Perhaps timing it so she doesn’t become the subject of vitriol during campaign rallies, one of President Trump’s top medical advisors on the coronavirus task force has made her first public statement directly contradicting Trump’s practices during the pandemic, the Washington Post reports.
“We are entering the most concerning and most deadly phase of this pandemic … leading to increasing mortality,” Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force, said in a report circulated internally at the White House. “This is not about lockdowns — It hasn’t been about lockdowns since March or April. It’s about an aggressive balanced approach that is not being implemented.”
Birx’s colleague, Dr. Anthony Fauci, has repeatedly been demeaned and attacked by Donald Trump during campaign rallies. A Georgia rally started chanting “Fire Fauci” yesterday, although the nation’s top infectious disease expert enjoys a significantly higher amount of public trust in dealing with the pandemic than Trump.
Birx’s report pushes public health guidelines–like masking, social distancing and limiting crowd sizes–that Trump and his campaign has largely ignored. It warns of a coming wave of infections, hospitalizations and fatalities, contradicting Trump’s claims that the nation is “rounding the turn” in controlling the virus.
In the report, Birx notes that it’s very possible that the United States could surpass 100,000 confirmed new cases in a day this week.
“Cases are rapidly rising in nearly 30 percent of all USA counties, the highest number of county hotspots we have seen with this pandemic,” it said. “Half of the United States is in the red or orange zone for cases despite flat or declining testing.”