Starting today, hospitals and other health care providers will be required to report the number of COVID cases to state health officials and to a private contractor, per a new regulation from Department of Health and Human Services, cutting the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention out of the data loop, reports the Washington Post.
Previously, hospitals sent data to the CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network, a long-established system of data collection and analysis. CDC statisticians and analysts then prepared custom reports for the states and other federal agencies.
Under the new requirements, the CDC is completely cut out of the data distribution process, alarming public health professionals who fear that the exclusion would lead to limited information going to key federal officials and agencies.
The information, which may be collected by National Guard personnel assigned to hospitals under the new protocols, should be sent directly to a DHHS liaison to the White House Coronavirus Task Force. This is seen as a move to further marginalize the CDC and its team of medical professionals.