How Transparent Was Amy Acton’s Ohio Health Department?
Amy Acton’s Ohio Health Department restricted public access to COVID-19 data at several key points. As Health Director, Acton personally directed that nursing-home COVID death data be withheld, a decision reversed only after a television station’s legal challenge forced the state’s hand.
Finding 1: Acton personally directed withholding of nursing-home COVID death data, citing Ohio public-records law, until a station’s legal challenge forced its release on April 15, 2020. Source: WKYC (3News Investigates), 2020 — https://www.wkyc.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/3news-investigates-70-of-ohios-covid-19-deaths-are-nursing-home-patients/95-0287fad5-d13c-4730-bc7b-1e2b9c5e73f9
Finding 2: Acton has said early pandemic decisions were made by a small group that was sequestered because of security concerns and the spread of the virus — describing them as “hidden away” from the public — and that she personally helped write the emergency orders. Source: Case Western Reserve University School of Law (YouTube), 10/5/23 — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXLY7nz_zf4
Finding 3: In 2022, the Tenth District Court of Appeals found the Ohio Department of Health had partly violated Ohio’s Public Records Act in a separate nursing-home death-data dispute that began after Acton left office; the ruling named the agency, not Acton personally. Source: Tenth District Court of Appeals, WCPO-TV v. Ohio Dept. of Health, No. 21AP-277, 2022-Ohio-1864 (decided 6/2/22) — https://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/rod/docs/pdf/10/2022/2022-Ohio-1864.pdf
Source note: Contemporaneous 2020 reporting from WKYC (3News Investigates), 2020, NBC News, 4/12/20, News 5 Cleveland (WEWS), 3/25/20, News 5 Cleveland (WEWS), “State Report Identifies COVID-19 Hot Spots at Ohio Nursing Homes,” 4/23/20, WOSU Public Media, 4/23/20, Cincinnati.com / USA Today Network – Ohio, 8/14/20, and WCPO 9 (I-Team), 8/20/20 on nursing-home data disclosure and Acton’s personal role in the initial withholding decision; a March 2025 on-camera interview from WTOL 11 / WKYC, “Echoes of the Pandemic,” 3/2025 in which Acton discusses her own decision-making; a recorded October 2023 appearance from “The Leader We Wish We All Had Is YOU,” Case Western Reserve University School of Law (YouTube), 10/5/23 on pandemic decision-making statements; and the WCPO 9 (I-Team), 4/7/21 [secondary reporting] and WCPO 9 (I-Team), 6/3/22 [secondary reporting] rulings for the 2021–2022 public-records litigation
Transparency Timeline
A chronological record of state data-disclosure decisions, Acton’s own role in them, her later statements about pandemic decision-making, and the public-records rulings that followed.
| Date / Period | What the Record Says | Source Name | Source URL |
|---|---|---|---|
| March 2020 | Ohio stopped publicly reporting negative COVID test results; DeWine administration officials said the numbers could give a misleading, incomplete picture given rising private-lab testing. | News 5 Cleveland (WEWS), 3/25/20 | https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/continuing-coverage/coronavirus/why-the-state-and-county-stopped-reporting-negative-covid-19-test-results |
| April 12, 2020 | Ohio was one of only two states (with Maryland) that declined to release the names of affected nursing homes or a statewide COVID death total, citing state privacy laws, even as Ohio’s known nursing-home death toll passed 40. | NBC News, 4/12/20 | https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/more-2-200-coronavirus-deaths-nursing-homes-federal-government-isn-n1181026 |
| April 2020 | Health Director Dr. Amy Acton personally directed that nursing-home COVID death data not be released, citing Ohio public-records law, and told county health agencies to do the same. After a television station’s attorney contested the withholding, the state and counties reconsidered; the data was released April 15, 2020, though the initial release contained errors and miscounts that were later corrected. | WKYC (3News Investigates), 2020 | https://www.wkyc.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/3news-investigates-70-of-ohios-covid-19-deaths-are-nursing-home-patients/95-0287fad5-d13c-4730-bc7b-1e2b9c5e73f9 |
