President Joe Biden has ordered federal agencies to work with the government’s COVID-19 response coordinator in efforts to collect, publish and share pandemic-related data and address disinformation or misinformation campaigns regarding the public health crisis.
The executive order calls for the modernization of infrastructure that can support data-drive approaches to help the U.S. prepare for biological threats, the White House said Thursday.
Under the directive, department and agency heads must partner with authorities at all levels in implementing policies meant to inform community decision-making.
Biden instructed secretaries of the departments of Defense, Commerce, Labor, Education and Health and Human Services to collaborate with the U.S. Attorney General as well as the directors of national intelligence, the Office of Management and Budget, the Office of Science and Technology Policy and the National Science Foundation to appoint senior agency officials who will lead public health data initiatives.
OSTP and the National Science and Technology Council must work together to develop an analytics innovation plan, while HHS must help review information systems used to help personnel detect and respond to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
