our handling of that story deserves an explanation — and some scrutiny.

One of our veteran journalists, East Providence Editor Mike Rego, first learned about the developing story on Friday night, Feb. 28. His reporting began after a Facebook post described an emergency meeting between East Providence city and school officials, and East Providence Superintendent of Schools Kathryn Crowley reached out to Rego late Friday night. They spoke on the phone at about 11 p.m. Friday night.

Based on that conversation, Rego wrote the story Friday night, but agreed to withhold publication until after the superintendent took part in a conference call with the Rhode Island Department of Health at 2 p.m. the following day, Saturday, Feb. 29.

At about 3 p.m. on Saturday, Rego received an official press release from Superintendent Crowley, the East Providence School District and the Department of Health, stating simply: “The Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) is engaging with the East Providence School District over what could possibly be the state’s first documented case of the new Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).” That statement was followed by a long description of the state’s response and recommendations regarding COVID-19.

Believing this was authorization to publish the story based on the Friday conversation with the superintendent, Rego went public and broke the story of what he had learned.

The story included details about a St. Raphael Academy trip to Italy involving students and staff, a chaperone on that trip being hospitalized under suspicion of showing symptoms of the virus, and that man being married to a Silver Spring Elementary School teacher who had gone to work for two days after her husband returned from Italy.

Shortly after that conversation, Rego began receiving messages and phone calls from both a Department of Health spokesman and from Superintendent Crowley. The health department spokesman stated that the story contained “confidential information” and that there were “inaccuracies” in the reporting. He did not specify what was allegedly inaccurate.

The superintendent asked Rego to take down the story because she feared it violated the patient's privacy rights, protected under federal HIPAA regualtions. Under pressure from both agencies, the reporter obliged and replaced his original story with the full press release sent by the superintendent. It had been posted online for roughly an hour.

Over the course of the next 18 hours, the breaking story, combined with the posted and then withdrawn story on EastBayRI, fueled widespread speculation throughout the region. East Providence residents, especially those in the school community, were asking questions and demanding answers.

Unfortunately, we did not provide any until Sunday afternoon, following a press conference involving Gov. Gina Raimondo and Dr. Nicole Alexander Scott, director of the department of health.

Following that press conference — which did not identify St. Raphael’s Academy or the link to East Providence schools — we decided to change course, and EastBayRI posted a new story that included much of Rego's original reporting, specifically with regards to the two schools connected to the case.

By the end of the day on Sunday, all the details of the story had been confirmed by state officials, were widely publicized in the media and were becoming common knowledge throughout Rhode Island. To the best of our knowledge, the only detail that might have been wrong in Rego's original story was the identity of the hospital where the male patient was hospitalized; everything else about the story was accurate.

Where we went wrong …

We regret the roughly 18 hours when Rhode Islanders, particularly those in the East Providence school community, were searching for answers. We are committed to providing timely, relevant and important information to our audience, and in this instance we briefly wavered in that commitment. The reporter faced significant pressure and had the accuracy of his reporting questioned, and out of an abundance of caution, he acquiesced to demands from the health department. If the situation were to occur again, we would most likely respond differently.

In nearly all situations, we believe the public deserves as much accurate information as possible. In this case, the link between the virus and three separate school communities (St. Ray’s, East Providence and Achievement First Academy in Providence) triggered obvious fears for a public that is jittery about coronavirus. Unfortunately, while our initial report provided information that would have been helpful to the public, our revised report on Saturday afternoon provided only enough information to alarm the public (“Which school? Is it a student? How many people?”), and not enough to properly inform the public.

The fact is, health and school officials are proceeding with an abundance of caution and working extremely hard to protect people. We are committed to our mission as well.

Scott Pickering is general manager and a longtime editor with East Bay Media Group, which publishes seven weekly newspapers and the EastBayRI.com website.

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Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.