CDC COVID-19 hospital knowledge web site restored after outcry
It comes because the Trump administration has ordered hospitals to cease sending sure vital coronavirus-related knowledge to the CDC.
The Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention restored an online web page Thursday with nationwide hospitalization knowledge, together with these associated to COVID-19[female[feminine. The Trump administration has reportedly suffered backlash after its removal, but the restored information may not be updated in the future.
This came after the Department of Health and Human Services told hospitals last week to no longer submit its COVID-19 information to the CDC’s National Health Care Safety Network and send it to HHS instead. . This has raised concerns about transparency and public access to data.
Several media began to inquire after the disappearance of the CDC page with the previous data, according to ProPublica. The CDC reposted Tuesday’s data on its website Thursday at noon.
The top of the page reads: “Dashboards were last updated on July 14, 2020”. A downloadable dataset further down the page reads: “This file will not be updated after July 14, 2020 and includes data from April 1 to July 14”.
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CNN reported he received a statement from HHS saying the department was “determined to be transparent with the American public” and ordered the CDC to reinstate the dashboards.
A federal health official would have told the Washington Post the CDC was reluctant to maintain the dashboard as it would no longer receive first-hand information.
Hospital data related to the coronavirus pandemic will now be collected by a private tech company, rather than the CDC – a move that the Trump administration says will speed up reporting, but is worrying some public health leaders.
However, if hospitals already report directly to state health services, they can obtain written permission from the state to continue to do so.
Information includes bed occupancy, staffing levels, severity level of coronavirus patients, available ventilators, and supplies of masks, gowns and other personal protective equipment. The CDC will continue to collect other data, such as information on cases and deaths, from state health departments.
Michael Caputo, a spokesperson for HHS, said the CDC found a lag of a week or more in data from hospitals and only 85% of hospitals were participating. The change is supposed to result in faster and more comprehensive reporting, he said.
A CDC official, who is familiar with the agency’s system, took issue with Caputo’s figures, saying that only about 60% of hospitals nationwide report to the CDC system, but most of the data is collected and reported in hospitals. two days. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak about it.
Some outside experts have expressed suspicion and concern over the decision to remove the CDC from the data collection mix.
The data “is the foundation that guides our response to the pandemic,” said Dr. Thomas File, Jr., president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, in a statement.
Collecting and reporting public health data has always been a core function of the CDC, he added. “The administration should provide funding to support data collection and should strengthen the role of the CDC in collecting and reporting COVID-19 data,” he said.
Gregory Koblentz, a biodefense expert at George Mason University, said the change appears to be consistent with administration decisions in recent months that have sidelined the CDC from the role it has played in other outbreaks, in as the main source of public information.
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“We know the administration tried to silence the CDC,” he said. “
The White House has sent a request for comment to HHS.