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Public health data systems in the United States are outdated, underfunded, and cannot communicate with each other. These problems have left states unable to keep up with the spread of COVID-19, and during outbreaks, many local health departments have stopped contact tracing, according to a new investigation from Politics.
The in-depth examination of the gaps in public health surveillance shows failures at almost every stage of the process. Labs that performed COVID-19 tests did not report the data directly to health departments via electronic systems, but instead used faxes or emails. Health services used different systems to track different types of epidemics and relied on programs that required laborious manual entry. They were unable to get case information through the system in time to respond to an outbreak.
The challenges have been exacerbated during outbreaks of COVID-19 cases, Politics‘s the survey showed:
In Alabama, during power surges, data systems crashed due to an influx of cases hitting the system. In Vermont, more than 1,300 Covid-19 lab results as of December 2020 were received by fax, email, or postal mail – not through the state’s electronic reporting system. In Washington state, labs were up to 10 days late in reporting Covid-19 results during peak periods. In Wyoming, the state health department has had to “de-duplicate” thousands of records in its electronic system each month to ensure positive results are only counted once.
State-level delays meant the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention received inconsistent or delayed data. The federal agency had to set up a program to mine state data sites for information because they weren’t getting it from officials.
Poor quality surveillance systems were one of the reasons the United States was unable to control the spread of COVID-19. “Because we didn’t have the type of centralized intelligence to identify, test and execute rapid containment, the United States missed our opportunity to contain the virus,” said Charity Dean, former deputy director of the health department. public of California. Politics.
The CARES law investment could help modernize systems, but officials say it’s not enough. The problems that plagued health services last year are still today, officials are exhausted, and the delta surge is making things even more difficult to manage – let alone sort out.
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