Coronavirus in the United States: Councilor Deborah Birx's increasingly palpable embarrassment

Text by: Romain Lemaresquier Follow

Deborah Birx, 64, a doctor of medicine specializing in immunology, has been coordinator of the White House response to Covid-19 since February 27. A preponderant role which however exposes him to the sometimes hazardous declarations of Donald Trump.

Publicity

The situation becomes more and more complicated for Deborah Birx, who has to impassively listen to the suggestions of the American president. And the episode experienced last Thursday, April 23, will certainly leave its mark. Donald Trump had not hesitated then to speak of injecting disinfectant to fight against the coronavirus. The cameras of the television channels then turned to the coordinator of the White House response to the coronavirus, whose face betrayed misunderstanding and amazement.

If she refused to criticize the president, Deborah Birx still believed on Sunday that these statements eclipsed important information to the American public.

►Also read: Anthony Fauci, the doctor who stands up to Donald Trump

It should be noted that this doctor does not speak often since the start of the crisis. But when Deborah Birx does it, her words are well chosen to avoid any misunderstanding. Quite the opposite of what she has been witnessing since the start of the coronavirus epidemic when Donald Trump held his press conferences.

An AIDS specialist

Deborah Birx is a Cartesian. Daughter of a nurse educator and a mathematician, also an electronic engineer, this medical doctor does not like "roughly". As proof: she quickly turned to immunology, focusing on the search for an AIDS vaccine. We are then in the second half of the 80s, at the height of this other epidemic.

After this step, Deborah Birx becomes director of the US military's HIV research program. A position she will leave with the rank of colonel after helping to lead the clinical trial of an HIV vaccine. In 2014, Barack Obama appointed her as global AIDS coordinator in the United States. During her hearing before the Senate, she will post the ambitious goal of ending the epidemic before 2030.

Finally, it is another epidemic that will cause it to change lanes following the discovery of Covid-19. On February 27, Mike Pence, the American vice-president, appointed her coordinator of the White House response to the coronavirus. A prestigious post, but in the shadow of Donald Trump, who does not seem to follow or listen to the advice of the scientists around him.

Avoid tensions with Trump

If since the beginning of the crisis, Deborah Birx remained rather silent, this Sunday, during an interview with CNN, she did not hesitate to criticize the media, too focused on the statements of Donald Trump and who she omits vital information for the Americans.

This intervention in the media aims above all to avoid creating additional tensions with the president, but that does not hide the annoyance of Deborah Birx as for the management by the American presidency of this unprecedented epidemic.

Newsletter With the Daily Newsletter, find the headlines directly in your mailbox

Follow all international news by downloading the RFI application

• United States
• Coronavirus
• Health and Medicine
• Donald trump

On the same subject

Coronavirus: Donald Trump press briefings on the pandemic questioned?

Coronavirus: Trump presents three-phase economic recovery plan