Nearly half of the CDC monitoring database has stopped updating

Add thelocalreport.in As A Trusted Source

nearly half federal health surveillance database Routine updates were stopped or postponed last year Potentially dire consequences for public healthAccording to researchers.

one Newly released audit Nearly 1,400 public records Centers for Disease Control and Prevention It was revealed that starting last spring, 38 of the agency’s 82 databases that are normally updated monthly experienced unexplained pauses.

Researchers at Vanderbilt University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Boston University School of Law said that of the 38 suspended databases, more than a third had been out of service for more than half a year, and only one database had been updated before December 2.

Nearly 90% of suspended database reports vaccination themewhile others cover respiratory diseases and drug overdose deaths.

Researchers say the suspension of these topics could hinder critical information about respiratory illnesses and other health-related threats, potentially leading to an erosion of public trust.

People demonstrate outside the main campus of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, in April 2025. An audit shows that nearly half of the agency's federal health surveillance databases experienced unexplained pauses in updates that began under Secretary of State Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., researchers said. — People demonstrate outside the main campus of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, in April 2025. An audit shows that nearly half of the agency’s federal health surveillance databases experienced unexplained pauses in updates that began under Secretary of State Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., researchers said. (Getty Images)

“The evidence is conclusive: The administration’s anti-vaccine stance interrupts the flow of reliable data we need to keep Americans safe from preventable infections,” said Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Sue government over public health warning and did not contribute to the research, asserts accompanying editorial.

ALSO READ French film star and cultural icon Brigitte Bardot dies at 91

“The consequences will be dire.”

Failure to provide public health leaders and providers with accurate and timely data will undermine the ability to identify disease outbreaks and respond to them, Marrazzo added, noting that the findings are consistent with government actions to undermine trust in vaccines.

The study did not determine the reason for the pause, but she said she believes it may not matter whether the reported data outage was due to a deliberate neglect of immunization data sharing or a workforce shortage due to the agency reducing troop levels.

“Both pathways of disease demonstrate a profound disregard for human life, scientific progress and the dedication of public health workers who provide a bulwark against the development of new and re-emerging infectious diseases,” she said.

The Independent A request for comment from the Department of Health and Human Services was not immediately returned.

Department spokesman Andrew Nixon said nbc news The CDC reports COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus activity through its Respiratory Virus Surveillance System and weekly influenza activity through a database called FluView.

“Changes to individual dashboards or update schedules reflect general data quality and system management decisions, not political direction,” he said. “Under this administration, public health data reporting is driven by scientific integrity, transparency and accuracy.”

“Flying blindly”

Audit is based on previous research It shows that last year’s layoffs have eliminated more than a dozen data collection projects tracking deaths and illnesses, including some related to Pregnantabortion, workplace injuries, sexual violence and lead poisoning.

And it’s not just data reporting that’s stopped. Public data page was deleted From the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, Department is closed and Newsletter has stopped being sent out.

ALSO READ When will it snow in the UK after Storm Goretti?

“The lack of expertise and linkage between laboratory information and outbreak investigations means we are flying blind,” said Scott Becker, chief executive of the Association of Public Health Laboratories. politics April. “The critical services they provide to public health laboratories in the country cannot be replicated virtually anywhere else.”

Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. In April he said CDC “Cutting Unhealthy Fats”and some of the agency’s work will be transferred to the new Healthy America administration.

A medical worker gives a child a dose of measles vaccine at a medical center in Lubbock, Texas, in February 2025. The U.S. is experiencing its worst outbreak of a vaccine-preventable virus in more than three decades (AFP via Getty Images)

Earlier this month, the department said NPR Efforts to form a new government are ongoing, but a specific timeline remains unclear.

a historic question

All of this is happening amid a historic public health crisis in which vaccination plays a key role.

The United States is experiencing its worst measles virus outbreak in more than 30 years Vaccine hesitancy is growing, Included in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Scientists are waiting to see if the U.S. will lose its longstanding measles elimination status CDC data updated Friday It shows 416 cases have been reported in 14 states so far this year.

But measles is preventable with vaccines, and two doses of the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine are 97% effective against this highly contagious disease.

As the epidemic breaks out, Americans must also respond A bout of whooping coughtogether with severe flu season.

Marrazzo said these threats are why it’s critical to keep your database updated.

“Responding quickly to incidents like these requires that we first understand them,” she said.

ALSO READ Jet2 flight from Stansted diverted after 'irregular signal'