The former coordinator of the U.S. coronavirus response, Deborah Birx, said people in the Trump White House viewed Covid-19 as a hoax.
Birx questions the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic in an extensive interview aired Sunday. Elsewhere, Joe Biden’s advisers described the new president’s plans to control Covid-19 – a challenge that has become tougher, Ron Chief said.
More than 417,000 people have died in the U.S. from Covid-19, from a case load of nearly 25m, according to figures held by Johns Hopkins University in Maryland.
In the White House and in the wider public, “there were people who definitely believed it was a joke,” Birx told Face the Nation on CBS.
The former army doctor attributed such skepticism to the different experiences of people with the virus.
“They saw people get Covid and go well, and then they let us talk about how serious the disease is and how it can cause these incredible deaths among our American public,” she said.
Asked if she blamed Donald Trump, who has repeatedly underestimated the virus, for some skepticism, Birx said some statements by political leaders “derailed” the coronavirus response.
“If you have a pandemic in which you rely on every American to change their behavior,” she said, “communication is absolutely essential, and every time a statement is made by a political leader that is inconsistent with the public health needs. , which derailed our response. This is also the reason why I was on the road, because I was not censored on the road. ”
Birx, who played a key role in the fight against AIDS, said she believed the 2020 election was a factor in how information about the coronavirus was shared and that she had “always” considered her role. to leave the White House under Trump.
“I always feel like I could have done more, more outspoken, in public maybe more outspoken,” Birx said. “I did not know all the consequences of all these problems.”
Birx has long promoted a data-driven response to disease outbreaks and she has suggested that such efforts be undermined by people working in the Trump White House. From the time she arrived until her departure, unknown advisers provided ‘parallel’ coronavirus data.
“I saw the president present graphs that I never made,” Birx said.
Attempts to vaccinate the public have been plagued by delays, while a new and more contagious variant of the coronavirus that originated in Britain has been identified in at least 20 states.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who also served under Trump but unlike Birx went on to advise Biden, told CBS on Sunday: “The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines remain protective against the mutant strain. . ”
He also said that a “mutant” virus variation “currently occurring in South Africa” is a little more “worrying”.
“It seems to further reduce the effectiveness of the vaccine,” he said. “But we are still within the pillow level of the vaccines that are effective against these mutants.”
On Thursday, the first full day of his presidency, Biden unveiled a 198-page Covid-19 strategy. He has also signed ten designated executive orders or other prescriptions since taking office. The White House said it aims to give 100 million doses of vaccine within 100 days.
Biden’s nominee for surgeon general, Dr Vivek Murthy, told ABC’s This Week that the success of the vaccination campaign should not only be determined by quantity, but also by fair vaccination.
To do so, Murthy said, the government needs to increase supply by using the Defense Production Act and directing better distribution through mobile units and community vaccination centers.
“We already know from the Covid crisis in recent years that there are certain communities that have been hit hard by this virus,” he said, “that rural communities have had more difficult access to resources, that communities of color have experienced more cases and deaths, which the elderly have struggled with, especially in long-term facilities ”.
Murthy also called for a greater investment in treatment strategies, contrast detection and testing. Such efforts, coupled with the fact that people are being vaccinated and follow the guidelines for public health, could, he said, enable the US to control the pandemic.
‘If we do these things, and if we continue to work to take the security measures, such as gathering people outside your household and avoiding indoor gatherings, I can think that we can not only reverse the pandemic, but the most important thing is to open our schools, get our workplaces going again and regain our way of life. ”
Xiden Becerra, nominated for Biden’s health secretary, warned that improving the pandemic response “will not happen overnight”.
“We can not just say to the states, ‘Here’s some PBT, some masks, here’s some vaccines, go do it now,'” Becerra told CNN’s State of the Union.
Klain, chief of staff at Biden, told Meet the Press to NBC: “The process of distributing the vaccine, especially outside nursing homes and community hospitals, did not really exist when we entered the White House.”
Klain said obstructions for better distribution include the need for more vaccines, more people to administer shots and more sites to supply them. Klain said the government in Biden is committed to convincing people who are hesitant about vaccines, especially in color communities, that the vaccine is safe.
“Unless we can reduce vaccine hesitation,” he said, “unless we can get all Americans to take this vaccine, we will continue to see Covid as a problem in our country.”