Dr. Deborah Birx Hits Back at Accusations of Spreading Misinformation, Pandering to Trump

Dr. Deborah Birx shot back at critics on Sunday over her recent criticisms of the White House coronavirus task force coordinator.

Last week, reports indicated that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi trashed Birx during a private meeting with White House officials. Politico says Pelosi accused Birx of airing misinformation about the pandemic, and in an interview the house speaker gave to ABC’s This Week, she doubled down by calling Birx an extension of President Donald Trump’s attempts to spread disinformation.

“I think the president has been spreading disinformation about the virus and she is his appointee so, I don’t have confidence there, no,” Pelosi said.

In Birx’s Sunday interview with CNN’s Dana Bash, she used much of her time to fend off criticism about the federal government’s pandemic response in light of national case spikes throughout July. When asked for her response to Pelosi, Birx said she had “tremendous respect” for the house speaker, but then she pivoted toward an “unfortunate” The New York Times report saying she only supplies good news to Trump.

It was unfortunate that The New York Times wrote this article without speaking to me. I could have brought forth the data. I provide data every single day with an analysis. The day that they are talking about that I was, quote, Polyannish, it said there was improvement in the New York metro, but ongoing cases in Boston and Chicago and new outbreak in Houston and full-log rhythmic spread and new, concerning outbreaks in Baltimore and New Haven and Washington, D.C. This was not a Polyannish view and I have never been called Polyannish or non-scientific or non-data driven, and I will stake my 40 year career on those fundamental principles of using data to really implement better programs to save more lives.

Watch above, via ABC and CNN.

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