“We have an interim system – it’s just an interim system – to get daily reports from hospitals about new admissions,” Birx said in a roundtable discussion hosted by Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson. “I think it has been critically important to support the states.”
The White House began asking hospitals to provide coronavirus data every day in March. In July, the Trump administration announced that it required hospitals to report to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and report coronavirus data directly to the U.S. Department of Public Health and Human Services.
Data previously collected through the CDC’s National Network for Health Safety is now reported directly to HHS through its coronavirus data replacement system, HHS Protect. The move caused concerns that the CDC was sidelined and that the transparency of the data could be affected.
At the moment, CDC Director Robert Redfield framed the policy change as a reciprocal decision by HHS and CDC to streamline data collection, saying in a statement, “No one takes access or data away from CDC.”
In a July 31 letter addressed to HHS, nearly three dozen public health advisers to the government argued that the new data collection process could jeopardize the integrity of the data and the CDC’s ability to respond to the pandemic. incident.
Birx said the CDC will still be involved in hospital data collection.
“CDC is currently working with us to build a revolutionary new data system so that it can be relocated back to the CDC, and they can have that regular responsibility with hospitals relevant to treatment and PPE,” she said.
Birx acknowledged that data could be ineffective if traded on.
“We still have ways to go to continue to improve on that system, but for the first time, I can see every new permit in the country every day, and that has been extremely important,” she said.
Birx said the data has been particularly helpful in revealing what supplies small hospitals need to meet the demand in their communities.
“That’s what I hope we can achieve for testing, for PPE, for all therapeutics, so that every American has what they need, at the moment they need it,” Birx said.
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