The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been withholding large swaths of data from the general public.
According to a New York Times report, the CDC has been collecting detailed COVID-19 hospitalization data for the past year, which is broken down by age, race and vaccination status. The agency kept most of the data under wraps for fear of “misinterpretation.”
Based on COVID-19 hospitalization records, the CDC published the first significant data on the effectiveness of the boosters in adults younger than 65. However, the agency left out the numbers for a huge portion of the population, from ages 18 to 49, which is the group that could benefit least from the extra shots.
The CDC is only releasing information that fits the narrative that it wants to convey.
More than just misrepresenting booster shots, a lot of the withheld information could have helped both the state and local governments make proper health decisions. The agency only publishing a small fraction of the data it has collected is irresponsible, as much of the withheld information could have helped state and local health officials in bringing the virus under control.
Detailed information on hospitalization by age and race could have helped health officials identify the populations at highest risk, while information on hospitalizations and deaths by age and vaccination status could have better assessed whether or not healthy adults need booster shots.
CDC refuses to release data over fear of “misinformation”
Kristen Nordlund, a spokesperson for the CDC, said the agency has been slow to release data because at the end of the day, “it’s not yet ready for prime time.” She also said that the agency’s priority when gathering data is to ensure that it is accurate and actionable. (Related: CDC data show kids most likely have herd immunity from coronavirus, but vaccine trials still ongoing anyway.)
Further, Nordlund said that they are hiding valuable data from the public because they believe that these data might be misinterpreted.
Dr. Daniel Jernigan, the deputy director for public health science and surveillance, said that the pandemic exposed the fact that data systems at the CDC are outmoded and are unable to handle large volumes of data, and that scientists are still trying to modernize the systems.
“We want better, faster data that can lead to decision making and actions at all levels of public health, that can help us eliminate the lag in data that has held us back,” Jernigan said.
Samuel Scarpino, the managing director of pathogen surveillance at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Pandemic Prevention Institute, also said that the CDC is a political organization as much as it is for public health.
“The steps that it takes to get something like this released are often well outside of the control of many of the scientists that work at the CDC,” he said.
Watch the video below about the CDC getting caught hiding troves of data about COVID hospitalizations.
You can get more information on The Willow channel at Brighteon.com.
Follow Pandemic.news for more updates related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
