By Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. military has decided it will stop providing some of the more granular data about coronavirus infections within its ranks out of concern that the information might be used by adversaries as the virus spreads.
U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper outlined the plan in an interview with Reuters, saying that he wanted the military to keep providing broader data about infections in the armed forces, which rose by 30 percent to 227 cases on Wednesday.
But Esper, a former Army secretary, said he wanted some of the more mission-specific information to be withheld to prevent compromising operational security.
“What we want to do is give you aggregated numbers. But we’re not going to disaggregate numbers because it could reveal information about where we may be affected at a higher rate than maybe some other places,” Esper said, without disclosing precisely what information would be withheld or when the plan would be implemented.
(Reporting by Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali; Editing by Nick Zieminski)
