[ April 25, 2024 ]
Birx previously decried what she described as media exaggeration and fear-mongering over the deadly virus, noted Pamela Geller, an American political activist, blogger and editor-in-chief of the Geller Report, in the the top health official’s critiques of the CDC.
“The level of misinformation and disinformation is deeply troubling”, she suggests. “The continuing shutdown of our country is the biggest mistake in American history, and the White House is correct in repeatedly calling for reopening”.
What’s Behind Trump’s Row With Health Agencies & Birx’s Decision to Take on CDC, WHO
By: Sputnik News, May 22, 2020:The White House and the CDC have been largely at odds amid the coronavirus pandemic. It appears that Dr. Deborah Birx has taken Trump’s side, chastising the US agency for what she claims are inflated COVID death numbers. US observers explain the conflict between Trump and the medical experts and shed light on Birx’s “political game”.
As calls for reopening the US economy become louder inside the Trump camp, tensions between the White House and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have soared. CDC director Robert R. Redfield and counterpart Anthony Fauci, the head of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) have repeatedly warned the president’s Coronavirus Task Force against reopening the country too soon. According to some reports, it is Dr. Deborah Birx, however, who has Trump’s ear.
Story continues below advertisementBirx: Mediator or New Political Player in WH?
Birx was recently dubbed by Axios “the real power doctor” on the White House Coronavirus Task Force, emphasising the physicians’ “masterful political skills”. According to Axios, “Birx strategically emphasises the points Trump wants to hear”. She, in particular, is highly critical of the World Heath Organization (WHO) and insists that the global entity is badly in need of reform. Birx has claimed that WHO’s tracking system is inflating mortality rates and case numbers by up to 25 percent. She has also asserted that “there is nothing from the CDC that [she] can trust”, according to The Washington Post. On Thursday, Birx touted recent reports claiming sharp declines in both deaths and hospitalisations across the country, claims that could accelerate the reopening of the US economy.
“Dr. Birx role has been highly questionable in the early stages, but she appears to have become more responsible of late”, observes James Fetzer, professor emeritus at University of Minnesota.
He emphasises the doctor’s criticism of CDC tabulation of COVID-related deaths which she claims distort and inflate COVID-19 statistics. According to Fetzer, Birx has declared that “The White House has been completely justified in discounting the ‘experts’ from NIH, the WHO and the CDC”.
Birx previously decried what she described as media exaggeration and fear-mongering over the deadly virus, noted Pamela Geller, an American political activist, blogger and editor-in-chief of the Geller Report, in the the top health official’s critiques of the CDC.
“The level of misinformation and disinformation is deeply troubling”, she suggests. “The continuing shutdown of our country is the biggest mistake in American history, and the White House is correct in repeatedly calling for reopening”.
Birx is Trying to Balance Between Science & Calls to Reopen
American journalist and author Daniel Lazare is not impressed by Birx’s performance: “Deborah Birx may think she’s the ‘Trump whisperer’ who can keep him under control”, he says. “But she’s only able to do so is by telling him what he wants to hear”.
The journalist is skeptical about Birx’s attempts to “defend” Trump in the press. According to Lazare, she sometimes distorts reality in an apparent attempt to appease the president. “On 28 March, she declared in a press conference that ‘almost 40 percent of the country’ has ‘extraordinarily low numbers’ of COVID cases, neglecting to mention that those are rural areas containing only 7.2 percent of the US population”, he notes.
Birx is not much of a political player, she is just “trying to balance between the Trump administration’s desire to rapidly reopen and basic scientific facts” opines Caleb Maupin, speaker, writer, journalist, and political analyst.
“She is trying to play a centrist position, as is Fauci”, he says. “Birx and Fauci trying to navigate in the middle of this, and they’re facing kind of an onslaught from Trump’s supporters in the Trump administration”.
Science is Held Hostage to Political & Economic Interests
The CDC has seemingly taken a backseat in the White House task force and is playing a much quieter role than at initial stages of the pandemic, as media remark on Fauci’s absence from interviews this week – as the country reopens – as similarly noteworthy. The CDC release of detailed guidance for reopening schools, mass transit and nonessential businesses was made without a formal announcement, and came only after a number of states started lifting lockdowns, according to CNBC.
According to Maupin, the CDC, as well as other health agencies, have fallen victim to mounting pressure in some parts of the US.
