COVID-19 data to be sent to private contractor instead of CDC, unavailable to public or researchers

timothyu · Jul 22, 2020

essentialsaltes said:
Do you have any evidence the CDC was manipulating the data over the years?

One I am personally familiar with. In the mid nineties a well known disease called myalgic encephalomyelitis was causing headaches for disability insurers as an epidemic grew. Ask Fauci. People were disabled by an illness that had no known cause or cure. The CDC in it's wisdom simply declared ME no longer existed and the problem for the insurance companies went away. Such power to control and manipulate. Fortunately they had to reverse this a few years later when it is claimed public outcry forced the CDC to acknowledge the illness, but in reality the cash cow of funding to study this illness became more lucrative to the industry and the illness was reinstated under various names.

essentialsaltes · Jul 22, 2020

timothyu said:
One I am personally familiar with. In the mid nineties a well known disease called myalgic encephalomyelitis was causing headaches for disability insurers as an epidemic grew. Ask Fauci. People were disabled by an illness that had no known cause or cure. The CDC in it's wisdom simply declared ME no longer existed and the problem for the insurance companies went away. Such power to control and manipulate. Fortunately they had to reverse this a few years later when it is claimed public outcry forced the CDC to acknowledge the illness, but in reality the cash cow of funding to study this illness became more lucrative to the industry and the illness was reinstated under various names.

Even if your accusation about how the CDC handled CFS/ME were true, this is not data manipulation.

timothyu · Jul 22, 2020

essentialsaltes said:
Even if your accusation about how the CDC handled CFS/ME were true, this is not data manipulation.

Not accusation but fact. Doctors for years, especially medical migrants from the US seeking a better life, mocked the idea of an illness that no longer officially existed. Many to this day still haven't got the memo it is back on the books. No I agree. Eradicating a disease with the stroke of a pen is far more insidious than simple data manipulation so who knows what else they are capable of.

jardiniere · Jul 22, 2020

essentialsaltes said:
Even if your accusation about how the CDC handled CFS/ME were true, this is not data manipulation.

I've just done the research, and it's not exactly true. It is true, that by CDC standards (which depended on another source, the World Health Organization) it could not be classified as a disease other than as psychiactric, however, there was at least another disease also so classified, because the WHO at the time did not have a robust classification system for these types of neurological issues. So going by that, insurers could claim it as not covered because it's not a physical illness, as per CDC regs. When WHO revamped it's classification system, and CDC changed accordingly, but with some delay. Here is what I've read from the CDC regarding why they didn't originally classify chronic fatigue as it is currently classified.

timothyu · Jul 22, 2020

ME was classified previously. CFS is a generic reference to a number of conditions, a name initiated by the media and was not at issue as it held no more officialism than the mockery placed upon those ill by originally calling it the yuppie flu. ME was declassified only in the US by the CDC and it seems lobbying played a hand. But then again money seems to be behind all decisions made in this world.

essentialsaltes · Jul 31, 2020

COVID-19 Hospital Data System That Bypasses CDC Plagued By Delays, Inaccuracies

Earlier this month, when the Trump administration told hospitals to send crucial data about coronavirus cases and intensive care capacity to a new online system, it promised the change would be worth it. The data would be more complete, transparent, and an improvement over the old platform run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, administration officials said.

Instead, the public data hub created under the new system is updated erratically and is rife with inconsistencies and errors, data analysts say.

The data now available to the public appears to be neither faster nor more complete.

When HHS took over the collection and reporting of this hospital capacity data, it promised to update "multiple times each day." Later, the agency walked that back to say it would be updated daily.

Those daily updates have yet to materialize. On Thursday, an HHS spokesperson told NPR via e-mail, "We will be updating the site to make it clear that the estimates are only updated weekly."

essentialsaltes · Sep 24, 2020

essentialsaltes said:
Transparency!

Hospital data on coronavirus patients will now be rerouted to the Trump administration instead of first being sent to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed to CNN on Tuesday.

The move could make data less transparent to the public at a time when the administration is downplaying the spread of the pandemic, and threatens to undermine public confidence that medical data is being presented free of political interference.

The Times said hospitals are to begin reporting the data to HHS on Wednesday, noting also that the "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."

Former CDC acting director Dr. Richard Besser on Wednesday said rerouting hospital data is a "step backwards" for the country's coronavirus response.

"It's another example of CDC being sidelined. Not only should the data be coming to CDC, but CDC should be talking to the public through the media every day," Besser told Gupta in an interview.

This has turned into an unfunded regulatory mandate. The Trump Administration is threatening to cut off Medicare funding to hospitals that don't comply on a daily basis.

The federal government is preparing to crack down aggressively on hospitals for not reporting complete COVID-19 data daily into a federal data system, according to internal documents obtained by NPR.

If the draft enforcement guidance went into effect today, around three-quarters of hospitals could be subject to receiving a warning. Just 24% of America's hospitals met the HHS reporting requirements for the week of Sept. 14, according to an internal CDC presentation given at a daily pandemic response meeting on Wednesday, obtained by NPR. No state was in full compliance.

