Birx says role on White House COVID-19 task force is not ‘diminished’ at Auburn visit
Dr. Deborah Birx, the coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force, said Thursday she has no plans to leave her position after sources close to the health official told CNN she is unhappy with her diminished role and is unsure how long she could serve.
“Do I look like a person that’s diminished?” she said during a visit to Auburn University, before laughing.
“I have strong tenacity, and I’m very resilient,” Birx said. “And we’re in the middle of a pandemic that’s affecting Americans. And as an American, I think I can do the best service to my country right now by serving in this role (and) working across the agencies, because that’s the experience that I have.”
CNN reported Wednesday evening that Birx told people around her that she is “distressed” with the task force’s direction and called the nation’s response to the pandemic “nightmarish.” Sources who spoke with CNN said Birx views Dr. Scott Atlas, a recent addition to the task force, as an unhealthy influence on President Donald Trump’s thinking regarding the virus. However, a source told CNN that Birx is “not likely” to step down from the task force.
Atlas said there aren’t any issues between him and Birx, CNN reported. A White House official told CNN that Birx’s role on the task force had not been diminished.
“That would be on me if I was distressed because I’m supposed to be coordinating the group,” she said Thursday at Auburn. “That would be an indication that I’m not doing my job, and I believe that I do my job pretty well every day. I can always learn to do better, and I think that’s part of why I’m out. ...You have to be in the community of the community.”
What did Birx say about COVID-19 in Alabama and the South?
Birx said Alabama must continue its efforts to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. In addition to speaking at Auburn, she met with Gov. Kay Ivey and hosted a roundtable with community and state health officials.
She recommended Ivey extend the state’s mask mandate, which is currently set to expire Oct. 2. After Alabama started requiring masks, coronavirus cases began a “dramatic” decline, Birx said. Birx pointed to several other improving coronavirus metrics in the state, including a declining test positivity rate.
Over the past seven days, Alabama reported 6,066 COVID-19 cases. The case rate is 124 per 100,000 people, the 18th-highest in the nation, The New York Times reports. New cases reached its highest point in July and began to decline before hitting a short rise in early September. Cases have decreased slightly over the past two weeks.
Alabama performed an average of 123 daily coronavirus tests per 100,000 people over the last two weeks. That’s 20% of the state’s testing goal, according to The New York Times and estimates from the Harvard Global Health Institute.
“When I was last here at the beginning of July, it was a very difficult time in general for Alabama,” Birx said. “Alabama’s test positivity (is) really dropping, really improving, but we’ve got to do even more. ...I think together we can see Montgomery continue to improve, the rural areas continue to improve and we really see the curves of the University the way we want to see the rest of the state.”
Birx spent parts of Thursday touring Auburn’s campus and said students were following public health guidance such as mask-wearing. But she added parents and alumni need to do the same. The university reported 53 new cases for the week ending Sept. 20, a decrease from 109 the week before.
Birx said she saw “strong planning” and information sharing over the summer at Auburn and other Southeastern Conference schools.
“I’ve really been impressed that competitive groups have come together united in a goal of protecting their students and making sure the communities remain healthy,” she said. “I think what has come out of this is one SEC. Not an SEC of constant competition, but an SEC that shared information across its schools over the summer.”
Birx also expressed concerns about the spread of COVID-19 during the winter in colder regions of the country as people head indoors to stay warm. Southern states saw coronavirus surges after Memorial Day when people headed indoors to keep cool, creating additional spread opportunities.
Birx praised Ivey for implementing an early mask mandate and making important changes at the state level. Keeping those mitigation efforts in place through the fall is key, Birx said.
“I think the South really showed us what can happen,” Birx said. “But (also) what we can do as an American group of public individuals to really prevent that spread.”
This story was originally published September 24, 2020 at 6:05 PM.