California’s Data Failures Stymie Efforts to Curb COVID-19 Virus

GCN.com  –

The failure of California’s infectious disease monitoring system for a stretch of at least 20 days in July and August triggered potentially deadly fallout that continues to reverberate across the state. The fallout has been most severe in heavily populated counties, which rely primarily on a statewide electronic information system to guide their pandemic response. Local health departments couldn’t clearly see where the coronavirus was spreading, dramatically slowing their efforts to trace and track new infections — leading to more death and disease, public health officials said.