This week the ATS joined several other medical organizations in issuing a statement opposing the Trump Administration policy to require hospitals to report COVID data directly to the Secretary of Health and Human Services, bypassing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, stating, “This decision raises serious questions about the credibility, transparency, and availability of data needed by public health officials, researchers, physician leaders, and other stakeholders to advance science-based and data-driven decision-making.”

The Administration has hired a private contractor, TeleTracking, to receive data from U.S. hospitals on COVID patients and other hospital metrics. The move to using a private contractor to receive and report COVID data led CDC to temporarily removing its public COVID tracking data from the CDC website.  The agency has since restored the public data to its website.

Governors, hospitals, and state public health officials have expressed concerns with changing data reporting requirements and have asked the Administration for a 30-day delay in implementation.