| April 2020 | ODH published a facility-level report identifying COVID-19 case counts at roughly 840 Ohio nursing homes, then pulled the report down after industry objections that the data was misleading or inaccurate; ODH itself acknowledged data-entry and accuracy problems. | News 5 Cleveland (WEWS), “State Report Identifies COVID-19 Hot Spots at Ohio Nursing Homes,” 4/23/20 | https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/local-news/investigations/state-report-identifies-covid-19-hot-spots-at-ohio-nursing-homes |
| April 23, 2020 | WOSU reported more than 100 Ohio nursing homes and assisted-living facilities had 781 residents affected by COVID-19, while death data by facility was not yet being disclosed. | WOSU Public Media, 4/23/20 | https://www.wosu.org/news/2020-04-23/coronavirus-in-ohio-nursing-homes-report-781-cases-but-dont-disclose-deaths |
| August 14, 2020 | Reporting said Ohio was still keeping nursing-home outbreak site information secret months after the April disclosure fight, as public-records pressure continued. | Cincinnati.com / USA Today Network – Ohio, 8/14/20 | https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2020/08/14/coronavirus-ohio-nursing-homes-state-keeps-sites-secret/3333748001/ |
| August 20, 2020 | With more than 2,500 Ohio nursing-home and long-term-care residents dead of COVID-19, the state still would not release the names of facilities tied to those deaths. WCPO filed a formal public-records complaint in the Ohio Court of Claims, joining AARP and other outlets that had pressed for the data for months; an ODH spokesperson cited patient-privacy concerns in response. | WCPO 9 (I-Team), 8/20/20 | https://www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/i-team/wcpo-files-complaint-asking-ohio-officials-to-release-names-of-nursing-homes-with-covid-deaths |
| October 2023 | In a recorded appearance, Acton described early pandemic decision-making as occurring among a small group that was “sequestered” because of security concerns and the spread of the virus, saying they were “hidden away” from the public, and that she was personally part of writing the emergency orders. | “The Leader We Wish We All Had Is YOU,” Case Western Reserve University School of Law (YouTube), 10/5/23 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXLY7nz_zf4 |
| 2021–2022 | A Court of Claims special master ruled in April 2021, and the Tenth District Court of Appeals affirmed in June 2022, that ODH committed a “per se violation” of Ohio’s Public Records Act by withholding nursing-home COVID death data sought by WCPO, in the dispute that began with the August 2020 complaint above. | WCPO 9 (I-Team), 4/7/21 | https://www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/i-team/odh-broke-state-public-records-law-by-not-releasing-nursing-home-covid-deaths-special-master-rules |
During Tenure vs. After Tenure
Acton served as Ohio Health Director from February 2019 to June 2020. This table separates events and statements that occurred during her tenure from findings and statements that came later, so the record is not blurred.
| Record or Event | Tenure Status | Year(s) | Attributed To |
|---|---|---|---|
| State stopped publicly reporting negative COVID test results. | During tenure | 2020 | Ohio Department of Health / DeWine administration |
| Ohio declined to release nursing-home death totals or facility names, citing privacy law, as one of only two states doing so. | During tenure | 2020 | State of Ohio / ODH |
| Acton personally directed withholding of nursing-home death data citing public-records law; reversed after a TV station’s legal challenge. | During tenure | 2020 | Amy Acton, personally, as Ohio Health Director |
| ODH published, then retracted, a facility-level nursing-home case report after acknowledging data-entry problems. | During tenure | 2020 | Ohio Department of Health |
| State kept nursing-home outbreak sites secret; WCPO filed a formal public-records complaint over facility-level death data. | After tenure | 2020 | Ohio Department of Health |
| Acton’s public statements describing small-group decision-making and her role in writing emergency orders. | Statement made after tenure, describing conduct during tenure | 2023 (describing 2020) | Amy Acton, personally, in her own words |
| Courts found ODH violated Ohio’s Public Records Act in withholding nursing-home death data sought in the 2020 WCPO complaint. | After tenure | 2021–2022 | Ohio Department of Health (agency); not a personal finding against Acton |
In Acton’s Own Words
Direct quotes from a recorded October 2023 appearance and a March 2025 on-camera interview, used with exact wording, timestamps, and dates.
