Data on coronavirus patients will now go straight to the Trump Administration before going to the CDC in a bizarre twist of events.
The news, first reported by the New York Times, was confirmed by Health and Human Services (HHS) Tuesday.
HHS reports the CDC’s database is inadequate to store and process the information.
The news came days after an internal CDC document obtained by the Times called reopening schools in fall the “highest risk” for the spread of the virus.
Since then, schools across the nation have been forced to introduce reopening plans.
Trump has threatened schools across the country to withhold funding if they don’t reopen this fall. Los Angeles schools have already announced schools will be held online only this upcoming semester.
The HHS said in a statement a “new faster and complete data system is what our nation needs to defeat the coronavirus and the CDC, an operating division of HHS, will certainly participate in this streamlined all-of-government response. They (CDC) will simply no longer control it.”
The CDC’s database is one of openness and transparency, accessible to the public and used by researchers to make projections and decisions.
HHS databases are private.
