Trump Administration Strips C.D.C. of Control of Coronavirus Data

[pppolitics]

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has ordered hospitals to bypass the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and send all Covid-19 patient information to a central database in Washington beginning on Wednesday. The move has alarmed health experts who fear the data will be politicized or withheld from the public.

The new instructions were posted recently in a little-noticed document on the Department of Health and Human Services website. From now on, the department — not the C.D.C. — will collect daily reports about the patients that each hospital is treating, the number of available beds and ventilators, and other information vital to tracking the pandemic.

Officials say the change will streamline data gathering and assist the White House coronavirus task force in allocating scarce supplies like personal protective gear and remdesivir, the first drug shown to be effective against the virus. But the Health and Human Services database that will receive new information is not open to the public, which could affect the work of scores of researchers, modelers and health officials who rely on C.D.C. data to make projections and crucial decisions.

“Historically, C.D.C. has been the place where public health data has been sent, and this raises questions about not just access for researchers but access for reporters, access for the public to try to better understand what is happening with the outbreak," said Jen Kates, the director of global health and H.I.V. policy with the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.

[...]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/us/politics/trump-cdc-coronavirus.html

[GP270watch]

What in the actual hell?

 

[BudgieForce]

It just keeps getting worse.

[Dr. Arch]

Ugh! I'm so exhausted from all this quackery. Make it stop or have them do something right for once.

[pppolitics]

You have to wonder what would happen if the federal government stops publishing coronavirus data altogether.

It might seem far-fetched until you realized that Trump is president.

After all, according to Trump's logic, if no new cases are reported, then there are no new cases.

[Koharu]

Oh my God.

This is setting off the equivalent of every warning bell, alarm, and red alert sound in my head. This is not good. We're going to see suppression of information.

[Damocles]

Anatoly Dyatlov: “What does the dosimeter say?”

Alexander Akimov: “3.6 roentgen, but that’s as high as the meter g-“

Anatoly Dyatlov: “3.6. Not great, not terrible.”

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Would this have any impact on the Worldometer numbers?

[Inmate Trump]

It’s like he’s actively trying to kill us.

[Del Tachi]

Once again, here's the actual guidance for any interested.

HHS isn't asking for information on new cases, only resource use.  CDC doesn't track many of these indicators, especially not daily.  This only applies to hospitals, state departments of health will continue reporting to CDC.

[Badger]

Once again, here's the actual guidance for any interested.

HHS isn't asking for information on new cases, only resource use.  CDC doesn't track many of these indicators, especially not daily.  This only applies to hospitals, state departments of health will continue reporting to CDC.

It doesn't take a pair of glasses to clearly see this is designed to deflate reported covid-19 has. And the motivation is equally obviously re-election politics.

[Del Tachi]

Once again, here's the actual guidance for any interested.

HHS isn't asking for information on new cases, only resource use.  CDC doesn't track many of these indicators, especially not daily.  This only applies to hospitals, state departments of health will continue reporting to CDC.

It doesn't take a pair of glasses to clearly see this is designed to deflate reported covid-19 has. And the motivation is equally obviously re-election politics.

Maybe not a pair of glasses, but it certainly takes a strictly partisan outlook to see what you contend.  The outrageous panic and hyperbole found in this thread demonstrates how unhinged most partisan Democrats have become.  Whether that’s because of genuine, successive political trauma or a complete loss of critical reasoning faculties is up for debate, I suppose, but in the immediate term the echo chamber continues unabated, folks. 

Now, to address your point as "substantively" as it can be - Yes, yes it does take quite the leap to assume that asking hospitals to provide daily reports on ventilator usage and staffing levels to the federal U.S. Department of Health and Human Services during an f[inks]ing pandemic is ostensibly about reelection.  The CDC is not being "bypassed" by HHS asking hospitals to submit data that CDC was never tracking in real-time at this granular of a level.   

[Progressive Pessimist]

Does he think this is going to help him? Does the administration just not give a s*** anymore? Both?

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

People have become so justifiably paranoid about Trump that they often fail to be paranoid about the right things. I don't think this was done with the intention of suppressing information. After all Trump and his supporters will be ignoring that anyway. The most likely nefarious reason for the change is to funnel money to the private contractor who developed this reporting system.

[Hammy]

As usual no consequences will come of this and Trump will continue getting away with dismantling civilized society piece by piece.

[President Johnson]

It would be nice if the presidential election was next Tuesday rather than in November. The Trump Administration is complete failure. We knew this long before, but the instances they keep reminding us grow shorter and shorter.