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Post by Admin on May 14, 2020 21:02:45 GMT
The head of President Donald Trump's coronavirus task force is urging the Centers for Disease Control to change the way it calculates due to the coronavirus in a way that would lower the death count as part of an 'all encompassing' data review. An administration official on Thursday confirmed elements of a report when asked if Dr. Birx was pushing changes in the death count methodology, telling DailyMail.com: 'Members of the Task Force are looking at ways to improve data quality, and mortality data is only one aspect of that review process.'  Asked if that included total U.S. COVID-19 infections – which have surpassed 1 million – the official said the review was 'all encompassing.' The advocacy by Dr. Deborah Birx was confirmed by three unnamed administration officials, the Daily Beast reported – and comes as the U.S. death toll due to the disease topped 83,000, according to a Johns Hopkins University count, and 82,000 according to the latest published CDC count. Birx is seeking to remove from the count two categories of deaths: people who are presumed positive for COVID-19 but do not have confirmed lab tests showing they have the disease, and people who have the virus but may have died of something else, according to the report.  The CDC already acknowledges on its web site that it's death counts and mortality rates are estimates based on state-by-state data, but seeks to put out the latest information available anyway for tracking and scientific purposes. It counts both confirmed and 'probable' cases. Among the numerous factors contributing to the challenge of getting good estimates are a severe lack of testing early in the outbreak. Many states have been revising their deaths counts to include people who died at home, presumably of the disease, but were never hospitalized. Additionally, testing has proven to be less than 100 per cent accurate – even on the Abbott testing machine used in the White House and touted by President Donald Trump. People who suffer from the disease may ultimately succumb to related ailments including pneumonia or heart complications. At a Senate hearing Tuesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, among the nation's top infectious disease expert, fielded a question from Sen. Bernie Sanders about the death count. Sanders noted some experts believe the accurate totals may be 50 per cent higher that what is reported. |
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Post by Admin on May 15, 2020 20:06:51 GMT
 For those who haven’t been tuning in to the daily White House coronavirus press briefings over the past several weeks, the woman now going viral for her reaction to the president’s floating UV light and disinfectant injections as possible coronavirus treatments on Thursday may be an unfamiliar face. In fact, Dr. Deborah L. Birx, 64, is a world-renowned global health official and a retired U.S. Army physician who was instrumental in HIV/AIDS vaccine research, and whose career has spanned three decades. And ever since Vice President Mike Pence appointed her as the response coordinator for the White House Coronavirus Task Force — one of two women on the team — she’s been on national TV almost daily, often alongside Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert. Birx has been a scene stealer before — such as when she warned younger Americans that they were not immune to COVID-19, stating, “millennials are the key” to stopping the spread of the virus. But her body language as President Trump suggested bright-light treatments and disinfectants to fight the coronavirus on Thursday — sitting still, taking a deep breath, blinking, setting her face still and then staring at the ground — went viral on Twitter TWTR, +1.57% on Friday. Some criticized her for not standing up and refuting the president’s comments immediately. Read more:Trump suggests disinfectant as treatment for coronavirus ‘by injection inside or almost a cleaning’ — later says he was speaking ‘sarcastically’ Others set the clip to the theme music from HBO’s T, -0.98% “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” or joked about her facial expression. “You can see Dr. Birx’s soul leave her body,” snarked one tweet. |
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Post by Admin on Aug 3, 2020 18:28:38 GMT
Donald Trump publicly rebuked a second member of the White House coronavirus taskforce on Monday morning, calling Deborah Birx’s assessment of Covid-19’s spread “pathetic” in a tweet.
Birx warned on Sunday that the coronavirus was entering a new phase in the US and infections were now “extraordinarily widespread” across the country, instead of clustering mainly in a clutch of states and big cities.
That same day, the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, was critical of Birx in an interview with ABC’s This Week.
