In addition to reporting to the virtual press three times a week about the pandemic, the Biden government is making another major change in its reach to states. The White House will now be publicly launching its state-specific Covid-19 reports, which began during the Trump administration in June.
A White House official told CNN that the government is “committed to partnering with states to obtain clear resources and guidance” and “will be transparent even when it is not easy or when the truth is difficult”.
Part of that effort includes data sharing.
The Trump White House sent these reports, which included state-specific and national data, as well as personalized recommendations, to state officials each week, but refused to provide them to reporters or publicly publish them. In December, the task force removed another layer of transparency, requiring states to contact the White House directly to request the reports every week, rather than proactively providing them.
CNN was able to independently obtain dozens of state reports each week, and the findings showed a sharper and more urgent assessment of the state of the pandemic than the Trump White House would publicly reveal. For example, while the White House was hosting a flock of parties where many guests were unmasked, reports at that time told state officials to “start warning about any meetings during the December holidays.”
The language in the weekly assessments, which started in June, has become more and more terrible every week. In November, reports warned of “an aggressive, relentless and expanding widespread community spread … with no evidence of improvement, but of further deterioration”, adding that current mitigation efforts were “inadequate”. In a report in early December, the task force urged public health officials to resolve the issue on their own, saying: “If state and local policies do not reflect the seriousness of the current situation, all public health officials must directly alert the population of the state. “
The coordinator of Trump’s task force in Covid, Dr. Deborah Birx, was directly involved with the report every week and, in her final set of reports released last week, included a personal note.
“I personally thank, along with (advisor Irum) Zaidi, the governors, mayors, state legislators, county commissioners, tribal leaders, state and local health leaders and hospital and community leaders from the 44 states who met with us during our travels. These direct lessons from you have changed policies and programs, “wrote Birx in the January 17 reports obtained by CNN.
She continued: “You have shown us the barriers that needed to be overcome and many of you have provided solutions that we could present on the White House governor’s weekly call.”
Birx indicated that she felt censored by the Trump White House, which influenced her decision to convey urgency at the state level.
“I was so frustrated that I realized that the only way, if I couldn’t have an internal voice, I could have a voice at the state level, because I could see the governors in the governor’s weekly call and see how deeply they were concerned about each one of its citizens, “she said during an interview with CBS News” 60 Minutes “, which aired last Sunday.
The first set of reports from the Biden-era task force, dated January 24, did not include any specific recommendations, noting: “The weekly state profile reports are currently under review. The format and content may change in the next reports . ”
However, it continued to provide graphs of municipal, state and national data.
Arizona is the state with the most new cases per 100,000 inhabitants this week, followed by South Carolina, California, Rhode Island, New York, Georgia, Texas, Delaware, Virginia and Oklahoma in the top ten.
Oklahoma has the highest test positivity rate, at 18.8%, this week, followed by Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Texas, Kentucky, Georgia, Nebraska, Alabama and South Carolina in the top ten.
Arizona also leads most hospital admissions by 100 beds, followed by Maryland, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, New Mexico, District of Columbia, South Carolina, Oklahoma and California.
And Arizona is also ranked at the top for most new deaths per 100,000, followed by Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, California, Georgia, Louisiana and Wyoming.