The CDC is still trying to fix its data problem

Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is still trying to improve the way it collects and analyzes public health data, Politico reported.

A March 16th email reviewed by Politico from Dan Jernigan, the CDC’s deputy director for Public Health Science and Surveillance, mentioned the Data Modernization Initiative — a plan that would include integrating state and federal data systems and giving states funding to hire staffers to work with data.

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the stark limitations of the US public health data systems: information is siloed at individual hospitals and...