--- title: "The White House Is Attempting to Circumvent the CDC on COVID Data" description: "The Trump administration is ordering hospitals to skip the US Centers for Disease Control entirely and send coronavirus patient data straight to Washington." date: "2020-07-14" modified: "2020-07-14" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/the-white-house-is-attempting-to-circumvent-the-cdc-on-covid-data" categories: - "Developments" - "Health & Medicine" tags: - "cdc" - "coronavirus" - "covid19" - "president trump" --- # The White House Is Attempting to Circumvent the CDC on COVID Data ![The Trump administration is ordering hospitals to skip the US Centers for Disease Control entirely and send coronavirus patient data straight to Washington.]() *\Image: John Hopkins\* The Trump administration is trying to take control over national data about coronavirus patients by ordering hospitals to skip the US Centers for Disease Control and send all data to a database in Washington, DC, [*The New York Times* reports](). Critics are worried that the White House might be attempting to politicize the pandemic. Access to the database could allow the administration to be selective in its approach to publicizing data, or to manipulate it in order to paint a flattering picture of its response. White House coronavirus response coordinator Deborah Birx argued that hospitals weren't reporting their data adequately. But it's highly abnormal to cut out the CDC, the body that usually oversees the gathering of public health data. "Centralizing control of all data under the umbrella of an inherently political apparatus is dangerous and breeds distrust," Nicole Lurie, assistant secretary for preparedness and response during Obama's terms, told the *Times*. "It appears to cut off the ability of agencies like CDC to do its basic job." In a [*Washington Post* opinion piece](), four former CDC directors argued that changing the way data was released is inherently shady. "The only valid reason to change released guidelines is new information and new science — not politics," they wrote. They also took aim at the Trump administration's response over the past few months. "Public servants have been harassed, threatened and forced to resign when we need them most," they added. "This is unconscionable and dangerous." The news comes after the Trump administration pushed to have schools reopened in the fall. Education Secretary Betsy Devos even [threatened]() to withhold funds if schools didn't welcome students in September. The White House's distrust in its own scientific advisors was also on display over the weekend, as White House staffers [attacked]() top infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci. Last week, president Donald Trump said Fauci was “a nice man, but he’s made a lot of mistakes,” during a [*Fox News* interview]() with Sean Hannity. The United States' efforts to curb the pandemic have arguably failed, with the virus spreading uncontrollably in a large number of states. The country is still seeing [exponentially rising]() numbers of new confirmed cases, particularly in the South. Roughly 3.4 million cases of the coronavirus have been confirmed in the US, with over 136,000 deaths, according to [John Hopkins' data tracker](). ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()