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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.
ETA: Little-Known Company Taking Over COVID Data From CDC Might Fall Short, Experts Fear
Due to a Trump administration order earlier this month, thousands of hospitals will now bypass the CDC and instead funnel their COVID-19-related data to a Pittsburgh-based private technology firm that some experts say could be ill-equipped for the task.
TeleTracking, which specializes in helping hospitals manage patient flow, had never beforescored as large a government contract as it did this April when it clinched the $10.2 million deal to become a repository for hospitals’ COVID-19 data, according to government records.
“Making this kind of change, in the middle of a pandemic, can be nothing but disruptive,” APIC director of regulatory affairs Nancy Hailpern told TPM. “TeleTracking is completely unknown. I don’t know of any of our members that use it because I’ve never heard of it before.”
In a written statement to TPM, TeleTracking highlighted its 30 years of experience managing and tracking “hundreds of thousands” of hospital beds and managing “the movement of million patients across the care continuum.”
There are currently about 2,000,000 active cases in the US.
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.
ETA: Little-Known Company Taking Over COVID Data From CDC Might Fall Short, Experts Fear
Due to a Trump administration order earlier this month, thousands of hospitals will now bypass the CDC and instead funnel their COVID-19-related data to a Pittsburgh-based private technology firm that some experts say could be ill-equipped for the task.
TeleTracking, which specializes in helping hospitals manage patient flow, had never beforescored as large a government contract as it did this April when it clinched the $10.2 million deal to become a repository for hospitals’ COVID-19 data, according to government records.
“Making this kind of change, in the middle of a pandemic, can be nothing but disruptive,” APIC director of regulatory affairs Nancy Hailpern told TPM. “TeleTracking is completely unknown. I don’t know of any of our members that use it because I’ve never heard of it before.”
In a written statement to TPM, TeleTracking highlighted its 30 years of experience managing and tracking “hundreds of thousands” of hospital beds and managing “the movement of million patients across the care continuum.”
There are currently about 2,000,000 active cases in the US.
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