Trump orders hospitals to send Covid-19 data to White House, not CDC - and suggests sending National Guard to facilities that don't comply

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. The federal government confirmed the change in policy amid the coronavirus pandemic, with Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Michael Caputo saying in a statement the new process would lead to “faster” reporting of hospital data across the country. Infectious disease experts quickly spoke out against the developments, including Dr Thomas File, president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, who said in a statement: “Placing medical data collection outside of the leadership of public health experts could severely weaken the quality and availability of data, add an additional burden to already overwhelmed hospitals and add a new challenge to the US pandemic response.” The news followed weeks of contentious debate on Capitol Hill over the administration’s response to the pandemic, as the White House urged schools to resume in the fall for in-person classes and called for states to begin reopening, despite a spike in new cases from coast to coast. The president said himself in late June at a rally: “I said to my people, ‘Slow the testing down please.’” He later said that he was not kidding, telling reporters: “I don’t kid, let me just tell you, let me make it clear … by having more tests, we have more cases.” Nearly 3.48 million Americans have contracted Covid-19 and a reported 138,000 people in the US have died as a result of the pandemic, according to the latest tracking data published by Johns Hopkins University. Under the Trump administration’s latest orders, crucial data on the number of Covid-19 patients in US hospitals and the amount of ventilators available in medical facilities will be sent to HHS on a daily basis.