The US has the world’s largest number of cases at 4.6m, or one-quarter of the global total, and 154,361 deaths. Black, Latino and Native communities are experiencing a disproportionate number of deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But Trump said on Monday morning that it wasn’t the dismal figures which prompted Birx’s assessment, but Pelosi’s criticism. “In order to counter Nancy, Deborah took the bait & hit us. Pathetic!” Trump tweeted.
Birx was the second senior coronavirus taskforce public health official to be publicly criticized by the president in three days. On Saturday, the president wrote “wrong!” in a tweet that included a video of Anthony Fauci talking about how the US has seen more cases than other countries because it only did a partial shutdown earlier in the year.
While Trump has been in an ongoing public back-and-forth with Fauci, this is the first time he has singled out Birx, who has worked especially closely with the president, for a public shaming.
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Post by Admin on Oct 19, 2020 6:28:59 GMT
Deborah Birx is nowhere to be found at the White House these days.
Though she retains the title of coordinator of the White House coronavirus response, Birx has not attended any of President Trump's press briefings on the pandemic since he started them anew in late July, nor was she at a recent event to tout the administration's advances in testing.
Instead, Birx has been on the road, visiting 36 states and 27 different colleges and universities since the end of June to meet with state, local and university leaders to advise on best practices for containing the coronavirus and to gather information on what's been working in each place.
Olivia Troye, a former coronavirus task force adviser who worked with Birx and is now a Trump critic, said White House officials grew irritated by Birx's detailed and data-heavy presentations in the early summer that showed emerging hot spots and difficulties getting the virus under control. Some officials rolled their eyes as Birx delivered a message that clashed with the administration's preferred narrative that things were improving, Troye said.
The frustration preceded a push to get Birx out on the road to meet with state and local leaders, multiple officials familiar with the discussions said. She last appeared publicly alongside Trump in an early August Oval Office meeting with Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R).
"It’s convenient because they don’t want her at the White House and don’t want her at the podium,” Troye said. “But in many ways it probably ended up being better for her."
Administration officials and those who have met with Birx recently say she remains a vital resource and argue that she may be more comfortable being away from Washington, D.C., where she had to navigate the politics of the White House. She often drew criticism for praising Trump publicly while attempting privately to impress upon others the seriousness of the situation.
But her absence is a sign of how Trump has spurned the same doctors who were the face of the coronavirus response in the early months of the pandemic in favor of advisers who align with his views.
She has joined the likes of Anthony Fauci, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield, and Surgeon General Jerome Adams as fixtures of White House briefings from February to April who have since been relegated to the background, while Scott Atlas, who is not an epidemiologist and has pushed the controversial herd immunity theory, has gained the president's ear.
Unlike Fauci, Birx no longer appears on Sunday morning shows or cable news. Those appearances proved problematic at times for Birx, as she would often be pressed to contradict or call out the president's latest misleading or questionable comments about the pandemic.
“She navigates the political atmosphere much better than a lot of the doctors at times, but it’s exhausting, and I’ve certainly seen it firsthand, and I’ve certainly seen it weigh on her,” said Troye, who left the White House in July.
The White House coronavirus task force provides tailored recommendations to governors and health commissioners, and Birx’s travel has been a key component of understanding their problems and offering guidance, an administration official said.
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Post by Admin on Dec 22, 2020 20:51:47 GMT
Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House coronavirus response, said on Tuesday that she plans to retire, but she's willing to help President-elect Joe Biden's team as needed.
In a tweet shared by reporter Amber Strong from the news site Newsy, Birx said she would serve as a resource to the Biden administration as needed.
"I will be helpful in any role that people think I can be helpful in, and then I will retire. I will have to say as a civil servant, I will be helpful through a period of time," she said.
Additionally, Birx said that she wants the "Biden administration to be successful."
Her comments come days after The Associated Press reported that she traveled out of state for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, even though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and many health officials warned the American public to not travel or attend any gatherings if possible.
"I will have to say that this experience has been a bit overwhelming, it's been very difficult on my family. I think what was done in the last week to my family, you know, they didn't choose this for me, you know they've tried to be supportive but to drag my family into this," Birx said regarding the reports of her recent travel.
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