Hospitals reportedly told to bypass CDC and send coronavirus data to Washington
The Department of Health and Human Services will receive all new hospital data directly, according to The New York Times.
The CDC reportedly won't be receiving COVID-19 data from hospitals anymore.
The Trump administration has reportedly ordered hospitals to send all COVID-19 patient information to a central database in Washington starting Wednesday, bypassing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As reported by The New York Times, the new directive appeared online in a Department of Health and Human Services document.
Along with daily pandemic tracking reports on hospital patients and bed and ventilator numbers, the HHS database will reportedly receive new information not available to the public, which could disrupt researchers' and health officials' efforts. HHS officials say the data will still be made public, according to the report.
The change means the CDC will "no longer control" the coronavirus data collection system from hospitals across the nation, an HHS spokesman told NBC News, and that "the new faster and complete data system is what our nation needs."
Palantir, the data mining giant co-founded by President Donald Trump ally Peter Thiel, recently signed $24.8 million worth of government contracts to provide HHS with a new coronavirus data platform system, as first reported by The Daily Beast.
The HHS didn't immediately responded to inquiries from CNET.
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