Trump administration recommends National Guard as option to help hospitals report coronavirus data Florida National Guard personnel direct vehicles at a coronavirus testing site at the Miami Beach Convention Center.

Trump administration recommends the National Guard as an option to help hospitals report coronavirus data The move is part of a new data reporting protocol for hospitals that eliminates the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a recipient of that information. Public health experts say bypassing the CDC could harm the quality of data and the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic. Lena H. Sun, Amy Goldstein Washington Post

By

Lena H. Sun and

Amy Goldstein

July 14, 2020

The Trump administration is asking governors to consider sending in the National Guard to hospitals to help improve data collection about novel coronavirus patients, supplies and capacity, according to draft letters, internal emails and officials familiar with the plans.

A letter, sent out in recent hours, backs away from earlier drafts as recently as Friday that had directed state leaders to deploy the National Guard to help hospitals with daily data submissions. It now includes the National Guard among states’ options for improving the data flow, according to two senior administration officials and one industry official who was informed Monday about the final version.

Still, even the possibility of National Guard involvement has infuriated hospital industry leaders, who say any data collection problems lie primarily with the Department of Health and Human Services and repeatedly changing federal instructions. The idea of bringing in the Guard was first broached at a late June meeting by Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus task force response coordinator, according to two hospital industry officials who attended and spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private discussions.

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