Grantee Finds Georgia Officials Had Little Control Over COVID-19 Dashboard Data

In the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic, Georgia was widely pilloried for a series of high-profile errors related to its bungled Covid-19 data dashboard, and for its early reopening based on the data it displayed. The site’s problems damaged the state health department’s credibility, threatening its ability to effectively manage later stages of the pandemic.

However, as grantee Keren Landman revealed in her story for Atlanta Magazine, her review of thousands of interagency emails and documents showed the dashboard wasn’t under the health department’s control: the governor’s office had outsourced its creation and maintenance to a private company, but had publicly allowed public health officials to take the blame.