Coronavirus data has already disappeared from the official website of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) after the Trump administration quietly shifted the information to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
The CDC regularly published COVID-19 data on its website since the pandemic began. However, the data has now disappeared, according to Ryan Panchadsaram, who helps run a data-tracking site known as COVID Exit Strategy.
He said, “We were surprised because the modules that we normally go to were empty. The data wasn’t available and not there. There was no warning.”
On Wednesday, CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield told reporters that states have been told to stop sending hospital data to the CDC’s system called the National Healthcare Safety Network site. Instead, all information will now be reported through the reporting portal of HHS.
The officials said this decision was made to streamline data reporting and to provide HHS officials with real-time data.
Public health authorities have expressed concern in interviews with CNBC that this change could lead to less transparent data.
Assistant Secretary of HHS Michael Caputo said the CDC was directed to make the data available again. He said HHS will provide “more powerful insights” in the future.
Caputo said, “Yes, HHS is committed to being transparent with the American public about the information it is collecting on the coronavirus. Therefore, HHS has directed CDC to re-establish the coronavirus dashboards it withdrew from the public on Wednesday.”
The CDC has now restored the website’s previous dashboards with data through Tuesday, stating, “This file will not be updated after July 14, 2020, and includes data from April 1 to July 14.”
“We don’t have this critical indicator anymore,” said Panchadsaram, who served as the Deputy Chief Technology Officer of the United States. “The intent of just switching the data streams towards HHS, that’s fine. But you got to keep the data that you’re sharing publicly still available and up to date.”
He went on to say, “It’s disappointing. It happened a lot quicker than expected. The picture that we’re presenting to the world is incomplete.”
Epidemiologist Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo at Johns Hopkins University said the policy change would not affect the Hopkins site as they source their data directly from states. However, she expressed concern and said the policy change raises questions about the data transparency and the role of the CDC in the ongoing US coronavirus response.
Dr. Nuzzo told CNBC, “What worries me is that we seem to be pushing rather suddenly in the midst of what feels like a very urgent time in terms of surging cases that we’re seeing across the country.”
“The question is, what are we going to lose in this transition, and in particular at a moment where we really don’t want to lose any ability to understand what’s happening in hospitals,” she added. “I think it’s reasonable to worry that it could lead to erosion of capacities at a moment where we very much can’t afford to lose any abilities at this point,” Dr. Nuzzo continued. “I don’t fully understand how it’s going to work. That in and of itself is problematic.”
