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In addition to the three-weekly virtual press briefings on the pandemic, the Biden administration is making another key change in its awareness of states. The White House will now publicly release its weekly reports on Covid-19, which began under the Trump administration in June.
A White House official told CNN that the administration was “determined to be a partner of states for clear advice and resources” and that it “will be transparent even when it isn’t easy or when the truth is difficult”.
Part of that effort includes data sharing.
Trump’s White House sent these reports, which included national and state-specific data, along with personalized recommendations, to state officials on a weekly basis, but refused to provide them to reporters or publish them publicly. . In December, the task force removed another layer of transparency, forcing states to contact the White House directly to request the reports each week, rather than proactively providing them.
CNN was able to independently obtain dozens of state reports each week, and the results showed a more urgent and urgent assessment of the state of the pandemic than Trump’s White House would publicly reveal. For example, as the White House threw a slew of holiday celebrations where many guests were unmasked, then reports told state officials to “start warning of any gatherings during the Christmas holidays. December”.
The language of weekly evaluations, which began in June, was getting more and more disastrous every week. In November, reports warned of “a large, aggressive, relentless and expanding community … with no evidence of improvement, but rather further deterioration”, adding that current mitigation efforts were “insufficient”. In a report in early December, the task force urged public health officials to take matters into their own hands, saying: “While national and local policies do not reflect the gravity of the current situation, all those responsible for the public health should alert the population of the state directly. “
Trump’s Covid task force coordinator Dr Deborah Birx has been directly involved in the report each week and, in her latest round of reports released last week, included a personal note.
“I am personally grateful, along with (assist Irum) Zaidi, to the Governors, Mayors, State Legislators, County Commissioners, Tribal Chiefs, State and Local Health Officials, and the leaders of hospitals and communities in the 44 states who met with us during our These direct lessons on the ground from you changed policy and programs, ”Birx wrote in the Jan. 17 reports obtained by CNN.
She continued, “You showed us the barriers that needed to be overcome, and many of you provided us with solutions that we could include in the White House governor’s weekly appeal.”
Birx said she felt censored by Trump’s White House, which played into her decision to convey the emergency to the state level.
“I was so frustrated that I realized that the only way, if I couldn’t have a voice internally, that I could make my voice heard at the state level because I could see the governors on the governor’s call every week and I could see how concerned they were about each of their citizens, ”she said in an interview with CBS News’s“ 60 Minutes ”that aired last Sunday.
The first set of Biden-era task force reports, dated Jan. 24, did not include any specific recommendations, noting: “The weekly state profile reports are currently under review. Format and content may change in future reports.
It did, however, continue to provide the data graphs for counties, states and countries.
Arizona is the state with the most new cases per 100,000 population this week, followed by South Carolina, California, Rhode Island, New York, Georgia, Texas, Delaware, Virginia and Oklahoma among the top ten.
Oklahoma has the highest test positivity rate, at 18.8%, this week, followed by Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Texas, Kentucky, Georgia, Nebraska, of Alabama and South Carolina in the top ten.
Arizona also leads for the most hospital admissions per 100 beds, followed by Maryland, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, New Mexico, District of Columbia, South Carolina, Oklahoma and California.
And Arizona is also ranked first for most new deaths per 100,000 population, followed by Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, California, Georgia. , Louisiana and Wyoming.
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