US government health advisers say hospitals are ‘scrambling’ after Trump administration’s ‘abrupt’ change to Covid-19 data reporting requirements

CNN — In a letter, public health advisers to the US government said they are “extremely concerned” and “troubled” by the Trump administration’s decision to change how hospitals report Covid-19 data. Retiring the CDC system that was in operation would have “serious consequences on data integrity.” By removing the data collection from the CDC, the country would lose decades of expertise in interpreting and analyzing information about infectious disease and it would jeopardize the department’s goals of developing interventions that would improve public health, the letter said. “As past and present HICPAC members, we are troubled by the Administration’s unexpected decision to divert Covid-19 data reporting from CDC to DHHS,” the letter said. “We strongly advise that the CDC’s DHQP data experts be allowed to continue their important and trusted work in their mission to save lives and protect Americans from health threats.” Dr. Vineet Chopra, chief of the division of hospital medicine at the University of Michigan, signed the letter and said the CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network data is essential to the work hospitals do.