The July change to data reporting created a large and costly administrative burden for hospitals without providing funding to help them fulfill it. The new draft guidance would further expand the scope.

The data hospitals were asked to provide as of July is complicated and time-consuming to gather, says Carrie Kroll of the Texas Hospital Association. "This required multiple people in different parts of the hospital — we were talking about bedside nursing-type statistics in terms of COVID patients versus adult versus child. Then you're talking about pharmaceuticals, so that's going to come from the pharmacy."

...the newest guidelines would add several questions about influenza patients such as the number admitted to the hospital with flu, the number of flu patients in intensive care unit beds and the number of patients confirmed to have both flu and COVID-19. This information may be required to be reported daily from late October, according to a draft document.

The added burden and stress could incentivize hospital staff to report inaccurate information, so as not to lose funding, says Lisa M. Lee, former chief science officer for public health surveillance at the CDC, who now works at Virginia Tech.

"I am afraid this will make the data much less accurate and reliable, and that is only going to hurt the American public," Lee says.

pescador · Sep 24, 2020

essentialsaltes said:
This has turned into an unfunded regulatory mandate. The Trump Administration is threatening to cut off Medicare funding to hospitals that don't comply on a daily basis.

The federal government is preparing to crack down aggressively on hospitals for not reporting complete COVID-19 data daily into a federal data system, according to internal documents obtained by NPR.

If the draft enforcement guidance went into effect today, around three-quarters of hospitals could be subject to receiving a warning. Just 24% of America's hospitals met the HHS reporting requirements for the week of Sept. 14, according to an internal CDC presentation given at a daily pandemic response meeting on Wednesday, obtained by NPR. No state was in full compliance.

The July change to data reporting created a large and costly administrative burden for hospitals without providing funding to help them fulfill it. The new draft guidance would further expand the scope.

The data hospitals were asked to provide as of July is complicated and time-consuming to gather, says Carrie Kroll of the Texas Hospital Association. "This required multiple people in different parts of the hospital — we were talking about bedside nursing-type statistics in terms of COVID patients versus adult versus child. Then you're talking about pharmaceuticals, so that's going to come from the pharmacy."

...the newest guidelines would add several questions about influenza patients such as the number admitted to the hospital with flu, the number of flu patients in intensive care unit beds and the number of patients confirmed to have both flu and COVID-19. This information may be required to be reported daily from late October, according to a draft document.

The added burden and stress could incentivize hospital staff to report inaccurate information, so as not to lose funding, says Lisa M. Lee, former chief science officer for public health surveillance at the CDC, who now works at Virginia Tech.

"I am afraid this will make the data much less accurate and reliable, and that is only going to hurt the American public," Lee says.

The closer we get to the election the more propaganda, dirty tricks, Federal troops, etc. we can expect from the Trump administration.

Pommer · Sep 24, 2020

pescador said:
The closer we get to the election the more propaganda, dirty tricks, Federal troops, etc. we can expect from the Trump administration.

The President operates from the premise of: “What’s the sense of having power if you don’t use it whenever and wherever you can?”

jgarden · Sep 24, 2020

COVID-19 data to be sent to private contractor instead of CDC, unavailable to public or researchers

After 4 years, this is all part of the Trump "game-plan" whereby this President is prepared to question the integrity and competence of anything or anybody that is not directly under his control and personally loyal to him - that which exists beyond his sphere of influence is "fake" or "rigged!"

jgarden · Sep 24, 2020

Pommer said:
The President operates from the premise of: “What’s the sense of having power if you don’t use it whenever and wherever you can?”

Good leaders realize that the more they come to rely on the exercise of raw power instead of investing their time with persuasion, friends soon become enemies, the strength of their opponents increases and the weaker they become!

When you have several heads of states and American allies openly mocking the President of the United States at a NATO Conference, that's the sign of a leader who has already "frittered" away his moral authority on the world stage!

timothyu · Sep 25, 2020

jgarden said:
When you have several heads of states and American allies openly mocking the President of the United States at a NATO Conference, that's the sign of a leader who has already "frittered" away his moral authority on the world stage!

Or they fear the change politics has taken to a more business like approach where old school politicians droning on but accomplishing little seems to be highlighted as a result for what it is.

FireDragon76 · Sep 25, 2020

timothyu said:
Or they fear the change politics has taken to a more business like approach where old school politicians droning on but accomplishing little seems to be highlighted as a result for what it is.

More like the business ethics of a sleazy used car salesman.

Most of the world expects more stability out of world leaders that claim to have moral authority.

hedrick · Sep 25, 2020

FireDragon76 said:
More like the business ethics of a sleazy used car salesman.

Most of the world expects more stability out of world leaders that claim to have moral authority.

Does Trump claim that? My impression was that he wasn't big on the leader of the free world thing. He seems OK with China becoming the de facto world leader.

FireDragon76 · Sep 25, 2020

hedrick said:
Does Trump claim that? My impression was that he wasn't big on the leader of the free world thing. He seems OK with China becoming the de facto world leader.

I don't think he's actually OK with that, but given that he has abdicated responsibility, he doesn't really have a choice.

COVID-19 data to be sent to private contractor instead of CDC, unavailable to public or researchers

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