CDCs data sharing problem misguides assessment on Delta variant in U.S.: Washington Post

Problems in the data sharing approach of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has prevented senior U.S. officials from getting real-time situation about the COVID-19 pandemic and the lethal Delta variant, the Washington Post reported Thursday.

The officials said that the information gap "stymied" the country's response to curb the disease, according to the report, adding that "the CDC's fumbles on the Delta variant tell a more complicated story: the once-storied agency faces other challenges that have hampered an agile response to the pandemic."

The report added that the CDC's failure in real-time data sharing "led top administration officials, including the president himself, to offer overly rosy assessments of the vaccines' effectiveness against the Delta variant that may have lulled Americans into a false sense of security."

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky announced Wednesday plans to improve the crippled approach by developing a new forecasting and outbreak analytics center to analyze data in real time to better assess disease threats, said the report.

Walensky said it would be the country's first government-wide forecasting center and its leadership team would include well-respected epidemiologists.