| Topic | Quote | Source / Timestamp | Source URL |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small-group decision-making | “At the beginning I can tell you that very first press conference, the reporters were there, we were all in the state house… By the end we were sequestered because of security, because of the spread of the virus and we actually found ourselves hidden away just the three of us, Lieutenant Governor, governor, and one cameraman and one lens.” | CWRU Law (YouTube), 10/5/23, 17:01–17:31 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXLY7nz_zf4 |
| Writing emergency orders | “I mean I can’t even, it’s very hard to express all that went into each of these orders and I was a part of writing the orders.” | CWRU Law (YouTube), 10/5/23, 40:41–40:50 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXLY7nz_zf4 |
| Why she resigned | “I actually stepped down because of special interest in the state house, the speaker of the house particularly, was wanting orders that weren’t science-based and could actually hurt people… I told the governor I will keep advising you, but I can’t sign my name to these orders because I knew they would hurt people, potentially kill people.” | WTOL 11 / WKYC, “Echoes of the Pandemic,” 3/2025 | https://www.wtol.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/echoes-of-the-pandemic-dr-amy-acton-reflects-leading-ohio-covid/512-0ffe86fa-610b-4cf5-9f60-93464bb1b850 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. According to WKYC/3News reporting, Acton, as Ohio Health Director, initially refused to release nursing-home COVID death data, citing Ohio public-records law, and directed county health agencies to do the same. After the station’s attorney contested the withholding, the state and counties reconsidered, and the data was released April 15, 2020.
Source: WKYC (3News Investigates), 2020
Yes. In an October 2023 recorded appearance, Acton said, “I was a part of writing the orders.” The full source video and timestamp are provided above and in the Sources & Evidence table.
Yes. In the same 2023 appearance, Acton described the governor, lieutenant governor, and a small production setup as being “hidden away” during the pandemic.
In a March 2025 on-camera interview, Acton said she stepped down in June 2020 because she was being pressured to sign orders that “weren’t science-based” and that she believed could hurt or kill people, and that she chose to keep advising Governor DeWine without signing those orders herself.
Yes. Contemporaneous reporting said Ohio stopped publicly reporting negative test results in March 2020 because officials believed the numbers could be misleading or incomplete as private-lab testing expanded.
Source: News 5 Cleveland (WEWS), 3/25/20
Yes. In April 2020, ODH published a facility-level report on roughly 840 nursing homes and then retracted it after industry objections, acknowledging its own data-entry and accuracy problems.
Source: News 5 Cleveland (WEWS), “State Report Identifies COVID-19 Hot Spots at Ohio Nursing Homes,” 4/23/20
No. A Court of Claims special master ruled in April 2021, and the Tenth District Court of Appeals affirmed in June 2022, that the Ohio Department of Health violated public-records law in a nursing-home death-data dispute that began with an August 2020 complaint, roughly two months after Acton left office. The rulings named the agency, not Acton personally.
Sources:
The strongest source-backed framing is that Acton personally directed an initial withholding of nursing-home death data that was only reversed after a media legal challenge, and that broader data-disclosure gaps, a retracted facility-level report, and a later adverse court ruling against the agency followed the same pattern of restricted disclosure.
Sources:
Sources & Evidence
Primary court and reporting-of-record sources are listed first, followed by supporting media coverage.