“It would be seen as undermining the medical community at a time when they need support”, the journalist says. “It’s an indirect form of pressure, but it shows that science is deeply impacted by society. There’s a whole history of this. Science is not independent”.
The political analyst suggests that “science is always impacted by the society that creates it” and “political interests that fund research would prefer one outcome as opposed to another”. The issue of dropping the lockdown measures has also become a playground for various business interests, with some industries, like Walmart and Amazon, benefitting from the lockdown, while the real sector is desperately pushing to reopen.
“We have one section of the American elite that wants the science to say we can reopen now and the American elite that wants to say science says we have to be closed down as long as we possibly can”, Maupin says, additionally claiming that the so-called elite is “paying scientists to say what they want”.
The dysfunctional dynamics at play between the CDC and White House are clear for all to see, echoes Ethan Ralph, founder of conservative website, The Ralph Retort.
“I think it’s fairly obvious that there’s been tension for awhile now”, he says. “I don’t think Trump really wanted to shut things down in the first place and was basically scared into it. Ever since then, he’s been moving to open up as quickly as possible. Some see this as reckless, even within his own virus response high command”.
‘Political & Health Officials Should Work in Unison’
Though the CDC has its problems, it must be remembered that the agency is dealing with Trump, who is determined to reopen the economy regardless of the cost to public health, and whatever the agencies say or do is going to be wrong, argues Daniel Lazare. According to him, “the tension between the White House and the CDC is just the latest manifestation of the chaos that has reigned since the virus first appeared in the US in late January”.
The controversy between the White House and the country’s health and science community is only exacerbating the problem, according to Professor Kelley Lee, tier 1 Canadian research chair in Global Health Governance.
“The countries that respond most effectively during this pandemic will be countries where public health officials and political leaders work in close unison, and where public health experts are allowed to define policy action”, Lee said.
What’s going on in the US is the opposite, Lee remarked. According to him, the Trump administration “has frequently ignored the advice of scientific experts and prioritised political and economic interests instead”.
While CDC has been subject to harsh criticism by the Trump administration and its conservative supporters, the truth of the matter is that SARS-CoV-2 is an absolutely new virus no one has ever dealt with, underscores Mitchell Feierstein, a hedge-fund manager and CEO of the Glacier Environmental Fund Limited.
“As far as the CDC – everyone has a view on COVID-19, which in reality, is a virus that no one yet fully understands – we have incomplete data sets and no safe vaccine”, Feierstein highlights. “What we do know is that it’s certainly not like the flu”.
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19 Comments
3 years ago
Birx is still dirty, with Bill Gates associations, and past science fraud. She just switched to Trump, the winning horse. Birx and Fauci crashed with their first key lie: “I know what I’m talking about”. Scientists are particularly prone to that delusion, especially when they gather in groups, like gorillas. And Birx is less stupid than Fauci, who won’t shut up with his stupid comments..
But in fact NO ONE knows how to stop epidemics, so Trump has had to make do with whatever experts he could find. It’s all right, we are getting through this.
3 years ago
Reply to
DemocracyRules
You may be right. I can’t read minds. It’s possible, however, that she is the real deal. Good scientists, rare as they are, are supposed to change their minds in the presence of new evidence challenging their earlier beliefs.
I agree with your other observation completely. The original 2-week lockdown should have crushed the virus; the one-month extension should have eradicated the virus. Why is it still here? Because – new lesson for me – lockdowns don’t work.
I hope I can get you and other readers of this site to sign this White House petition, which needs 100,000 signatures by June 8. People around the country are being denied medical care if they aren’t coronavirus patients. This includes my wife, who has just been diagnosed with a second “lesion”. We can’t get medical care in the state where our doctors are; we need to go to another state. This is outrageous and potentially deadly. Please sign and share this: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/order-governors-allow-their-citizens-receive-healthcare-we-need-coronavirus-isnt-only-health-problem
Thank you.
3 years ago
Reply to
Surak2
Agreed. Because of her unique attire and quiet competence and confidence, that panel of experts has been dubbed “Team Scarf”.
3 years ago
Reply to
Surak2
So why are some hospitals idle from lack of patients, and are laying off staff, while others turn away patients?
