In a post at Talking Points Memo (talkingpointsmemo.com/...)
quoting the Wall Street Journal, Dr. Deborah Birx is now saying the “CDC is working with us right now to build a revolutionary new data system so it can be moved back to the CDC, and they can have that regular accountability with hospitals relevant to treatment and PPE.” She is further quoted as saying that the move to send all collected Covid data to the private firm TeleTracking was meant to be solely an interim system.
Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit. This announcement by Birx attempts to do several things, none of them good.
--It raises expectations that CDC will be getting the data again, but does not really commit to setting a timeline for that to happen. “Working with us right now to build a revolutionary system” is so vague as to be meaningless. And why couldn’t CDC have continued receiving Covid data while continuing to work on this spanking shiny new pie-in-the-sky system?
--Why would Teletracking receive a $10million+ contract for being solely an interim system? Especially since Teletracking would have to exponentially grow their own systems to handle all the Covid data?
--Why was no one told that Teletracking was an interim solution to a non-existent problem? The move to TeleTracking was announced 48 hours in advance, forcing hospitals to scramble. This supposed move back to CDC is catching everyone offguard.
--It’s more than a little suspicious that this announcement from Birx comes after it became known that TeleTracking is claiming that a NDA prevents it from releasing any information about its contract even to Congress. So now will the Administration claim that since TeleTracking will soon be out of the Covid data business, the whole contract is a moot point and there’s no reason for Congress to investigate it? And if so, where’d the $10million go?
As with all things Trump, follow the money. This whole TeleTracking episode stinks to high heaven.
