On Wednesday, July 15^th, the Trump Administration announced that it had mandated hospitals to go around the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and begin sending information on equipment and hospitalizations directly to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Until yesterday, the CDC was responsible for collecting and analyzing COVID-19 data regarding not only the number of Coronavirus patients in hospitals, but also the availability of intensive care beds, and the availability of PPE. 

Now, hospitals must report that information to the HHS. HHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, Michael Caputo, said this change was made because “the CDC’s old data gathering operation once worked well monitoring hospital information across the country, but it's an inadequate system today."

"The President's Coronavirus Task Force has urged improvements for months, but they just cannot keep up with this pandemic."

Following the announcement, many infectious disease specialists, public health officials, and experts in the field of data collection and analysis expressed concern about this change.

Speaking to FastCompany.com, former White House adviser on data gathering, Josh Knauer called the new system “very dangerous.” 

Knauer, who is currently a General Partner in the Pittsburgh based Jump Scale, called into the Jason Barsky Show to discuss his concerns in greater detail.