As the number of veterans with the coronavirus climbs to nearly 5,000, the Department of Veterans Affairs appears to no longer be providing what little information it previously released on veteran deaths.
On Thursday, VA launched an interactive map showing the cases of veterans infected with the virus cared for by VA across the country, as well as the total number of deaths.
Previously, each day on the department's website, VA listed the cases, how many were inpatient or quarantined at home and how many veterans had died at each of its hospitals nationwide. On Thursday afternoon, that list was removed from the site.
VA also included a daily list of veterans who had died of the virus, including their approximate ages and the VA hospital they were receiving care at when they died. On Thursday, that information was also removed from the site and was not included in VA's new mapped data.
The previous data helped show the approximate ages of veterans who had died of the virus so far -- most older than 60, with just one younger than 50 as of Wednesday.
Map users can still find how many veterans have died total, and a breakdown of deaths by individual location on the map, but they can no longer track where veterans have died without checking each individual location on the map and comparing the numbers against the previous day's total.
The new map allows users to download spreadsheets with the data, but VA did not input any of the data using city, state or zip code information -- only latitude, longitude, official facility name and ID number -- making the information much more difficult to parse.
A VA employee told Connecting Vets that the department has access to the same mapping technology as states and Johns Hopkins University, which has been providing national data for weeks.
But VA isn't using that technology, choosing to use Microsoft Power BI instead, a business analytics and data visualization tool. The employee spoke on condition of anonymity because they said they feared reprisal.
"I’m sure this is all in an effort to make it very difficult for the public and media to accurately track what is going on with COVID-19 numbers," the employee told Connecting Vets.
VA did not immediately respond to requests for comment on whether it planned to continue to provide that information, or where.
VA's new map showed a nearly 10-percent jump in both cases and deaths from Wednesday, though it's unclear if there really was that much of a one-day increase, or if it is related to the change in how VA is reporting its data.
As of Thursday, VA reported:
- 284 veteran deaths from COVID-19, up from 272 a day prior
- 4,946 veterans who tested positive for the virus, up from 4,468 a day prior
- More than 44,179 COVID-19 tests administered nationwide
Meanwhile, VA is still not publicly providing the number of its staff who have the virus or the number who have died.
That information has to be manually requested from VA officials daily.
At last count, more than 1,500 VA employees had tested positive and at least 13 had died of the virus.
VA has a guide for veterans on coronavirus, which includes the request that veterans who believe they are ill should call their local VA before they show up to the hospital.
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Reach Abbie Bennett: abbie@connectingvets.com or @AbbieRBennett.
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