White House to set up new coronavirus surveillance system
According to Politico, the White House has reached out with several health technology companies in view to create a national coronavirus surveillance system to give the US government a near real-time perspective of where patients are seeking treatment and for what, and whether hospitals can accommodate them. The project of compiling a nationwide database of sensitive health information has raised strong privacy concerns, with critics comparing it to the Patriot Act. This project is currently led by White House senior adviser Jared Kushner’s task force.