Standing outside one of the main buildings on the University of Connecticut campus last week, Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus task force coordinator, let out an exasperated sigh through her peach-colored face mask.
Birx’s frustration may have been months in the making. But the context was unavoidable. Just days prior, President Trump had returned home from Walter Reed Medical Center and, still infected with the virus, triumphantly removed his mask on the balcony of the White House for prime-time television. Morgenstern did acknowledge that Trump sometimes disagrees with task force officials “in good faith.” But prior administration officials say such crosscurrents and rebukes from senior health officials are basically unheard of. And they point to a growing rebellion among the ranks of the president’s coronavirus task force right at an increasingly precarious moment: the start of the fall season when cases are on the rise.
But the frictions have become particularly pronounced in recent weeks, after the White House hosted what Fauci called a superspreader event and as the election has neared. “I have a lot of respect for Deborah Birx and I think she does have an understanding of what needs to be done. I think she does do her best to go out and explain those messages. Because the science is not that complicated anymore,” said Andy Slavitt, Obama’s former director of the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services. “I suspect she feels like it’s important for her to be there and she views herself as a public-health warrior.
While part of the friction may stem from the task force’s continued difficulty in getting the pandemic under control, officials working with the administration say much of it is caused by Trump, whose attention to and understanding of the virus has always been a source of frustration.
220k deaths to late don't ya think!!!!
They had been praising him. I wonder what changed. Maybe their Dem friends instructed them to change their tune because of the election. 🤔