Slashdot Mirror
New Jersey Rejects Request For Dolphin Necropsy Results, Cites "Medical Privacy" (muckrock.com)
v3rgEz writes: When a dolphin died in New Jersey's South River last year, Carly Sitrin wanted to know what killed it. So she filed a public record request to the NJ Department of Agriculture in order to get the necropsy results. The DOA finally responded last week with the weird decision to deny the release of the record on grounds of medical privacy. The response reads in part: "We are in receipt of your request for information (#W101407) under the auspices of the State’s
Open Public Records Act (O.P.R.A.). Specifically, you requested any and all reports associated with the necropsy of the dolphin that
strayed into the South River on August 5, 2015 in Middlesex County, New Jersey. This request
is denied as it would release information deemed confidential under O.P.R.A., specifically
information related to a medical diagnosis or evaluation. (E.O. 26, McGreevey)"
Let's hope when Governor Christie eats his next cow, nobody will tell him that it has mad cow's disease, since that would violate the privacy of the dead cow.
That has to be it right, the results would show how toxic the water is, forcing the state to step in and clean it up. That's the only logical reason for denying this request.
Okay, I beg the pardon of the PETA folks (actually no I don't...*Kicks a kitten*).
But it's a fucking animal that died in public waterway and was autopsied on the public dime.
People who wish to know have a right to that information.
I want to know what mental defective thought "medical privacy" was an appropriate excuse.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
How would you like to respond to this request for information:
[1] Provide information
[2] Deny information
Congratulations! You've decided to "Deny information".
What kind of form letter would you like to respond with:
[1] Military secret
[2] Medical privacy
[3] Area 51-related incident
[4] The dog ate our report
[5] Major government coverup of unspecified nature
Do you wish to include additional information?
[1] No
[2] Yes
Please enter additional information:
222222222222222222222222222222222222222222
Ready to send?
[1] No
[2] Yes
www.sjbaker.org
but it's mermaids...
Wheel of Time: Book by Book and Sumview (summary review) Bigdady92 style: http://bigdady92.blogspot.com/
I think this also is a good theory.
I have been told by people who work in social services that the government ALWAYS denies the first request for government services like disability. Doesn't matter if it was endorsed by a medical professional or whatever, the first request is always denied. That ends up weeding out a huge percentage of the people applying since many of them shrug and give up.
My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
As a DOA manager, and having overseen part of the autopsy, I can tell you with all certainty that medical privacy is of tyhe utmost importance. Lets face it: you know it, I know it, the world knows it. The south river is about as healthy as a bullet to the head, but many people dont yet know how awful its become outside of the realm of its recent acclaim from the guinness book of records for "most likely to spread an epidemic plague of black death and ebola." For example, did you know that the south river is now viscous enough to float a bowling ball? or did you know that on a cold winters day you can huddle near its many eddies and currents for warmth from its innumerable short and long bursts of radiation as a byproduct of its constant brush with nuclear criticality? Many of my employees tell stories of how after misplacing their cigarette lighter they simply dip the end of a marlborough into the river instead. And lets not get started on "the voices" that compelled nearly two dozen virgin women to enter the deep, never to return.
trust me. things are well under control and you needn't worry yourself with frivolous reports of the 300 foot tall "dolphin" with "spiderlike appendages" now roaming the countryside in search of "blood and bone." Having communicated with us telephathically it has been very stern in its demand for medical privacy both in words and in the uncontrollable nosebleeds affecting our newborns.
Good people go to bed earlier.
1. Relatively few dolphins can read English, though the New Jersey ESL program is working on that.
2. Because the dolphin version of the HIPAA consent form is printed on those waterproof pads that divers use to write notes to each other, many individuals have experienced trouble holding a grease pencil in their mouths and writing a legible signature at the bottom of the form. Furthermore, individuals with the requisite agility to accomplish this task tend not to be the dolphins who can read the form in the first place.
3. In dolphin culture, only the alpha bull of a pod has the legal authority to sign for the release of medical data on a deceased podmate. In the specific case at hand, the NJ Department of Agriculture was unable to obtain a validly signed release.
4. The head of the NJ DoA, Jerry "Three Fingers" Fibonacci, is under indictment for bribing certain dolphin pod chieftains, using prime tuna from his seafood processing business, to ignore reporting of river pollution in the state of New Jersey. He is suspected of involvement in this specific case. But even if Fibonacci is eventually convicted, legal questions about the translation accuracy of dolphin testimony are intricate enough that they may have to be resolved by the SCOTUS.
Well, having seen said dolphin in said river personally (i.e. my commute passed this incident daily while the dolphin was hanging about), one has to keep in mind that the local authorities decided the best way to deal with this was to have police on jet skis whizzing around in the river for long chunks of time. Ostensibly because they needed to keep the gawkers from molesting the dolphin, but also... just possibly mind you... getting paid OT for jetskiing full blast someplace you would other times be cited for might have been to much fun and loads of free cash for those involved.
This leaves three ready possibilities where OPRA would be stymied, from most likely to least likely.
1) The medical examiner report is part of an ongoing criminal investigation. Wording of the statute aside, administrative guidelines interprets them to mean that ongoing criminal investigations are excluded from opra, and the ME records may simply get covered under that umbrella.
2) The animal died from the activities of authorities, the autopsy contains personally identifiable information of people involved, and the request was worded as submitted to not cover such extraneous information. Normally, they would redact the questionable info, but if said jet skiing po-po or similar managed to fatally injure the dolphin, they might take the opportunity and run with it if the submitter provided such an opportunity.
3) The officer(s) policing the dolphin had herpagonasyphilaids and managed to transmit it to the dolphin somehow. In which case, it would be releasing HIPAA protected info regarding an individual if they release names outright, or the equivalent which unambiguously identifies someone despite not being an explicit naming, which opra doesn't cover.
Reality is that the dolphin crawled up an estuary a pretty good ways. They tried to scare it back towards the ocean and it returned anyway. The sucker was in all likelihood going to die there at some point and wasn't well. The actions of the authorities may have accelerated that a bit, but mostly it just pissed away funds the state and county were short of anyway as recovery form superstorm sandy was still going on and had had a serious impact on property tax revenue.