In addition to the virtual press briefings three times a week on the pandemic, the Biden government is making another important change in its outreach to states. The White House will now make its weekly state-specific Covid-19 reports public, which began during the Trump administration in June.
A White House official told CNN the government is “committed to being a partner of states for resources and clear guidance” and will be “transparent even when it’s not easy or when the truth is difficult” .
Part of the effort includes sharing data.
The Trump White House has sent these reports, which contain state-specific and national data as well as customized recommendations, to government officials every week, but refused to give them to reporters or publish them in public. In December, the task force removed another layer of transparency, requiring states to arrange directly to the White House to request the reports each week, rather than proactively providing them.
CNN was able to obtain dozens of state reports each week, and the findings showed a more unadorned, urgent assessment of the state of the pandemic than the Trump White House would publicly disclose. While the White House, for example, hosted a crowd of holiday parties where many guests were unmasked, the reports of the time urged government officials to ‘start warning about any event during December holidays’.
The language in the weekly assessments, which began in June, became increasingly difficult each week. In November, the reports warned of ‘aggressive, relentless, expanding broad-based community spread … without evidence of improvement, but rather weakening’, adding that the current mitigation efforts were ‘inadequate’. In a report in early December, the task force urged public health officials to take matters into their own hands, saying: ‘If state and local policies do not reflect the seriousness of the current situation, all public health officials should immediately warn the state population . “
Trump’s Covid task force coordinator, dr. Deborah Birx, was directly involved in the report each week, and her final set of reports released last week included a personal note.
‘I am personally grateful to (help Irum) Zaidi for the governors, mayors, state legislators, county commissioners, tribal leaders, state and local health leaders, and hospital and community leaders of the 44 states who met with us during our This Direct Knowledge on your land has changed policies and programs, ‘Birx wrote in the January 17 reports that CNN received.
She continued, “You have shown us the obstacles that need to be addressed, and many of you have given us solutions that we can include in the weekly call of the Governor of the White House.”
Birx has indicated that she feels censored by the Trump White House, which played a part in her decision to convey urgency at the state level.
‘I was so frustrated that I realized that the only way, if I could not get a vote internally, was that I could get a vote at the state level because I could see the governors weekly on the governor’s call and I could see how deeply they were concerned about each of their citizens, ‘she said during an interview with CBS News’ ’60 Minutes’ which aired last Sunday.
The first collection of Biden-era task force reports, dated January 24, did not contain any specific recommendations, with the remark: “The weekly report on the state profile is currently being revised. The format and content may change in the following reports.”
However, it continued to provide the maps of provincial, state and national data.
Arizona is the most new cases per 100,000 population 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 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 for the most hospital admissions per 100 beds, followed by Maryland, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, New Mexico, the District of Columbia, South Carolina, Oklahoma and California.
And Arizona is also at the peak of the most new deaths per 100,000 population, followed by Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, California, Georgia, Louisiana and Wyoming.