
COVID-NET
The most recent graph regarding COVID-19 hospitalizations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Collection of this data has been removed from the CDC to a contractor for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (CDC Graphic)
A United Methodist Insight Column
Just as church and community leaders are struggling to decide whether to resume public gatherings, the federal administration has made it harder to get coronavirus facts essential to such decision-making.
On July 15, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ordered hospitals to cease sending coronavirus data to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Instead the data on COVID-19 cases and deaths are to be sent directly to an HHS contractor. The agency promises to make the data public as CDC information has been, but public health officials and the media are worried that the change in data collection will restrict the public’s access to key coronavirus data. The best summary I’ve seen thus far of the situation and its significance was published July 17 by Jon Allsop in Columbia Journalism Review’s “The Media Today” column. Some excerpts from the column, titled “The Trump administration’s terrible record on coronavirus data,” follow.
“Recently, the Trump administration told hospitals to stop sharing data on COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Instead, hospitals were to share information with a private company contracted by the Department of Human and Health Services. The company, TeleTracking Technologies, won its HHS contract in a noncompetitive process in April; around the same time, the department also contracted Palantir, the data-mining company founded by Peter Thiel, an early ally of Trump, to take on other data-collection functions from the CDC. The administration’s order, which took effect on Wednesday, seems a blow to transparency: the CDC published the patient data it collected from hospitals, but the TeleTracking database is private. Researchers and reporters who use the data are worried that vital information is being withheld for the sake of politics.
“Administration officials insist that bypassing the CDC is an efficiency measure, and that adequate data will remain available to the public. In an interview with Greta Van Susteren, of Gray TV, on Wednesday, Vice President Mike Pence said that “the American people can anticipate full transparency.” The same day, however, journalists noticed that the CDC’s website had taken down data on hospital capacity that it had previously shared. Online, experts reacted with dismay. ‘I had hoped it was a glitch, but no,’ Charles Ornstein, a healthcare reporter and editor at ProPublica, tweeted. Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding, of Harvard, added, ‘epidemiologists are pulling our hair out!’ HHS blamed the CDC for unilaterally removing the data; Michael Caputo, a former Trump campaign aide who is now an HHS spokesperson, accused the CDC of ‘a fit of pique,’ and said that department officials had since ordered that the data be restored. Yesterday, the CDC restored existing hospitalization data and added Tuesday’s figures; it also appended a note saying that the data will never again be updated.
“The way the CDC collects and shares data is inefficient, to be sure, and not always reliable. As Ornstein reported in April, the CDC was initially slow to share hospitalization data at all. In May, the agency said that it had been combining data on tests for active COVID infections and data on tests for antibodies into a single figure—which bolstered a misleading impression that Trump was on top of testing. As I wrote last week, the New York Times went to court to force the CDC to release data on the racial disparities in COVID transmission; even then, the information provided was substantially incomplete.
“Trump officials have insisted—albeit without wishing to be named, for the most part—that taking hospitalization data away from the CDC is not censorship, but rather a good-faith effort at streamlining. ‘They’re suffering because of their lack of credibility,’ an unnamed Republican told Politico, of the administration. ‘The problem is they had a chance to tell this story—which is not necessarily a bad story—but they didn’t do it.’ Perhaps unwittingly, the unnamed Republican hit the key point—hospitalization data may be made public someday, and the new system for collecting it from hospitals may work better than the CDC’s, but for now, the press has no reason to believe either of those things. When it comes to pledges of transparency, the Trump administration has proved time and again that it doesn’t deserve the benefit of the doubt—on the coronavirus or anything else. In the past few weeks, Trump has said repeatedly that testing is bad because it shows positive cases; unnamed White House officials have dumped opposition research on Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; and Republicans have insisted that the devastating spread of the virus is mere media scaremongering.”
Regarding that last point, United Methodist leaders have made it clear that they believe the science around the coronavirus pandemic. If they didn’t, local churches wouldn’t still be closed to in-person gatherings for fear of becoming “super-spreader” events, and congregational singing still would go on. If the church didn’t trust coronavirus science, the 2020 General Conference would have gone ahead in May as scheduled, and this would have been the week that new bishops were elected and assigned.
In other words, for once religion and science are united on a public issue.
COVID-19 Counts Still Mounting
The latest coronavirus national totals as of July 17 from the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins Medical Center show 3,556,403 cases, 138,141 fatalities.
The Marshall Project reports that “COVID-19 cases are surging behind bars, too. At least 64,119 state and federal prisoners have contracted the coronavirus, a 13 percent increase from last week, largely due to surges in California and Texas and outbreaks in Idaho, Iowa, Oregon, and South Carolina. At least 651 prisoners have died, a five percent increase over last week. New coronavirus cases among prison staff also rose to their highest level.”
Protesters harassed by feds
Black Lives Matter protests in Portland, Oregon, have drawn “uninvited and unwanted” federal law enforcement agents, according to The Marshall Project. The Oregonian reported that federal officers “used tear gas and ‘impact munitions’ on protesters July 16. The Marshall Project also notes an Oregon Public Broadcasting report that “feds continue to drive around town in unmarked cars arresting protesters, often violently and without justification,
In contrast, The Marshal Project cites a Just Security article: “Black research participants say they don’t necessarily want less police but rather want officers to be better and fairer.”
Media Mentions as of July 17, 2020
Pandemic creates new opportunities for some – United Methodist News Service
Candler faculty help establish guide for eventual worship reopening safety – Emory News Center
Using faith to fight racism – McDonough Voice
Faith, hope and creative destruction: religious responses to COVID-19 – Religion News Service
Three California churches sue Gov. Newsom for ban on singing in places of worship – Religion News Service
Rev. C.T. Vivian, key civil rights leader, has died at 95 – The Associated Press
Faith leaders blast Trump administration’s renewed use of death penalty – Religion News Service
At least 24 coronavirus cases linked to church in West Virginia – ABC News
Multiracial congregations may not bridge racial divide – NPR
In storms, Americans have long seen the hand of God – The Washington Post*
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Cynthia B. Astle serves as Editor of United Methodist Insight, which she founded in 2011.