The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will “no longer control” the coronavirus data collection system from hospitals across the nation, a spokesman for U.S. Health and Human Services confirmed Tuesday night.
The New York Times reported earlier Tuesday that the administration had ordered hospitals to bypass the CDC and send all COVID-19 patient information to a central database in Washington beginning Wednesday, raising concerns from health experts that it will be politicized or withheld from the public.
Michael Caputo, assistant secretary for public affairs for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said in a statement to NBC News that it would be a faster system.
The Times reported that the HHS database that will receive new information is not open to the public, which could affect researchers, modelers and health officials who rely on CDC data to make projections and decisions.
We ran the CDC. No president ever politicized its science the way Trump has.
