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The Trump administration confirmed Wednesday that it has ordered hospitals to send data on coronavirus patients straight to the Department of Health and Human Services, instead of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.<\/p>\n
The change raised questions about the integrity of the process. Some former health officials worry the move could result in less transparent data, although they acknowledged in interviews that the CDC\u2019s data collection system is outdated and doesn\u2019t meet the demands of the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe CDC\u2019s old data gathering operation once worked well monitoring hospital information across the country, but it\u2019s an inadequate system today,\u201d HHS spokesman Michael Caputo said in a statement to CNBC. \u201cThe President\u2019s Coronavirus Task Force has urged improvements for months, but they just cannot keep up with this pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n
The New York Times first reported<\/a>\u00a0on the Trump administration\u2019s\u00a0updated guidance<\/a>\u00a0on data reporting for hospitals and laboratories. The new guidance, which was quietly updated on July 10, was posted on the HHS website. The agency, which oversees the CDC, Food and Drug Administration and other U.S. health agencies, will now collect daily Covid-19 reports directly. That includes the number of hospitalized patients, available beds and medical equipment like ventilators as well as information used to organize the U.S. pandemic response.<\/p>\n CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield said Wednesday on a conference call with reporters that states\u00a0were told to stop sending hospital information to the National Healthcare Safety Network site, the CDC\u2019s system for gathering data, beginning Wednesday.\u00a0<\/strong>He added that the decision was made in conjunction the CDC.<\/p>\n \u201cIn order to meet the needs for flexibility of data gathering, CDC has agreed to remove the National Health Safety Network from the collection process in order to streamline reporting,\u201d he said. \u201cThis has no effect on CDCs ability to use data and continue to churn out daily data, the MMWRs and the guidance that we publish.\u201d<\/p>\n Caputo said the change in policy will allow the U.S. to collect more complete data and to do so more quickly. He added that the CDC will still \u201cparticipate\u00a0in this streamlined all-of-government response,\u201d but they will no longer control the data reporting element.<\/p>\n \u201cToday, the CDC still provides data from only 85 percent of hospitals; the President\u2019s COVID response requires 100 percent to report,\u201d Caputo said. \u201cToday, the CDC still has at least a week lag in reporting hospital data; America requires it in real time.\u201d<\/p>\n Jose Arrieta, chief information officer for HHS, said on Wednesday\u2019s conference call that despite the change in reporting systems, the government will continue to release data occasionally\u00a0to the public through the CDC. Arrieta said the HHS data was initially for analysis and policy decisions rather than for the general public, but said some of the data is released publicly through the CDC.<\/p>\n He added that HHS is working to make more of its data publicly available.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been focused on collecting data so that we could perform analysis and allocate resources in an effective manner,\u201d he said, adding that some data is released through the CDC. \u201cThere is a possibility that that we could do it at a larger scale… That\u2019s the ultimate vision.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr. Janis Orlowski, who serves on the working group formed by White House health advisor Dr. Deborah Birx to improve the national data reporting system, said the group was formed because the administration was concerned that some hospitals were misreporting or failing to report critical Covid-19 information to the CDC.<\/p>\n Orlowski, chief health care officer at the Association of American Medical Colleges, said most hospitals were doing their best to report up-to-date information but many were inundated with redundant requests from separate agencies.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause [hospitals] were reporting into agencies, and using different portals for the data to be submitted, and besides the portals, they could report to the state, as you can imagine, this became a data issue of how do you coordinate all this,\u201d she said. \u201cSo our job became see, can we simplify the reporting process.\u201d<\/p>\n Orlowski said Birx and other administration officials gave their word to the working group, which includes CDC staff, that the change wouldn\u2019t hamper the quality or transparency of the data. However, she said she doesn\u2019t know whether outside researchers, like universities that are tracking the outbreak, will have the same access to the data as before.<\/p>\n \u201cThey had verbally told us that transparency would remain,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd so those of us who are on the working group didn\u2019t see this as the CDC being cut out.\u201d<\/p>\n Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr.\u00a0Scott Gottlieb<\/a>\u00a0said \u201cthe data is still going to be shared with CDC.\u201d He said Wednesday that there has been frustration over the CDC\u2019s data reporting, but that the administration may have been better off fixing those issues within the CDC, rather than trying \u201cto re-create the wheel.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think they would have been better served probably investing in what CDC is doing and the CDC systems because CDC is a better repository for information,\u201d he said on CNBC\u2019s \u201cSquawk Box<\/a>.\u201d \u201cThey have the scientific expertise to cull this data in a way that no other agency does.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr. Bill Winkenwerder, who served as assistant secretary of Defense for health affairs under President\u00a0George W. Bush<\/a>\u00a0from 2001 to 2007, said the decision is a function of an outdated data reporting system that has been under-invested in for year. He said he doesn\u2019t think it\u2019s fair to characterize the decision as necessarily political.<\/p>\n \u201cThe key point is the HHS and the White House need this data quickly to coordinate a whole host of decisions that are not made at the CDC level,\u201d\u00a0Winkenwerder told CNBC. \u201cThe one-week lag that was described \u2014 that is a long time. Every day counts, so I can understand why they need and want that information.\u201d<\/p>\n HHS needs accurate data quickly so it can make potentially life-saving decisions, such as allocating the nation\u2019s limited supply of remdesivir, the only drug that\u2019s authorized for emergency use in the U.S. to treat Covid-19. He added that it\u2019s crucial for this data to be transparently shared with other agencies and with the public, but he\u2019s glad the reporting system is being overhauled.<\/p>\n \u201cHopefully once this Covid pandemic is at least more under control or once we get a vaccine, we absolutely need to invest more in updating our data aggregation systems,\u201d Winkenwerder said. \u201cWhatever they can do to fix the data in the interim is great. Long term, it needs to be improved in general.\u201d<\/p>\n President\u00a0Donald Trump<\/a>\u00a0and his administration have come under fire during the pandemic from critics who say the White House is undermining the country\u2019s public health professionals. Last week, Trump criticized the CDC\u2019s guidelines on reopening schools as too tough and expensive and Vice President Mike Pence said the agency would issue additional recommendations.<\/p>\n \u201cAs the president said today, we just don\u2019t want the guidance to be too tough,\u201d Pence told reporters last week. \u201cThat\u2019s why the CDC will be issuing more guidance going forward, because we know each school system has unique capabilities and different facilities.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/106617374-1594825081697gettyimages-1197857645.jpg\")
Alex Azar, secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), speaks during a news conference in the briefing room of the White House in Washington, D.C.\u00a0 (<\/span>Amanda Andrade-Rhoades | Bloomberg | Getty Images)<\/span><\/h5>\n<\/div>\n