Bloomberg Businessweek - USA (2020-11-23)

◼ POLITICS Bloomberg Businessweek November 23, 2020

DATA:COVIDTRACKINGPROJECT,BLOOMBERGREPORTING

CTPreaches30mcumulative

websiteviewsand30b

terabytesofAPItraffic

34

you’reredirectedtotheVirginiaDepartmentof

Health.Bycontrast,theCovidTrackingProjecthas

aneasilyfindableVirginiapagethattellsyounew

casestoday,patientsinICUs,patientsonventila-

tors,andothergranulardatapoints.(HHSProtect

alsohasinformationonhospitalcapacity,butsep-

aratefromtheCDCpages;inJuly,thegovernment

directedhospitalstosendtheirdatatotheHHS

insteadoftheCDC,causingconcernamongsome

healthexperts.)A searchonGoogleScholarfor

HHSProtectyieldsonlyabout 30 results,compared

withtheCovidTrackingProject’s 500.

RyanPanchadsaram,anadvisertotheCovid

TrackingProjectwhowasdeputychieftechnology

officerintheObamaWhiteHouse,saystheCDC

is well-positionedtobea Coviddatahub.“They

canaskeveryhospitalinthecountryfordata,and

theycanaskallthelabsandtheycanaggregate

it,”hesays.

TheCDCdoes,infact,gathermostofthesame

dataastheCovidTrackingProject,andgetsquite

a bitmorefromitsownchannels.Butthathasn’t

translatedintodatathat’sfullypublic,easilyusable,

ortransparent.“Thepartwhichisfrustratingis

thatonlya fewofthosedatasetsarebeingmade

public,”Panchadsaramsays.“They’vegotallthe

pipes,they’vegotalloftherelationships;theyjust

aren’tfollowingthroughontheotherside.”

PaulaYoon,directoroftheCDC’sDivisionof

HealthInformaticsandSurveillance,talksabouta

shortageofresourcesandthedifficultyofattract-

ingtalenttothepublicsector.Therealsoneedsto

bea tighterrelationship,shesays,betweenpublic

healthbodiesandthehospitalsanddoctors—and

theirrecordsandITsystems—dealingwithdiseases

onthefrontlines.“Untilthosetwopiecescome

togetherandusecommondatastandards,common

messaging standards for moving data from one

place to another—until we get to that point it’s going

to continue to be really hard,” Yoon says.

In April, CDC Director Robert Redfield said that

the pandemic would strengthen the agency: “The

core capabilities are going to be finally brought to

where they need to be.” But the agency hasn’t got-

tentheresourcesit needs.Earlierthisyear,the

Trumpadministrationpulled$700millionmeant

fortheCDC’svaccinedistributionplanningand

redirectedit toOperationWarpSpeed,a White

House-runvaccineresearchand development

effort.InOctober,Bloombergreportedthatmostof

a $1billionpackagemeanttohelptheCDCwithsur-

veillance,testing,improvementstodatasystems,

andothermeasureswasstalledforfivemonths.

Inadditionto 300 activevolunteers,theCovid

TrackingProjectnowhas 30 paidstaffers.The

Atlanticprovidesit withlegal,communications,

andtechnologysupportand,crucially,hasbeen

theconduitfor$1.42millionindonationsfrom

suchgroupsastheChanZuckerbergInitiative,

theRockefellerFoundation,andtheRobertWood

JohnsonFoundation.Butthemagazineis otherwise

hands-off.“Idon’tthink[theproject]couldhave

beenbuiltinsidethewallsofa researchinstitution

ora mediaorganization,”saysKissane,theproj-

ect’smanagingeditor.

It is insomewaysthequintessentialpandemic-

erastartup,existingalmostentirelyonSlack,

theworkplacemessagingplatform.Mostofthe

staffandvolunteershavenevermetinperson

andknoweachotheronlythroughdigitalava-

tarsandZoomchats.Theyhavea widerangeof

professionalbackgrounds:French,whois nowa

paidteamleader,hasa doctorateinEnglish.

150k

100

50

0

3/1 11/17

“It’s kind of

mind-boggling

that it’s fallen

to a group of

volunteers to

do this”

CovidTracking

Project(CTP)

is born

CTPCovidRacial

DataTracker

launches

Co-chair of Biden

Covid task force

says it’s using CTP

databecauseit can’t

accessallCDCdata

HHS Protect

PublicData

Hublaunches

Hospitals are told to

redirecttheirdatareports

fromCDCtoHHS

RacingtoKeep Up With Covid Data

CTPLong-Term

CareCovid

Trackerlaunches

Trump administration

revealsit’sbeen

usingCTPdata

U.S. daily cases

4/10 4/30 7/1 5 8/12