Ensuring Transparent Honest Information on COVID-19 Act or the ETHIC Act
This bill retroactively requires states and other jurisdictions to report specified COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019) data to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as a condition of receiving certain COVID-19 funding. It also directs the CDC and others to take additional actions to address public health data systems, public health infrastructure, and health disparities.
Specifically, the bill directs the CDC to improve its data systems, develop relevant data and technology systems, and expand its public health infrastructure. The CDC must also award grants to government health departments to modernize their data systems, infrastructure, and collection of health disparities data.
Furthermore, the Department of Health and Human Services must commission a study from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine on public health data infrastructure, and the Indian Health Service must, as advised by a panel of tribal representatives, conduct research on health inequities among tribal populations, including inequities related to COVID-19.