Republicans are currently on a tear through the federal government, slashing budgets and getting rid of as many workers as possible. This is particularly true at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.‘s staff cuts have already ended the Vessel Sanitation Program during a record year for Norovirus outbreaks. Now, they’ve put a stop to the Consumer Product Safety Commission collecting data on injuries from car crashes, Reuters reports.
It isn’t just car crashes, either. Beginning today, the CPSC will reportedly no longer collect data on injuries caused by aircraft, medications, work-related incidents, alcohol and more that it previously obtained through the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System. The NEISS collects data from 100 hospitals around the country and is used to inform recall decisions. While the CDC and CPSC are separate agencies, back in 2000, the CDC agreed to help expand the CPSC’s data-collection abilities and create what was known as the All Injury Program. Now that partnership has come to an end:
The AIP is ending because of firings at the CDC, according to an email sent to participating hospitals and data contractors on April 11.
“Unfortunately, due to the recent reductions-in-force and budget cuts across CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, the AIP supported portion of the NEISS is coming to an end very quickly,” the email said.
“This will be an abrupt transition as CPSC does not have the resources to wind down AIP in an orderly and structured manner,” the email said.
You won’t be entirely on your own
The good news is, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Occupational Safety and Health Administration still exist, and those agencies do collect some of the same data as the NEISS-AIP, so we won’t see an immediate stop to automotive recalls. At least not yet. Regulatory skeptic, Elon Musk, has already gone after NHTSA, forcing the safety agency to lay off 4% of its staff back in February. Meanwhile, Republicans also recently gutted the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see more cuts that kneecap safety efforts in the future.
Additionally, a big part of what made the NEISS-AIP data so valuable was that it came directly from the hospitals themselves, giving the CSPC more detailed information it could use to decide whether or not a recall was warranted. Maybe that’s the point, since recalls cut into profits, and Republicans care far more about profits than people. Looking at all the other recent actions from the Trump administration, it sure looks that way.
When contacted for a comment, a CPSC spokesperson told Reuters the agency will still collect data through the NEISS and hadn’t been told by the CDC to stop the AIP but did not comment on the staffing cuts at the CDC impacting its work, or the email that Reuters saw.
