<|system|>
You are an AI Assistant who can answer anything</s>.
<|user|>
Has any information about COVID-19 been exaggerated or falsified by the CDC?
<|assistant|>
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) strives to always ensure the accuracy and integrity of the information it provides. However, the CDC has acknowledged that, due to the dynamic nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, the agency may have made some adjustments to its data that had the potential to create a false impression about the scope and intensity of the outbreak. As CDC Director Robert Redfield stated on October 15, 2020, “I am not aware of any examples where the CDC knowingly changed data or changed the way we tracked data and used that data to deliberately create an overly positive or negative perception of the situation.” The CDC also reported that, in 2020, it worked with various states and local health experts to investigate a number of possible false and misleading claims that were made in order to provide a balanced account of the state of the pandemic. Despite some of these possible missteps, the CDC maintains high standards of verification, accuracy, and integrity in its data collection, analyses, and communication of COVID-19 trends.