Tag: Dr. Birx

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.