A new Trump administration policy that bypasses the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for control of key information about the coronavirus is causing outrage among public health experts.
Under the policy, announced quietly late last week, hospitals are now required Report directly to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) about the number of COVID-19 patients each facility is treating, available beds and ventilators, and other data.
The CDC had been collecting that information since the start of the pandemic in its National Health Safety Network (NHSN), which the agency describes as the most widely used infection-tracking system associated with medical care in the country.
The administration argues that the new approach will simplify the collection of patient data and improve follow-up efforts, but experts fear it will harm the quality of the information. They are also concerned that the move is part of a concerted effort to sideline the CDC at a time when President Trump
Progressive group Donald John Trump launches M pro-Biden ad purchase targeting young voters Ilhan Omar: Republican Party response to calls for police reform ‘was cruel’ The White House considers a total travel ban for members and families of the Chinese Communist Party: MORE report It seeks to divert blame from its administration’s response to the pandemic.
Placing medical data collection outside the leadership of public health experts could severely weaken the quality and availability of data, add an additional burden to already overwhelmed hospitals, and add a new challenge to the United States’ pandemic response. “Thomas File Jr., president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, said in a statement.
Administration officials said the change is an attempt to modernize the reporting system, because the CDC database was too decentralized and outdated.
“The old CDC data collection operation once worked well in monitoring hospital information across the country, but today it is an inadequate system,” Michael Caputo, HHS deputy secretary of public affairs, said in a statement.
CDC Director Robert Redfield told reporters in a conference call Wednesday that his agency requested the change.
“No one is taking away access or data from CDC,” said Redfield.
Redfield said the change will allow the NHSN to better focus on “other critical areas” of COVID-19, such as nursing homes.
“All elements of our public health system are expanding at this time, and the streamlining of hospital reports allows the NHSN to focus its COVID-19 activities in this high-priority area to protect the vulnerable in our nursing homes “Redfield said.
José Arrieta, HHS chief information officer, said the goal is “to better allocate resources in real time, so you can start fighting a pandemic like COVID-19.”
Janis Orlowski, the director of health care for the Association of American Medical Colleges, said the Trump administration is committed to maintaining data transparency and giving data access to hospitals and public health agencies.
“As the data is made public and the administration continues to interact with health experts and stakeholders to improve our response to the pandemic, we support the new process,” Orlowski said in a statement.
But the new database, called HHS Protects, is not public, raising concerns that the data may be manipulated for political purposes.
Howard Koh, a former HHS deputy secretary of health in the Obama administration, said there is an argument to improve the public health data infrastructure.
“The public health surveillance infrastructure in particular has not received the funding and care it needs and deserves. So that is a legitimate problem,” said Koh.
But he wondered why management would need to completely overhaul the existing system instead of just making improvements to it.
“Having that information centralized could be a way to identify places of greatest need as quickly as possible and quickly address them through a national strategy,” Koh said. “But there has been no national strategy.”
The new HHS database is managed by a private contractor called TeleTracking, which received a $ 10 million contract in April.
Senator Patty murray
Patricia (Patty) Lynn Murray Will Congress Help the Troubled Childcare Sector? How to save child care? America’s rural electrification offers an answer. Long Waits for Test Results Raise New Fears of COVID-19 MORE (Washington), the top Democrat on the Senate Health Committee, has raised questions about the company and the process by which he got the contract. In June, it requested information from CDC about the “multi-million dollar, non-competitive contract” awarded by a “duplicate health data system.”
Murray said Wednesday the timing of the new decision is also suspicious.
“It is not entirely clear why the Trump Administration has asked states and hospitals to change their reporting systems in the midst of a pandemic, within 48 hours, however, without a single explanation as to why this new system is better or necessary, “Murray said in a statement. statement.
Any move the Trump administration makes regarding the CDC is under a microscope.
The administration has effectively silenced the agency for much of the pandemic; Four former CDC directors recently accused the White House of politicizing science and undermining health experts.
Trump and key White House officials expanded their attacks this week by trying to publicly discredit Anthony Fauci
Anthony FauciFauci’s wife talks about the criticism: “They are making things up.” Fauci Says Relationship With Trump Is Good, But That He’d Quit The Workforce If Hillicon Valley Was Asked: Twitter Accounts Of Obama, Biden, Musk, And Others Are Compromised | United States Announces Sanctions on Huawei, Citing Human Rights Abuses | Pompeo ‘confident’ that foreign opponents will interfere in elections MORE, the country’s leading infectious disease physician and a member of the White House coronavirus task force.
Democrats in Congress warn that transferring more power to HHS is a dangerous move.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro
Rosa Luisa DeLauro Will Congress provide aid to the childcare sector? Meat Packing Plant Workers Take New Focus on COVID-19 Safety Boost House panel advances health bill with B in COVID-19 emergency funds (D-Conn.), Who chairs the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees HHS funding, said the agency “has been operating as a dangerous political apparatus and cannot be trusted to share accurate hospital information with the Congress and the American Public. “
DeLauro added that the CDC, not HHS, “was created as a nonpartisan entity to address public health crises like the one we face today and track data related to these crises.”
Trump officials say they are investigating concerns about public health data.
Arrieta said HHS is considering giving members of Congress access to the data and is “exploring the best way to make this information available to the public.”
.