3 years ago
Reply to
Surak2
Wasn’t it “funny” how the lockdown should have resulted in those who were going to be sick should have gotten sick but nobody new should have gotten sick? And the lockdown was supposed to serve another function which was to prevent an overwhelming spike at the hospitals. But then when that didn’t happen, the “goal” was changed from not overwhelming the hospitals to “smoothing out the curve”. Having said that, many people during the early stages weren’t really doing what was needed to avoid getting sick… even the “guidelines” changed over time to what seems to be the accepted practice which is that everybody should wear a mask, not to avoid the virus but so they don’t spread the virus (as easily) and keeping a distance from others. But after seeing the curve smoothed, the goal post was moved to needing to see reduced cases and in some states the eradication of the virus… as if that’s ever going to happen.
All in all, what seems to have happened is once the Leftist governors realized how damaging the lockdown is for the economy, they realized this is their chance to ruin the economy and, with a compliant lame-stream-mismedia, blame Trump for the ruined economy and pretend it was all due to his poor handling of the Dempanic. It seems the Left just can’t resist not letting a crisis go to waste…
3 years ago
Reply to
Surak2
I don’t trust Birx. She was (might still be, not sure) on the Gate’s Foundation payroll at one time. Have not idea if she still is, but she was damn sure friendly enough with those people once. That’s enough for me to question her.
3 years ago
Let’s not try to rewrite history here. These two (Fauci and Brix) are who they showed us they are.
3 years ago
“As far as the CDC – everyone has a view on COVID-19, which in reality,
is a virus that no one yet fully understands – we have incomplete data
sets and no safe vaccine”, Feierstein highlights.” And we’re supposed to take as gospel, the word of a hedge-fund manager? Who the hell is he and why is a money person being quoted for facts on a virus? Insanity!
3 years ago
Reply to
santashandler
Why quote a hedge fund manager? Because he/she/it has large positions, in their portfolio, of worthless drug stocks.
3 years ago
Today another hoax story this time out of Missouri by the clowns who run that state’s health department. This time allegedly a hair dresser
gave her customers covid. Oh but the left really hates hair cuts. Notice we never hear about any network TV station or police precinct both of which have thousands of employees running around since this scam began exposing each other to Covid. It’s always something the left hates like church services or hair cuts that spreads Covid. What bunk. The whole thing is a scam. By the way the NYC Sanitation Dept has 0 employees who died from Covid. If you could get Covid by touching germ filled surfaces don’t you think the NYC Sanitation Dept would have lost thousands by now? The whole thing is a scam which will amazingly end after the election. Stop watching TV folks it’s all BS.
3 years ago
Reply to
Andrew
I agree ????%!
Could it be that the lack of deaths among NYC garbage collectors is “herd immunity”?
3 years ago
Reply to
Andrew
Is that one that supposedly has e 18 people covid. The math doesn’t add up. If 40% are asymptomatic how is that ALL her clients came down with symptoms. I call BS.
3 years ago
Man that sure was a left wing article. I didn’t know I was on Geller I would have thought I was at CNN.
3 years ago
I like the way Dr. Birx holds the media to account. As an example , a reporter claimed South Korea was ahead of the US in testing for COVID-19. Trump referred the question to her and she surgically dismantled the reporter with her fact sheet proving him dead wrong.
It is said diplomacy is saying the nastiest thing in the nicest way. If she told the media to go to hell, they would actually look forward to the trip.
3 years ago
Reply to
Drew the Infidel
Actually, the Republic of Korea has been FAR ahead of the United States of America, testing, treating, and saving lives.
They have been prescribing Quinine drugs, combined with zinc and antibiotics, since early mid-February. And,, the death rate went from #1, outside of China, to many days, sometimes weeks, without a single death.
They had drive-up testing since around the first week of March. Anyone that wanted a test was given one. If the person was infected, there was no charge for the test.
3 years ago
Reply to
Achmed Mohandjob
The figures quoted by Dr. Birx in response to the reporter’s claim that South Korea was testing five times as many as the US was that the Koreans were testing 11 per thousand and the US 17.
3 years ago
Reply to
Drew the Infidel
“Dr”. Birx figures were not simply misleading, they were/are bald faced lies.
Don’t EVER trust ANYTHING out of D.C.
3 years ago
“Science” these days is a joke. Everybody manipulates science to get the results they want, ignoring the contrary evidence. It is true with globull warming and it is true in this case of Wu Flu. Scientists make their living off of grrants therefore they are held hostage by whomever the grant comes from. If that person wants globull warming, then globull warming he, or she will deliver those results or lose their funding, requiring the scientist to get a real job.
