Former US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Thomas Frieden says states need to standardize the COVID-19 data they report, according to the New York Times.
It adds that other public health experts concur and say the current CDC director, Robert Redfield, should have issued guidelines months ago. "We have a real vacuum of leadership at the national level," Frieden, who now runs the nonprofit health advocacy group Resolve to Save Lives, tells the Times. "Absent a national strategy, our best hope is to get all 50 states on the same page, so we know where we are."
His group has issued a report that highlights 15 indicators states should report on publicly available COVID-19 dashboards, such as the number of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths, as well as the time it takes to get a test result and the portion of cases that are people who know one another, the Times says.
It adds that no one state currently reports all the indicators Frieden's group recommends, but that several governors told Frieden they would be adopting his guidelines. Additionally, a CDC spokesperson tells the Times that it "was always looking at best practices" and has plans with states to track 14 of the 15 indicators.