Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) joined U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and 43 of their colleagues in a letter to Vice President Mike Pence and Coronavirus Task Force Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx, urging the Trump Administration to reverse recent changes requiring hospitals to report data to a new system set up by the Department of Health and Human Services. Previously, this data was sent to the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN), which is run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and has been in use for over a decade.
“We write today to urge you to withdraw your confusing and harmful changes to hospital reporting requirements for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19),” wrote the senators. “In the midst of a global pandemic, these changes pose serious challenges to the nation’s response by increasing data management burden for hospitals, potentially delaying critical supply shipments, compromising access to key data for many states, and reducing transparency for the public. The Trump Administration’s mismanagement of the COVID-19 response and refusal to heed public health expertise continue to put the country in a dangerous position.”
The full text of the letter can be found HERE.
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