Support COVID-19 Data Transparency & the CDC
The Issue
In support of the following letters signed by scientists, public health experts & health professionals: https://bit.ly/letter4COVID
https://www.idsociety.org/globalassets/idsa/public-health/covid-19/covid-19-data-reporting.pdf
Dear Senator or Congressperson,
We, the public, are in support of scientists, public health experts, and healthcare professionals who have voiced serious concerns in this letter about the current administration’s sudden decision to take control of all COVID-19 data away from the CDC and transfer responsibility for data collection and aggregation to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and TeleTracking, a private company. This drastic and harmful action makes the data inaccessible to the general public, as well as scientists and health professionals, and reduces the critical transparency required for rapid response during this pandemic. We urge the administration to heed the recommendations of public health officials and object any attempt to sow mistrust in science or to spread misinformation. We trust the scientific process and believe that our best chance to overcome this pandemic is to trust the evolving, data-driven guidelines crafted by experts on the frontlines of research, public health and clinical care.
Scientists, public health experts, and healthcare professionals rely on CDC data for research and crucial, rapid public health and clinical decision making. Impactfully, COVID-19 data was removed from the CDC website on July 14th, partial information on intensive care unit (ICU) bed capacity was restored on July 16th, and this resource has not been updated since. This change corresponds to the directive issued on July 13th requiring all data be submitted to HHS through the private contractor TeleTracking. HHS has released a new COVID-19 dashboard that includes estimates of current ICU usage, but the data necessary for critical decision making (testing, new infections, hospitalizations, deaths, resources, etc) is not available. We feel that this dangerous move compromises the integrity and transparency of the data collection process for COVID-19 and unnecessarily obfuscates a process that is successfully used by the CDC to track more than 100 reportable diseases.
To successfully battle the surge of COVID-19 cases in our country, it is crucial that we support our frontline workers. They need to focus on emergency responses, manage critical supply shortages, prioritize patient care, coordinate clinical trials, make crucial projections and implement data-driven public health measures to prevent SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Instead, as a result of the current administration’s drastic decision, hospitals and public health offices are overburdened and struggling to adapt to a new data reporting system.
Additionally, the public lacks information on how we can access state or national COVID-19 data, and what measures are in place to ensure transparent data collection and accurate data analysis. This lack of transparency and data availability can only lead to additional, preventable COVID-19 deaths and hinders the research progress and innovation necessary to lead our nation out of this pandemic.
Furthermore, sidelining the CDC will pose serious challenges to the nation’s ability to respond to COVID-19. Since 1946, the public has entrusted the CDC to make critical, objective decisions that protect the nation against health threats based on accurate and publicly available scientific data. Hospitals have used the CDC system to report data for 15 years. The CDC is an unbiased, expert agency uniquely qualified to collect, analyze, and report data on COVID-19 in the U.S. Thereby, we trust the CDC to lead all innovation on COVID data reporting & analysis. Importantly, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, included taxpayer funds to enable the CDC to modernize their data collection and reporting infrastructure, addressing the exact issue purported to cause this change from reporting to the CDC to reporting to the HHS and TeleTracking.
We, the public, trust the CDC. We ask that the federal government ensure data collection is led and appropriately safeguarded by public health experts with critical measures in place to ensure transparency and accuracy. We strongly urge that these changes to COVID-19 hospital reporting requirements be halted immediately and that oversight of data collection, aggregation, and dissemination be restored to the CDC.
Petition Closed
The Issue
In support of the following letters signed by scientists, public health experts & health professionals: https://bit.ly/letter4COVID
https://www.idsociety.org/globalassets/idsa/public-health/covid-19/covid-19-data-reporting.pdf
Dear Senator or Congressperson,
We, the public, are in support of scientists, public health experts, and healthcare professionals who have voiced serious concerns in this letter about the current administration’s sudden decision to take control of all COVID-19 data away from the CDC and transfer responsibility for data collection and aggregation to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and TeleTracking, a private company. This drastic and harmful action makes the data inaccessible to the general public, as well as scientists and health professionals, and reduces the critical transparency required for rapid response during this pandemic. We urge the administration to heed the recommendations of public health officials and object any attempt to sow mistrust in science or to spread misinformation. We trust the scientific process and believe that our best chance to overcome this pandemic is to trust the evolving, data-driven guidelines crafted by experts on the frontlines of research, public health and clinical care.
Scientists, public health experts, and healthcare professionals rely on CDC data for research and crucial, rapid public health and clinical decision making. Impactfully, COVID-19 data was removed from the CDC website on July 14th, partial information on intensive care unit (ICU) bed capacity was restored on July 16th, and this resource has not been updated since. This change corresponds to the directive issued on July 13th requiring all data be submitted to HHS through the private contractor TeleTracking. HHS has released a new COVID-19 dashboard that includes estimates of current ICU usage, but the data necessary for critical decision making (testing, new infections, hospitalizations, deaths, resources, etc) is not available. We feel that this dangerous move compromises the integrity and transparency of the data collection process for COVID-19 and unnecessarily obfuscates a process that is successfully used by the CDC to track more than 100 reportable diseases.
To successfully battle the surge of COVID-19 cases in our country, it is crucial that we support our frontline workers. They need to focus on emergency responses, manage critical supply shortages, prioritize patient care, coordinate clinical trials, make crucial projections and implement data-driven public health measures to prevent SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Instead, as a result of the current administration’s drastic decision, hospitals and public health offices are overburdened and struggling to adapt to a new data reporting system.
Additionally, the public lacks information on how we can access state or national COVID-19 data, and what measures are in place to ensure transparent data collection and accurate data analysis. This lack of transparency and data availability can only lead to additional, preventable COVID-19 deaths and hinders the research progress and innovation necessary to lead our nation out of this pandemic.
Furthermore, sidelining the CDC will pose serious challenges to the nation’s ability to respond to COVID-19. Since 1946, the public has entrusted the CDC to make critical, objective decisions that protect the nation against health threats based on accurate and publicly available scientific data. Hospitals have used the CDC system to report data for 15 years. The CDC is an unbiased, expert agency uniquely qualified to collect, analyze, and report data on COVID-19 in the U.S. Thereby, we trust the CDC to lead all innovation on COVID data reporting & analysis. Importantly, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, included taxpayer funds to enable the CDC to modernize their data collection and reporting infrastructure, addressing the exact issue purported to cause this change from reporting to the CDC to reporting to the HHS and TeleTracking.
We, the public, trust the CDC. We ask that the federal government ensure data collection is led and appropriately safeguarded by public health experts with critical measures in place to ensure transparency and accuracy. We strongly urge that these changes to COVID-19 hospital reporting requirements be halted immediately and that oversight of data collection, aggregation, and dissemination be restored to the CDC.
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Petition created on July 20, 2020