Modernized public data health infrastructure is needed to protect health and save lives, five former CDC directors said in an opinion article for The Hill.
Tom Frieden, Julie Gerberding, Jeffrey Koplan, William L. Roper, David Satcher said they each recognized the need for more accurate, timely and comprehensive data when they headed up the agency. Progress was limited due to lack of funds and legal authority.
They said key local data such as hospital capacity was inaccessible to the CDC at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Then, a public health emergency declaration gave HHS authority to require reporting of essential data to guide pandemic response. That authority goes away once the emergency is lifted. The CDC has no legal ability to standardize data without congressional authority.
The past directors said authorities needed to standardize and coordinate public health data across jurisdictions should be included in Congress' PREVENT Pandemics Act.
"Giving the CDC the authority now to direct data coordination efforts will jumpstart longer-term rebuilding and modernization of our public health data infrastructure," they said. "As the pandemic has proven, American lives depend on how quickly and comprehensively we can accomplish this objective."