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Friend—The CDC coronavirus data hasn't been updated since Tuesday and may never get updated again, leaving our health care workers in the dark.1 We need to pressure Congress to release that data NOW. Will you donate to help stop Trump's outrageous attempt to hide coronavirus data from the public and his other abuses of power?
Dear Friend,
BREAKING: The Trump administration will no longer allow the Centers for Disease Control access to coronavirus data.
After telling lie after lie about the pandemic—including that 99 percent of cases are "harmless" and the virus will just "disappear" soon—Donald Trump just couldn't make the facts line up with his fake stories.2,3
So now hospitals will be required to send data on coronavirus infections directly to Trump's Department of Health and Human Services—where the CDC and the public won't be able to access it.4
We cannot allow the Trump White House to hide valuable infection data from us in the middle of a pandemic, especially as the it is getting a lot worse. Congress must step in and demand that access to coronavirus data be returned to the CDC.
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Epidemiologists, state and local governments, and organizations across the country are relying on the CDC's regular updates on coronavirus infection rates and hospitalizations to make crucial decisions, like whether to open schools or allow businesses to operate. But as of yesterday, hospitals are no longer allowed to send that information to the CDC, but instead must provide it to a central White House database where it won't be accessible to the public.
This is an incredibly dangerous blow to government transparency, as well as a huge setback to our health care system's efforts to control the virus.
Trump has already politicized science in a way that no other president before has. On Tuesday, former directors of the CDC, spanning Republican and Democratic presidencies, wrote an open letter published in the Washington Post warning of the dangers of letting Trump continue to mislead the public on the data and recommendations of the agency.5
Now the president has cut the CDC out entirely.
At this moment, the US is home to a quarter of the world's coronavirus cases, and hospitalizations are spiking in more than half of states.6 If the Trump administration is allowed to quash the data, health professionals will be operating in the dark as they try to control the virus and keep the public safe.
The Trump administration is continuing to escalate its out-of-control power grab, and this latest move is a terrifying threat to the lives of millions. We need Congress to rein in Trump and force the White House to hand coronavirus data back to the CDC—and ensure that the CDC is working independently of Trump's influence. Science, not Trump's whims, must guide their work.
For our democracy,
Robert Cruickshank,
Demand Progress
Sources:
1. CNN, "HHS directs CDC to put Covid-related hospital data back on its website," July 16, 2020
2. Fox News, "FDA commissioner pressed by Sunday show hosts over Trump's claim '99 percent' of coronavirus cases 'harmless'," July 5, 2020
3. NBC News, "Trump says he thinks coronavirus will 'just disappear' despite rising cases," July 1, 2020
4. The New York Times, "Trump Administration Strips C.D.C. of Control of Coronavirus Data," July 14, 2020
5. The Washington Post, "We ran the CDC. No president ever politicized its science the way Trump has." July 14, 2020
6. USA Today, "US hits 3M coronavirus cases – about a quarter of the world's total. What number will spark societal changes to slow exponential rise?" July 8, 2020
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