Briefing: Infectious Disease Control + Data Security
We have two briefings for you this week: In Infectious Disease Control, all eyes are on the CDC’s response to the hantavirus outbreak. In Data Security, the DOJ is still trolling for voter rolls and personal data on election officials, but even Republicans are getting tired of warrantless domestic surveillance.
Infectious Disease Control & Prevention
The Infectious Disease Control team added 13 entries to our timeline. An outbreak of Andes virus (a hantavirus) on the cruise ship MV Hondius provides a first look at how the administration will respond to international health threats. So far, they’ve been slow to communicate: It took the CDC four days to release its first public statement, posted May 6, after the WHO and Africa CDC received reports on May 2. The CDC’s first advisory to doctors went out two days later on May 8, and on May 9, officials finally held a telephone briefing for members of the press — strictly by invitation, and reporters were forbidden to cite speakers by name. Meanwhile, misinformation and conspiracy theories about hantavirus continue to spread.
At the end of April, about 80% of the CDC’s top leadership roles stood vacant. NIH director Jay Bhattacharya still leads the CDC by default, though his term as acting director expired in March. According to a WHO director and a state health official, the CDC’s behind-the-scenes work has continued despite the US withdrawal from the WHO in January, but former public health officials warn that understaffing prevents more active investigation of both the Andes virus and (potentially more dangerous) future threats. Last year, HHS stopped work on leading-edge vaccine development and the NIH cancelled funding for an entire network of global infectious disease research projects, including a pilot project studying hantavirus in Argentina, where the current outbreak is believed to have begun.
Elsewhere, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s HHS has blocked publication of studies demonstrating the safety of the COVID and shingles vaccines, and after weeks of speculation, FDA commissioner Marty Makary has resigned. Deputy Commissioner for Food Kyle Diamantas, a former corporate lawyer who previously represented a formula company accused of harming premature babies, will serve as Acting Commissioner of the FDA.
Data Security
The Data Security team added 18 items to our timeline. In its continuing quest to find evidence supporting Trump’s baseless election fraud claims, the Department of Justice served a subpoena to Fulton County, Georgia, demanding the names, addresses, and other personal details of all professional and volunteer workers from the 2020 general election; the county filed a motion to block the action. A federal judge denied the DOJ access to Arizona’s complete voter rolls, but Iowa voluntarily turned theirs over.
In data consolidation and weaponization: An ICE assistant director revealed that agents’ iPhones now have access to the personal data of 20 million people. The administration went jurisdiction-shopping to the Northern District of Texas to try to compel hospitals in Rhode Island and New York to reveal the personal information of minor gender-affirming care patients and their doctors; in Rhode Island, at least, a judge blocked the subpoena anyway.
Some good news, though: The House and Senate only temporarily reauthorized Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA); 20 Republicans refused to support the program, which the FBI has used to conduct warrantless domestic surveillance. A week later, Republican representatives Thomas Massie and Lauren Boebert introduced the Surveillance Accountability Act, which would require a warrant to access the personal information of US citizens. Similarly, the California Privacy Protection Agency wrote to oppose the proposed SECURE Data Act, which would override stronger state privacy protections.
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