LoyaltyVille
You may or may not have heard that the Trump Administration has decided to take control of new, emerging COVID-19 data by diverting it from the quasi-independent Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to the more loyal Health and Human Services (HHS) silo.
But it would appear that the directive also includes data disappearing.
Will Feuer of CNBC has the story. Here is his lede:
Previously public data has already disappeared from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website after the Trump administration quietly shifted control of the information to the Department of Health and Human Services.
Since the pandemic began, the CDC regularly published data on availability of hospital beds and intensive care units across the country. But Ryan Panchadsaram, who helps run a data-tracking site called Covid Exit Strategy, said that when he tried to collect the data from the CDC on Tuesday, it had disappeared.
“We were surprised because the modules that we normally go to were empty. The data wasn’t available and not there,” he said. “There was no warning.”...
****
And how do we know about that 'loyalty' of folks at the HHS?
Well...
This:
.
9 comments:
stovepiping?
Anon-Above--
Yup.
And, it would appear, with prejudice.
.
I note there was enough of a furor created, including Democratic congressional threats to cut off funding for HHS data collection efforts (really helpful in the midst of a pandemic) that the portals are back up. Just how reliable the data fed into them is remains to be seen.
Cutting the CDC out of the loop could just be more evidence of Trump seeding the swamp by gifting two more billionaire cronies additional government largesse while giving himself the added benefit of covering up the magnitude of his failures. But something more scary could be behind the move. The question that should be asked is why now?
If 3.5 million cases and 136,000 deaths wasn’t enough to motivate the Orange Ogre, what has he learned in the very recent past that has him desperately trying to pull the drawbridge up now? I fear the answer to that will become horrifyingly clear in the coming months.
Thanks for the update Lew.
Now that we're back in the lab generating our own, I've had my head buried in data of a very different kind all day and I'd missed that the portals have been fired back up again.
Real question is...Going forward, will data now be screened out by HSS before it gets to the CDC?
As for your bigger picture fear - based on past performance it is hard for any thinking person not to be freaked out. I know that our personal friends that live south of the 49th are beside themselves.
.
How about people disappearing from the Streets of Portland, Oregon. Empty Wheel has a post up by Rayne, outlining the story: unidentified federal "officers" in rented vehicles have been swooping in and taking people. no they don't know who they are, where they've been taken. Trump did say he was going to deal with the protestors. sounds more like Chile, back in the day, or Argentinia or Iran, etc. So yes if data is disappearing its just a hint of what is to come and that includes people disappearing.
No they were not "invited" by the mayor, gov. etc. They just showed up.
If this keeps up we may not only have to deal with American tourists coming here to escape the COVID but americans trying to escape being seized off the streets.
eaf--
Thanks.
This has become a huge story...Front page of NYT and WaPo today, Friday the 17th.
.
As we know, most hospitals in the USA are private-fo-profit corporations and the doctors employed in them are private professionals . Assuming the CDC ever got its daily data from these institutions, serving as a valuable, up-to-date aggregator, then what’s to stop any intrepid reporter—perhaps from a media broadcast network, also an aggregator of news—from simply asking any of these hospitals and their doctors what the number of new infections and deaths is every day?
tRump wants to fudge CV19 numbers like he moves hurricanes, rearranges history anachronistically, and tells blatantly obvious lies all the time—at least he wants to cast doubt on these CV19 stats. He’s already fomented “fake news” and is working on “fake epidemiologists” right now. Democratic mayors and governors are now “fake” in his narrowing worldview and tightening noose. But what if the various medical professional associations make joint statements as to the real extent of the pandemic or, for that matter, the extent tRump’s lies is killing American citizens of all stripes? How will the clown-curate muzzle or distort that?
Already millions of Americans can’t afford to get tested or treated for CV19; the virus is completely out of control in the USA. It’s plainly too late for the Orange Barbie-Ken to do anything about that. And it’s probably way too late for him to win November’s election. But, for trying, tRump will be responsible for many CV19 deaths that wouldn’t have happened—even if he’d simply done nothing. It’s too late for tRump, probably for the Republican Party, too—but it’s not too late for CV19 to wreak much more havoc than it’s done already in the USA.
We, here in our safe bubble, might just as well presume no good CV19 news will happen before November, at the very soonest. If the Floss-Topped Candy Thief loses at that point, much will change (his executive authority will erode to a nub thereafter, responsible institutions will contradict and ignore him in his likely tantrums, and states will move boldly toward the new normal without fear of petulant retaliation), but CV19 likely won’t even come near the turn-around point until after the inauguration of the new President.
At least Spring will be coming into sight, by that time, after what promises to be a very difficult fall and winter for our southern neighbours. Canada’s welfare depends a lot on our American cousins hanging tough and getting to a better place.
But, for now, it looks like tRump will dismiss and misattribute CV19 cases and deaths even as the situation becomes more grave by the day.
Hang tough, and be kind, my friends!
Hi Scotty on Deman, some Months ago Rachel Maddox was discussing how some sources were able to obtain correct figures because some American states were not releasing the figures. Local newspapers were doing some of the "collection of data" by going through their obits. However, then some one else has to collect those figures and I'm not so sure those big newspapers want to do that sort of leg work. Yes, they've done figures, but really my take on it is, they don't care that much because the owners still like those Republicans in office. As long as death doesn't impact them personally they don't care and they won't put out the money to do the research.
I am of the opinion Trump wants these deaths. it reduces the population.
Pink Floyd anyone?
Post a Comment