The NY Times reports that the Trump administration is moving the locus of hospital reports from the CDC (one of the agencies least under the president's thumb) to HHS (one of the most political agencies). This is not how public health is supposed to work. There is a legitimate fear that HHS will manipulate the data to fit the White House’s political message. This battle will be won only once the public believes in its public health institutions. That requires accuracy, transparency, and accountability. CDC is the best we have at the federal level, and HHS simply has not earned that degree of public trust.
Tuesday, July 14, 2020
Hospitals ordered to bypass CDC with Covid data & report it to HHS
The NY Times reports that the Trump administration is moving the locus of hospital reports from the CDC (one of the agencies least under the president's thumb) to HHS (one of the most political agencies). This is not how public health is supposed to work. There is a legitimate fear that HHS will manipulate the data to fit the White House’s political message. This battle will be won only once the public believes in its public health institutions. That requires accuracy, transparency, and accountability. CDC is the best we have at the federal level, and HHS simply has not earned that degree of public trust.