| Claim Supported | Source Name | Source URL | Primary / Reporting |
|---|---|---|---|
| A Court of Claims special master found ODH committed a “per se violation” of the Public Records Act by not helping WCPO revise an overly broad request, and recommended ODH disclose the death count and date at one named facility (report filed 4/1/21; adopted by the court 4/29/21). WCPO-TV v. Ohio Dept. of Health, Case No. 2020-00513PQ, 2021-Ohio-1151. | Court of Claims of Ohio, Special Master Report & Recommendation, WCPO-TV v. Ohio Dept. of Health, Case No. 2020-00513PQ, 2021-Ohio-1151 (filed 4/1/21; adopted by the court 4/29/21) WCPO 9 (I-Team), 4/7/21 [secondary reporting] |
https://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/rod/docs/pdf/13/2021/2021-Ohio-1151.pdf https://www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/i-team/odh-broke-state-public-records-law-by-not-releasing-nursing-home-covid-deaths-special-master-rules |
Primary (official court decision); WCPO article is secondary reporting |
| The Tenth District Court of Appeals affirmed the core finding but ruled ODH did not have to disclose decedents’ age, race, or sex (decided 6/2/22). WCPO-TV v. Ohio Dept. of Health, No. 21AP-277, 2022-Ohio-1864. | Tenth District Court of Appeals, WCPO-TV v. Ohio Dept. of Health, No. 21AP-277, 2022-Ohio-1864 (decided 6/2/22) WCPO 9 (I-Team), 6/3/22 [secondary reporting] |
https://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/rod/docs/pdf/10/2022/2022-Ohio-1864.pdf https://www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/i-team/appeals-court-ohio-broke-public-records-law-by-not-releasing-nursing-home-covid-deaths |
Primary (official court decision); WCPO article is secondary reporting |
| Acton personally directed withholding of nursing-home COVID death data citing public-records law; reversed after a TV station’s legal challenge; data released 4/15/20 with initial errors. | WKYC (3News Investigates), 2020 | https://www.wkyc.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/3news-investigates-70-of-ohios-covid-19-deaths-are-nursing-home-patients/95-0287fad5-d13c-4730-bc7b-1e2b9c5e73f9 | Reporting (direct attribution to Acton) |
| Ohio was one of only two states declining to release nursing-home death totals or facility names as of 4/12/20, citing privacy laws. | NBC News, 4/12/20 | https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/more-2-200-coronavirus-deaths-nursing-homes-federal-government-isn-n1181026 | Reporting |
| Ohio stopped publicly reporting negative COVID test results in March 2020; officials cited concern about a misleading, incomplete picture. | News 5 Cleveland (WEWS), 3/25/20 | https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/continuing-coverage/coronavirus/why-the-state-and-county-stopped-reporting-negative-covid-19-test-results | Reporting |
| ODH published a facility-level report on roughly 840 nursing homes, then retracted it after industry objections and acknowledged data-entry and accuracy problems. | News 5 Cleveland (WEWS), “State Report Identifies COVID-19 Hot Spots at Ohio Nursing Homes,” 4/23/20 | https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/local-news/investigations/state-report-identifies-covid-19-hot-spots-at-ohio-nursing-homes | Reporting |
| More than 100 Ohio nursing homes and assisted-living facilities reported 781 affected residents while death data by facility was not yet disclosed. | WOSU Public Media, 4/23/20 | https://www.wosu.org/news/2020-04-23/coronavirus-in-ohio-nursing-homes-report-781-cases-but-dont-disclose-deaths | Reporting |
| The state was still keeping nursing-home outbreak site information secret as of August 2020. | Cincinnati.com / USA Today Network – Ohio, 8/14/20 | https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2020/08/14/coronavirus-ohio-nursing-homes-state-keeps-sites-secret/3333748001/ | Reporting |
| With more than 2,500 residents dead, ODH still would not release facility names tied to nursing-home COVID deaths; WCPO filed a formal public-records complaint on 8/20/20. | WCPO 9 (I-Team), 8/20/20 | https://www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/i-team/wcpo-files-complaint-asking-ohio-officials-to-release-names-of-nursing-homes-with-covid-deaths | Reporting (origin of the 2021–22 records ruling) |
| Acton’s October 2023 statements describing small-group pandemic decision-making and her role in writing emergency orders. | “The Leader We Wish We All Had Is YOU,” Case Western Reserve University School of Law (YouTube), 10/5/23 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXLY7nz_zf4 | Primary (recorded first-person statement) |
| Acton’s March 2025 on-camera account of why she resigned as Ohio Health Director in June 2020. | WTOL 11 / WKYC, “Echoes of the Pandemic,” 3/2025 | https://www.wtol.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/echoes-of-the-pandemic-dr-amy-acton-reflects-leading-ohio-covid/512-0ffe86fa-610b-4cf5-9f60-93464bb1b850 | Primary (recorded first-person statement) |