“The Biden Administration has gone to work on stopping the spread of the COVID-19 virus through executive orders (EO) that will enhance data collection capabilities among relevant industries and establish a national testing strategy that includes a contact tracing element.”
“Earlier this week, President Biden signed the Ensuring a Data-Driven Response to COVID-19 and Future High Consequence Public Health Threats order which provides mandates for Federal agencies in collecting, sharing, and analyzing data related to COVID-19 response and recovery.”
“Specifically, the EO mandates that Federal agencies “shall facilitate the gathering, sharing, and publication of COVID-19-related data,” in coordination with the COVID-19 Response Coordinator appointed by Biden. The data facilitation efforts, the order says, shall be done in accordance with the law with appropriate privacy considerations.”
“’These efforts shall assist Federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial authorities in developing and implementing policies to facilitate informed community decision making, to further public understanding of the pandemic and the response, and to deter the spread of misinformation and disinformation,’ the EO states.”
“A slew of major Federal agencies have received marching orders as part of the data-driven coronavirus response effort.”
“According to the EO, the U.S. Attorney General, Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Director of National Intelligence, Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), Director of the National Science Foundation, and the Secretaries of the Departments of Defense, Commerce, Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS), and Education will designate a senior official to lead their agency’s work on pandemic-related data issues. These officials ‘shall take steps to make data relevant to high-consequence public health threats publicly available and accessible…'” Read the full article here.
Source: Biden Cranks up Federal Data Production, Testing Strategy in COVID-19 Orders – By Jordan Smith, January 22, 2021. MeriTalk.
