Recently, a tweet caused a commotion among American netizens: Jorge Caballero, anesthesiologist at Stanford University Hospital, posted a new version of the "COVID-19 Hospital Reporting Guidelines and Frequently Asked Questions" released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (hereinafter referred to as the U.S. Department of Health) on January 6, silently burying a small line in the more than 50 pages of the new version of the guide: "The number of COVID-19 deaths on the day before the suspension of reporting to the 'Federal Data Collection'. The new version is scheduled to take effect on February 2.
Caballero asked on Twitter: "I'd love to know why, starting Feb. 2, the federal government is no longer requiring hospitals to report daily COVID-19 deaths." ”
Caballero posted a screenshot of the ministry's new guidelines showing a pause in the collection of covid-19 deaths from the previous day.
The post quickly garnered thousands of fan retweets and comments. But it doesn't seem to be on the mainstream U.S. media, as does the new version of the Health Department's guidelines themselves.
Instead, the US business insider website quickly debunked a rumor: "The government will stop tracking COVID-19 deaths" is going viral – but it is misleading. The article acknowledges that the U.S. Department of Health will indeed stop collecting daily COVID-19 deaths in hospitals on Feb. 2, but the article said that this will not affect the daily death statistics that people have been querying since the outbreak.
Business Insider quoted Irene Kisane, head of the Atlantic COVID-19 Tracking Program, as saying that the number of new COVID-19 deaths that most people focus on every day (such as Data from The New York Times) is usually not from the Ministry of Health, but from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or by adding up data from various local health departments. Danielle Rhoades Ha, vice president of communications for The New York Times, said the CDC still requires states to report COVID-19 deaths.
However, Caballero, who is also a health data scientist, disagrees with Kisane and others. He said at least seven states reported deaths to the federal government that were provided by in-state hospitals, and that without a federal decree, hospital data would default to those "parts that the state feels it needs."
In a separate tweet, Caballero said the number of single-day COVID-19 deaths in hospitals is valuable, a test of the pressure, capacity, capacity, and patient safety of the U.S. health system.
The U.S. Department of Health did not respond to requests for comment on the Business Insider website.
Caballero told the site that yes, Americans can still see daily COVID-19 death statistics, but on average there will be a 3- to 6-week lag, and it's often incomplete because it depends on how state and local agencies report the data. He stressed that the Ministry of Health's hospital statistics are faster and more reliable.
Caballero said: "This policy change means that at a time when the number of deaths caused by Omicron has soared, we are blindsided." ”
Just a few days after this controversial tweet was issued, on the 19th, US President Biden described the current SITUATION in the United States at a press conference for the first anniversary of his administration: "We are moving towards an era where the new crown epidemic will not disrupt the normal life of Americans. He stressed that the United States will not be allowed to impose a blockade again.
A good epidemic will not disrupt the normal life of Americans, is it achieved by stopping updating some key data?
Unfortunately, on the day of Biden's speech, the number of new infections reported in the United States in a single day exceeded 1 million again, and the number of deaths exceeded 3,800 – but after the Ministry of Health stopped counting on February 2, perhaps the latter data was lagging or mutilated.
The U.S. Department of Health has yet to explain why hospitals are no longer required to report this data. However, under Caballero's questioning tweet, some netizens reposted a paragraph, which is very eye-catching:
"Don't worry, there won't be another blockade. We will only normalize the death of COVID-19, as we have already done, death from poverty, death from gun violence, death from police shooting, death from homelessness, death from suicide, death from opium, death from looking down on illness, etc. All normalized. This passage says.
Then the netizen typed a few words: "That's why." ”
Column Editor-in-Chief: Qin Hong Text Editor: Song Hui Title Image Source: Xinhua News Agency Photo Editor: Zhu Xuan
Source: Author: Informational Messages