The numbers of COVID-19 beds and patients reported by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) don’t jibe with other federal sources, state data and the realities faced by hospitals. The faulty numbers lead to shortages of medicine and protective equipment. The Trump administration transferred the pandemic tracking system in July from the CDC to a private contractors much to the dismay of public health workers who feared the change would hurt the government’s ability to fight the pandemic. (Science, November 29, 2020, by Charles Piller)
Rather than requiring hospitals to report COvID-19 data to both the HHS and the CDC, the tracking system in effect in July funneled the data to the HHS through a portal set up by the private company TeleTracking. The change also halted a flow of data from the CDC to researchers and the public. (Stat News, July 16, 2020, by Nicholas Florko and Eric Boodman)