I’ve yet to meet a single person who doesn’t want to reopen the economy as long as it’s the safe, responsible thing to do. Poverty is violent, and with more than 30 million people out of work, the consequences of the sheer number of unemployed people are catastrophic. And so is the virus. Despite what elected officials portray, the devastation of the two are not mutually exclusive nor is the solution binary.

Which is why we need more data — better data. To make better, more informed decisions.

In Governor Ricketts's statement about the reopening of the Nebraska economy, the only statistics he provides are the number of hospital beds and respirators available. He added that testing capacity has risen to 1,000-1,500 tests per day.

According to medical experts, the minimum number of tests needed for a state to safely reopen is 152 tests per 100k people — every day. For a state of Nebraska’s population, that number is 2,940. Every day. Nebraska’s tested only 36k people total — a small fraction of the recommended amount.

More concerning still is that, statistically, Nebraska has some of the highest rates of incidence per capita in the country.

But I couldn’t find any data on the governor’s site about the number of tests per population, the rate of incidence per capita, or even the rate of incidence per test — despite the well-recorded controversy of using contractors who’s rates of positive tests are anomalously low compared to every other testing contractor.

So here’s what I found on my own, using the data sources from Johns Hopkins COVID dashboards:

1. Nebraska has the 12th highest rate of COVID cases per capita in the country.

2. Nebraska has the 11th highest positive rate of incidence per test.

3. And despite those high rankings, Nebraska is only 31st in tests per population.

So, comparatively, in the country with the most cases and the most deaths in the world, we are also amongst the hardest-hit states.

Objectively, compared to rates medical experts recommend, it’s even worse:

Nebraska’s incidence rate is 84% higher than the rate of incidence medical experts recommend before reopening an economy. Compared to other developed countries with verifiable COVID data, it’s off the charts: Nebraska’s rate of incidence is 163% higher than Germany and 513% higher than South Korea.

We deserve transparency, integrity, and honesty from our elected leaders — especially when those truths are inconvenient, especially when they’re a matter of life & death. Nebraskans deserve better.