“There is nothing from the CDC that I can trust” — Response Coordinator for the White House Coronavirus Task Force

Dr. Deborah Birx said ‘there is nothing from the CDC that I can trust’ in a White House coronavirus task force meeting

Michelle Mark
Business Insider

  • The White House’s coronavirus task force response coordinator, Dr. Deborah Birx, said in a recent meeting that “there is nothing from the CDC that I can trust,” The Washington Post reported on Saturday.
  • Birx and others reportedly feared that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s data-tracking system was inflating coronavirus statistics like death rates and case numbers.
  • Other non-CDC sources have found that daily coronavirus deaths in the US remain at roughly 2,000.
  • Recent research has also indicated that COVID-19 deaths have been severely undercounted, both in the US and around the world, particularly in the early stages of the pandemic.
  • One internal Trump administration model recently projected that coronavirus deaths would reach 3,000 deaths per day by June 1.
  • Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House’s coronavirus task force response coordinator, blasted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during a discussion on COVID-19 data in a recent meeting, The Washington Post reported on Saturday.

“There is nothing from the CDC that I can trust,” she told CDC Director Robert Redfield, two people familiar with the meeting told the newspaper.

The Post reported that Birx and others feared that the CDC’s data-tracking system was inflating coronavirus statistics like mortality rates and case numbers by up to 25%.

Birx later told The Post in a statement that “mortality is slowly declining each day.”

“To keep with this trend, it is essential that seniors and those with comorbidities shelter in place and that we continue to protect vulnerable communities,” she said.

Other non-CDC sources have found that daily coronavirus deaths in the US remain close to 2,000 and are not on a steady downward trajectory.

Recent research has also indicated that COVID-19 deaths have been severely undercounted, both in the US and around the world, particularly in the early stages of the pandemic.

One internal Trump administration model also projected that daily coronavirus deaths would reach 3,000 by June 1, according to The New York Times.

Several of The Post’s sources described the meeting with Birx and Redfield as heated, though two Trump administration sources disagreed.

According to The Post, Redfield defended the CDC in the meeting, but many there agreed that the agency needed a digital upgrade.

Another flashpoint in the meeting came during a discussion on the drug remdesivir, which has shown promise in early results from clinical trials in COVID-19 patients. The Trump administration has said it will distribute the drug to hard-hit states.

According to The Post, one official announced that the government had already shipped the drug to seven states, which surprised Birx and others because they had not yet decided which states should be prioritized.

“Why would you do that?” Birx asked the official, according to The Post.

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https://www.businessinsider.com/deborah-birx-cdc-comments-coronavirus-task-force-meeting-2020-5

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