Written by @kristenshylin_
According to CNBC, hospitals will now be sending coronavirus data directly to the Department of Health and Human Services. The change comes after the Trump administration announced that the CDC would no longer control the coronavirus data.
The new move caused former health officials to question the accuracy of the data.
The news outlet reported that previous public data has already disappeared from the CDC’s website following Trump’s new mandate.
Ryan Panchadsaram, who assists in running the data-tracking site, COVID Exit Strategy, said the data had vanished from the website when he attempted to retrieve it on Tuesday. The data was removed without warning, Panchadsaram added.
” We were surprised because the modules that we normally go to were empty,” he said.” The data wasn’t available, and not there. There was no warning.”
HHS spokesman Michael Caputo released a statement to CNBC Thursday, stating the CDC was allowed to rerelease the site’s previous data.
Caputo also reassured the public that the HHS is devoted to remaining transparent.
” Yes, HHS is committed to being transparent with the American public about the information it is collecting on the coronavirus,” he said.
Although some former health professionals expressed concerns about the new data guidelines, they also acknowledged that the CDC’s data collection needed improvement.
The HHS spokesman said the CDC’s old data gathering operation once worked well with collecting hospital data, but it’s “an inadequate system today.”
” The President’s Coronavirus Task Force has urged improvements for months, but they just cannot keep up with this pandemic,” Caputo added.
Caputo insinuated that the CDC’s delay in data reports was a contributing factor to the policy change.
” Today, the CDC still provides data from only 85 percent of hospitals; the President’s COVID response requires 100 percent to report,” he said. “Today, the CDC still has at least a week lag in reporting hospital data; America requires it real-time.”
Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner, said the administration might have been better off solving the CDC’s problems instead of replacing it. The CDC has the scientific ability to gather data in a way that no other agency can, he added.
” I think they would have been better served probably investing in what CDC is doing and the CDC systems because CDC is a better repository for information,” Gottlieb mentioned on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
Amid the new adjustments, Donald Trump and his administration received scrutiny from opposers who believe the White House is undermining U.S. scientific experts.
On Tuesday, four former CDC directors wrote an excerpt in an op-ed in The Washington Post, which named the “two opponents” that the U.S. faces reopening the country: Covid-19 and politicians and others attempting to undermine the CDC.
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