Coronavirus Data Now Being Sent To Washington Instead Of The CDC

(Photo: Tami Chappell | Reuters)

CDC will have access but not longer control COVID-19 data

All the coronavirus (COVID-19) data and tests were being collected by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) but the Trump administration is now ordering hospitals to send COVID-19 data to Washington instead. Now, all COVID-19 patient information will be directly sent to a central COVID-19 database in Washington, leaving health experts concerned with the possibility of the data being withheld from the public or politicized.

The assistant secretary for public affairs for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Michael Caputo, assures concerned parties that the COVID-19 database will be able to have a faster processing system. According to Caputo, there is a one-week delay in reporting hospital data with the CDC but the new database will help to improve the delay.

The complete data system will offer faster data processing that is streamlined, all-of-government response. The CDC is an operating division of HHS and they will have access to the data but will no longer control it.

Caputo reassures that the CDC will still make the data accessible to the public saying the CDC only reports 85 percent of hospitals and the new database will include all hospitals in the US.