County commissioners voted 3-2 Nov. 9 to change the dashboard and remove most of the data; only the information regarding hospitalizations will be left, along with some links to state COVID-19 data.
The hospitalization data provided on the dashboard is received by the county locally, and it would not be provided at the state level. For that reason, a motion was made to leave the hospitalization data in place.
Commissioners discussed removing the dashboard from the county website for several weeks due to continued inaccuracies in the data being provided by the Texas Department of State Health Services. In its place, the county planned to provide a link to the DSHS site, which includes Collin County data along with the state data.
“I think [the dashboard has] run its course,” Hale said during the Oct. 12 meeting. “I’m not sure that fixation on those percentages and case numbers has as much value as it did early on when we were trying to figure out the disease and trying to figure out trends. We know where we are now.”
Hale initially made a motion to remove the dashboard immediately but agreed to amend his motion to take down the dashboard at a later date after Fletcher suggested giving the public time to provide feedback to commissioners.
“I don't think there's been any question about our lack of confidence in the numbers for about four months now,” Hill said. “I think we've been quite transparent about that. Anybody in this community who doesn't know why we're having this discussion hasn’t been paying attention. ... We are frustrated with the inaccuracy of the data.”
Commissioners said Nov. 9 that cities will continue to receive data and can provide that at the city level if they so choose. Commissioners could also revisit this conversation and choose to put more data back on the dashboard, they said.
“I think it's important that we identify that there continues to be a lot of skepticism about state numbers,” Commissioner Cheryl Williams said. “If and when they actually get something that adds up, I'd be more than willing to have a discussion about putting it back up.”
