Tag: Deborah Birx

Dr. Deborah Birx seemed like a reasonable voice close to the throne. Now she’s destroyed herself — and for what?

AlterNet logoOver the past week or so, there’s been a major attempt by the Trump administration to demean the reputation of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, with anonymous “oppo-research” and open insults from Peter Navarro, a trade adviser close to President Trump. Fauci is widely acknowledged to be one of the world’s foremost experts on pandemics so there was a furious pushback to this crude character assassination. Despite the fact that Trump had made similar remarks about Fauci being “wrong” about the coronavirus, the president was forced to throw Navarro under the bus despite the fact that it’s obvious they’ve been on the same page.

Trump is obviously jealous of the public’s trust in Fauci, compared to the increasing public skepticism of anything he personally says about the crisis. But this attack on Fauci is really just a symbol of the administration’s rejection of the reality we can see with our own eyes: a new explosion of COVID-19 all over the country.

It was an ugly kerfuffle but certainly not something that should have surprised us. Trump has been insulting and purging any government employee he deems disloyal, and since Fauci isn’t blowing smoke about the virus, that’s how Trump sees him. Continue reading.

Dr. Birx and other White House officials pressuring CDC to revise COVID-19 death count to please Trump: report

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump and his coronavirus task force are pressuring officials at the Centers for Disease Control to dial down the number of COVID-19 deaths.

Five administration officials working on the pandemic response told The Daily Beast that the White House has pressed the CDC to work with states to revise how they count coronavirus deaths and report them back to the federal government.

Dr. Deborah Birx, in particular, has urged CDC officials to exclude some individuals who are presumed positive but don’t have confirmed lab results or those who have the virus but may not have died as a direct result, according to three senior administration officials. Continue reading.

Birx’s ‘Fox News Sunday’ interview lays bare the discord in Trump’s coronavirus response

Washington Post logoThe Washington Post published its latest in-depth investigation into the Trump administration’s uneven response to the coronavirus pandemic on Saturday night. On Sunday morning, an interview with a leading medical expert on the White House task force reinforced it.

Appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” Deborah Birx offered very different comments compared with President Trump’s on the projected coronavirus death toll and the protesters who recently stormed the Michigan State Capitol.

Birx was asked about Trump’s projections in recent weeks that there would be between 50,000 and 60,000 deaths, which he later increased to 60,000 to 70,000. We are at over 66,000 deaths, with little sign in recent weeks of any significant downturn. Continue reading.

The White House was just forced to issue a correction after it falsely said Dr. Birx agreed with Trump’s ludicrous idea

AlterNet logoThursday night, after a completely farcical coronavirus press briefing from President Donald Trump, the White House put out a transcript of the event that falsely showed Dr. Deborah Birx supporting one of his ridiculous ideas. By Friday morning, the White House was forced to issue a correction of its transcript showing that, in fact, the coronavirus response coordinator had shot down the president.

During the briefing, Trump and others discussed new research about the effects of sunlight and disinfectants on the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 on surfaces in the environment. As I’ve discussed elsewhere, Trump pushed truly bizarre and reckless claims about the disinfectants. And while not as obviously dangerous, he also raised the naive idea that because sunlight can kill the virus in the environment, he thought it could be used as a treatment.

“Deborah, have you ever heard of that?” Trump said, turning to the doctor sitting against the wall in the briefing room. “The heat and the light, relative to certain viruses, yes, but relative to this virus?” Continue reading.

New coronavirus phase puts spotlight on White House pick

The Hill logoThe White House is counting on a retired Army colonel and former Obama appointee to help lead the administration’s response to the coronavirus as the outbreak spreads across the country and claims more lives.

Former colleagues of Dr. Deborah Birx, who recently served as the State Department’s global AIDS coordinator, say President Trump and Vice President Pence have landed on someone with the qualifications to tackle the biggest public health crisis the nation has faced in years.

“She is somebody that knows how to manage the whole of the U.S. government to move it toward a particular goal. If the White House lets her do that, it could be exactly the kind of coordination that has been lacking up to this point,” said Matthew Kavanaugh, who directs Georgetown’s Global Health Policy and Governance Initiative and knows Birx from his years working on global HIV policy. Continue reading.