While the federal government on Monday sent New York and the other states a “data sharing agreement” required for the eventual distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine, on Tuesday it lashed out at Governor Andrew Cuomo, who accused the administration Trump’s decision to use the process to share sensitive information with immigration authorities and thus achieve the identification of undocumented immigrants.
The data-sharing agreement requests basic biographical information about those who receive vaccines, Cuomo said, including age, race and sex. The president said the state would provide those answers, but not the details of passport numbers, driver’s license numbers or Social Security numbers that the agreement also seeks, he estimated. The governor described it as a pressure campaign by the federal government that amounts to “extortion.”
“At the end of last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asked all states to sign a data use agreement that requires state health departments to share each person’s personal information with the federal government. receive a COVID-19 vaccine, including name, address, date of birth, ethnicity, race and sex, as well as a unique identification number for each vaccine recipient. The ‘identification number’ generally refers to a social security number, driver’s license number or passport number, ”says a letter sent by Cuomo to the Trump administration.
“(…) the federal government must tell the states exactly why this data is necessary, what it will be used for and how it will be protected,” the letter added.
“(…) the data use agreement says that this information will be used by the CDC, the Department of Health and Human Services” and other federal partners. ” My concern is that this information, without due safeguards, could be used by non-health related agencies such as the United States Department of Homeland Security or Immigration and Customs Enforcement to promote the anti-immigrant policies of this administration and their relentless search for undocumented people ”, he adds.
But the White House fought back on Tuesday, in the middle of the election.
“Under no circumstances would the data agreement require, request, collect or retain Social Security numbers, passport numbers, or driver’s license numbers,” White House spokesman Michael Bars told Times Union.
“The data agreement would request only minimal information provided consistent with what is allowed by each state’s policy to protect the citizens of that state.”
Bars said each state has the option of removing personally identifiable information from the data.
A White House spokesman forwarded the document shared with governors last week to explain the policy that Cuomo criticized.
Personally identifiable information collected through the vaccine process is “critically necessary” for the following reasons: to ensure that people receive both doses of the vaccine, to ensure the accuracy of the data collected about the vaccine, to have personal information about the vaccine recipients in case someone gets sick, and measure the success of the vaccine in different demographic lines, the spokesperson detailed.
“As we explained to Governor Cuomo, such information would only be used to support the unprecedented public-private partnership that continues to harness the full power of the federal government, the private sector, the military and the scientific community to fight the coronavirus and save lives. Bars said.
“The Governor is not very prepared as states formulate their vaccine distribution plans. His politically motivated attacks backfire and reflect a profound lack of understanding of the complex public health challenges associated with delivering a safe and effective vaccine in New York and communities across the country, “he added. “He didn’t understand how to protect older people in long-term care settings, nor did he understand vaccine distribution.”
New York has required since March that those taking the tests show a copy of their driver’s license. The driver’s license information of the people who have been tested was recorded by the people who administered the tests, including their addresses. A spokesman for the Department of Health said the data has been used to contact those receiving the tests.
In addition to criticizing the federal government’s data-sharing agreement, Cuomo criticized the federal plan to distribute the vaccine as “woefully inadequate.”
The plan is for drug companies to produce the doses of the vaccine and distribute them to the states that will oversee the administration of the vaccines, Cuomo said.
The federal government expects private health infrastructure, including pharmacies, doctors and medical facilities, to help distribute the vaccines, Cuomo said, even though the same infrastructure has already proven insufficient.
The governor maintains that private health infrastructure is not up to the task of delivering COVID-19 vaccines and that there are fewer such facilities in communities of color. He said that could have a discriminatory effect on who gets vaccinated, noting that “Hispanic and black communities” are also the communities that have suffered the highest rates of infection and mortality during the pandemic.
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