Sources and updates, February 19
Sources and updates for the week of February 19 include test positivity, healthcare data sharing, and the value of vaccination.
Read MoreTag: HHS
What the public health emergency’s end means for COVID-19 data
This past Monday, the White House announced that the federal public health emergency for COVID-19 will end in May. While this decision might be an accurate reflection of how most of the U.S. is treating COVID-19 right now, it has massive implications for Americans’ access to tests, treatments, vaccines—and data.
Read MoreOrders of free at-home COVID-19 tests varied widely by state
On September 2, 2022, the federal government stopped taking orders for free at-home COVID-19 tests. The day this program ended, I sent a public records request to the federal government asking for data on how many tests were distributed. I just received some data back from my request; here’s what the numbers show.
Read MorePotential data fragmentation when the federal COVID-19 public health emergency ends
COVID-19 is still a public health emergency. At the moment, this is true according to both the general definition of this term and official declarations by the federal government. But the latter could change in the coming months, likely leading to more fragmentation in U.S. COVID-19 data.
Read MoreTwo major Long COVID reports are coming in August
This past Friday, the White House and the Department of Health and Human Services held a briefing previewing two major reports about Long COVID.
Read MoreWe need more data on who’s getting Paxlovid
Last week, I shared a new page from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), reporting statistics on COVID-19 therapeutic distribution in the U.S. The new dataset is a helpful step, but it falls far short of the information we actually need to examine who has access to COVID-19 treatments (particularly Paxlovid) and address potential health equity issues.
Read MoreHospitalization data lag behind the actual crisis
A record number of COVID-19 patients are now receiving care in U.S. hospitals, according to data from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Even so, reports from the doctors and other staff working in these hospitals—conveyed in the news and on social media—suggest that the HHS data don’t capture the current crisis. The federal data may be reported with delays and fail to capture the impact of staffing shortages, obscuring the fact that many regions and individual hospitals are currently operating at 100% capacity.
Read MoreCOVID source shout-out: Community Profile Reports
We’re now approaching almost a year since the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) first started publicly releasing Community Profile Reports, massive documents containing COVID-19 data at the state, county, and metro area levels.
Read MoreFeatured sources, November 7
Featured sources for the week of November 7 include school learning modes, testing technologies, and federal contractors.
Read MoreCOVID source callout: Community Profile Report updates
The Community Profile Reports, those extensive PDF reports and Excel files that contain everything from vaccination coverage to hospital capacity, are now published on Tuesdays and Fridays only. (Previously, these reports were posted every day.)
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