LINCOLN- Nebraska's acting state epidemiologist is being sued by a Utah attorney after he denied her request for an unredacted validation report regarding COVID-19 tests administered by Test Nebraska.

At issue is whether the blacked-out information qualifies as trade secrets or should be released under public-records laws.

In the lawsuit filed in Lancaster County District Court, Suzette Rasmussen's attorney, Andre Barry, said: "The public has an interest in knowing whether the COVID-19 tests provided by Nomi Health are (or were) reliable or accurate as claimed, and whether the state's contract with Nomi Health was worth the cost."

In April 2020, near the start of the pandemic, Nebraska announced a $26.9 million, no-bid contract with Nomi Health, a Utah company, to establish mobile testing centers and provide up to 540,000 tests over six months, with an option to pay more for additional testing after that.

By the time Test Nebraska stopped testing July 18, 2021, the program had cost the state about $45 million and resulted in the completion of roughly 800,000 COVID-19 tests, according to the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services.

In the lawsuit filed in late June, Barry said Rasmussen started making public-records requests with HHS on April 9, 2021, and, in response, received a redacted copy of a validation report, with several lines and 14 entire pages blacked out.

When she asked for an unredacted copy, she was denied and told it contained Nomi Health's "proprietary and trade secret information."

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