When the Trump administration ordered hospitals to report COVID-19 data to the Department of Health and Human Services rather than the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as they had been doing, it provoked criticism from public health experts. The White House said that the HHS system will provide more accurate data faster, but the switch did raise concerns that political considerations would influence what data is reported. Professor of Public Policy Julia Lane, who recently published the book Democratizing Our Data, explains why public data is so vital to public health and democracy in general.
A longer transcript of the interview is available to read