House Democrats overseeing the coronavirus response have asked the Trump Administration to reverse a decision that ordered all hospitals to stop sending daily COVID-19 data to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Hospitals were instructed beginning July 15 to bypass CDC and send daily patient information to the Department of Health and Human Services through a contractor-operated system, TeleTracking.
“We urge you to reverse this decision, reinstate this data collection function at CDC and take all necessary steps to ensure that essential data is collected and publicly reported without political interference,” wrote three House Democrats in a letter. addressed to the Trump Administration. . “We are concerned that this decision may represent yet another example of the Administration’s continued politicization of public health during the coronavirus pandemic.”
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The letter was signed by Representative James E. Clyburn, DS.C., chair of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis; Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, DN.Y., chair of the Oversight and Reform Committee; and Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., Chairman of the Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy.
Presidents note that for more than a decade, hospitals have used a system known as the National Health Safety Network (NHSN) to report data on infectious disease hospitalizations to the CDC. But the Trump Administration ordered hospitals this month to stop reporting data that way, but instead use TeleTraciking, a private company, to share data with HHS.
“This database does not appear to be more technologically advanced than the current CDC platform,” lawmakers wrote. Like the NHSN, the new database relies on manual data entry with inherent reporting delays, as opposed to automatic reporting technology that experts have requested. Experts have also expressed concern that HHS did not have the same experience as CDC to analyze and report this type of critical data. “
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Trump Administration officials cited a delay of at least a week in the CDC’s reporting system.
CDC Director Robert Redfield endorsed the decision, saying the new process will streamline reporting and provide quick ways to update the type of data collected.
“No one is taking away access or data from the CDC,” Redfield said Wednesday.
The CDC has been publishing daily data on the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the United States.
The data will be used to inform decisions at the federal level, including the allocation of personal protective equipment, the redeployment of medications and other supplies, treatments and resources, according to a document on the Health and Human Services website.
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In an opinion piece published Tuesday in the Washington Post, four former CDC directors, who served during the Republican and Democratic administrations, accused Trump and top officials of the coronavirus task force of politicizing the scientific data published by the national institute of public health.
“We cannot recall our collective tenure once when political pressure led to a change in the interpretation of scientific evidence,” they wrote, alleging that public health experts now “face two opponents: covid-19, but also political leaders. and others trying to undermine “the CDC.
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Danielle Wallace of Fox News and Associated Press contributed to her report.
