By: Jonathan Xu

Dear Editor,

I am writing this letter regarding the news article titled “Trump Administration Strips C.D.C. of Control of Coronavirus Data” that was published yesterday (on July 14th). This letter will address some of my opinions concerning the issues of the CDC and Trump from the article.

The issue of Donald Trump ordering hospitals to bypass the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and sending all Covid-19 patient information to Washington’s central database is indeed alarming. As stated in the article, doctors and health professionals/experts “fear the data will be politicized or withheld from the public.” The reason why I believe this action on Trump’s part was not the correct move is partially because of some of the irrational decisions about the virus before. The other reason is because the CDC states on their Covid-19 action homepage that “Millions of people are depending on CDC to keep them safe from the threat of COVID-19.” Without the uncensored data from the CDC, and the possible altaring of the raw data towards Trump’s political advantage.

The Department of Health and Human Services has essentially replaced the CDC in receiving all reports relating to confirmed coronavirus patients. In the document itself, it states that “all of the information listed below is provided on a daily basis to the Federal Government to facilitate planning, monitoring, and resource allocation…” The federal government has taken over the control of the information (and release of information) as well as determining the course of action the nation should take to put an earlier end to the COVID-19 PHE (Public Health Emergency).

I believe that the federal government should realize the enormity of the problem our country is facing today, and if they insist on keeping the reins, they must thoroughly consider how their actions and decisions (regarding information and demands of the public) will affect the course of this pandemic. It could go great, or not so much…

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/us/politics/trump-cdc-coronavirus.html