Letter to Robert R. Redfield, MD, Director of Center for Disease Control and Prevention - Rep Speier Calls on CDC to Release COVID-19 Data on Essential Workers

Letter

Dear Dr. Redfield:

Last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published an important report
indicating that, as of April 9, at least 9,292 health care personnel were infected with the novel
coronavirus, and 27 died. Because health care personnel are crucial to responding to the
pandemic and also at high risk of exposure to the coronavirus in the course of their work, we are
writing to ask you to regularly issue public reports with updated data on illness and deaths of
health care personnel due to COVID-19 or related complications.

Also, it is our understanding that CDC is revising the case report form for COVID-19 to obtain
data on occupational exposure and occupation status and that the new form will be implemented
later this month. We are encouraged by this development, and we respectfully suggest that the
new set of questions explicitly ask whether the patient had contact with a confirmed COVID-19
case at work. Once this new data is collected, we request that CDC initiate regular public
reporting, no less frequently than monthly, on infections and deaths of all essential workers
related to COVID-19 or related complications.

Reporting this information for all essential workers--disaggregated by occupation--is in the
public interest because it would help policymakers, employers, and workers to better monitor the
impact of efforts to mitigate infections and protect essential workers from the coronavirus. As
Americans, we all owe a tremendous debt to essential workers who risk their health to deliver
critical goods and services that make life possible during this pandemic. We should make every
effort to collect and report data on their health and well-being and utilize that data to inform
COVID-19 mitigation and prevention strategies for essential workers.

Thank you for your consideration and attention to this matter. We look forward to hearing from
you as soon as possible about this request.