Pelosi says she has no confidence in White House coronavirus adviser Birx

[ChiTownDenny]

Source: MSN News

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Sunday she does not have confidence in White House coronavirus task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx, linking her to disinformation about the virus spread by President Donald Trump.

"I think the president has been spreading disinformation about the virus and she is his appointee so, I don't have confidence there, no," Speaker Pelosi told ABC's "This Week" when asked if she has confidence in Birx.

Birx, asked about Pelosi's comment during an interview with CNN's "State of the Union," said she had great respect for Pelosi and attributed the criticism to a New York Times article on the White House pandemic response that described Birx as having embraced overly optimistic assessments on the virus.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/pelosi-says-she-has-no-confidence-in-white-house-coronavirus-adviser-birx/ar-BB17tG8j?li=BBnb7Kz

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Edited to include New York Times article about Dr. Birx (via Daily Beast to circumvent paywall).

"Dr. Deborah Birx Told the White House in April That Coronavirus Was Going Away: NYT"

https://www.thedailybeast.com/dr-deborah-birx-told-the-white-house-in-april-that-coronavirus-was-going-away-nyt

[TomCADem]

1. Ny Times Article Detailed How Birx Would Validate Trump

...in order to stay on Trump’s good side, she we would try to validate and justify Trump’s reopening plans. She ended up being yet another enabler.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/18/us/politics/trump-coronavirus-response-failure-leadership.html

[jcgoldie]

4. All you gotta do is watch the ridiculous "drink bleach" briefing to know this is true...

You can watch her rationalize and enable that idiotic douchebag in real time right on the teevee.

[Quemado]

10. Dr. Birx's Own Peers at CDC Are Angry Over Her Refusal to Counter Trump's Lies

https://www.politicalflare.com/2020/05/finally-dr-birxs-own-peers-at-cdc-are-angry-over-her-refusal-to-counter-trumps-lies/

The nation itself has long grown weary and wary of Dr. Deborah Birx, Trump’s personal favorite epidemiologist since she is – apparently – the only epidemiologist on earth who won’t pass judgment on opening tattoo parlors in an epidemic.

You would think a second-year medical student would push back on drinking bleach. Wait, you would think that a high school student would push back on drinking bleach. But not Dr. Birx, at least not very forcefully.

My comment:

The "drink bleach" briefing was where Dr. Birx lost the confidence of many experts.

[DeeDeeNY]

2. Birx gave a short interview in March that says it all

She lost all credibility that day - when she fell all over herself complimenting Trump’s scientific mind.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

8. Saw it and was disgusted.

It was on a Christian network of some kind, if I remember correctly.

I'm especially disappointed by anyone who claims to be a scientist that behaves that way. It's like a major pet peeve for me.

It's bad enough that we have a country full of superstitious fools, but she's like a Benedict Arnold to science for me.

[maddogesq]

3. I have always had the impression that she was a kiss up.

Dr. Silk Scarf has never really countered Donny’s BS.
I am sure there is a back story as to why.

[jcgoldie]

5. Someone had posted an article that Birx is a dominionist in the mold of Barr Pompeo and Pence

It's not so much that the fool is conning them as that he is carrying their water...

[bluedye33139]

6. Her history with rightwing antigay groups is known

I think it's highly relevant that she worked with extremist groups who literally called for homosexuality to be outlawed until 2012, and possibly later. She appears to have lied about when she resigned from the group's board.

https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/anti-gay-anti-choice-childrens-aids-fund-still-raking-taxpayer-money/

[ChiTownDenny]

7. Wow!

I didn't know that. Eye opening.

[yardwork]

14. She's a Christian dominionist. Explains a lot.

[stopdiggin]

20. Thank you. That needed to be inserted

into the discussion.

(I keep on trying to remind people that individuals with a good deal of education, and a significant amount of expertise, can still be complete whack-jobs. And oftentimes all the more dangerous for having some degree of intellect.)

[deurbano]

21. That explains a lot! I wondered why she was such a toady. I somehow missed Digby's warning

in this Salon article from March (which came up when I Googled for more info after reading this Nation article):

https://www.salon.com/2020/03/09/is-the-christian-right-now-in-charge-of-public-health-inside-the-trump-administration/

<<U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams, for instance, is a Mike Pence crony who previously served as the Indiana state health commissioner. He was intimately involved in the horrific HIV outbreak in that state, where Pence refused to authorize a needle exchange program until a number of people had died unnecessarily. Naturally, Trump appointed him surgeon general.

Redfield and Birx are both evangelical Christians who have been associated with HIV research for many years, going back to the 1980s. Birx runs PEPFAR, George W. Bush's global AIDS initiative, and both she and Redfield have been involved with Children's AIDS Fund International, which lobbies for abstinence-only sex education around the world.

The Washington Post reported back in 2018 that they belong to a network run by an important power broker in the evangelical world:

Evangelical activist Shepherd Smith has spent more than three decades cultivating relationships with leading AIDS researchers and policymakers to promote abstinence-only sex education and other programs. Those connections now could influence government programs and funding within the Trump administration. Among the most prominent: Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention...

[His wife] Anita Smith is now a consultant within PEPFAR to Deborah Birx, a physician and ambassador at large who oversees the program's estimated $5 billion annual budget. Birx is also a former board member of Children's AIDS Fund International and served until she was hired by the CDC in 2005, a PEPFAR spokesman said.

Anita Smith was hired by Birx to "improve prevention programs aimed at preteen girls." I'm pretty sure we know what she recommended....

...But they seem to be part of a conservative subculture of evangelical Christians who have found a foothold in the Trump administration clustered around Mike Pence's office. Along millions of other evangelicals, it appears they really believe in Donald Trump.>>

[Mike Nelson]

9. Well...

... there was always something "off" about her... she showed charts that supported Crooked Donald and sang his praises. Today, I see she went on CNN and improved her usual FOX & Friends message - probably in response to Pelosi.

[Texaswitchy]

11. She was a sell out from the beginning.

Her lips were orange.

[paleotn]

12. She's as worthless as Redfield....

Political hacks. One can be a jackass and still have PhD or MD after one's name.

[iluvtennis]

15. "One can be a jackass and still have PhD or MD after one's name" +++ agree

[ResistantAmerican17]

13. When she said the orange shitbird had a keen understanding of the details

and was attentive blah blah blah, that was it for me. Worthless suck up. Scarf or no scarf.

[Sloumeau]

16. Birx seems to think her job is to justify all of Trump's behavior.

She is about as big an enabler as Kaleigh Mcenany is.

[flibbitygiblets]

18. Trump and R's like Birx. What does that tell us?

Anyone they like is either evil and corrupt like them, or at least willing to parrot their message despite the cost, up to and including lost lives.

In other words, anyone trump likes can't be trusted.

[Yeehah]

22. Join the club, Nancy

Birx is a corrupt trump bumpkin.

[BigmanPigman]

23. I stopped listening to team tRump in Feb.

I listened to other countries that were successfully fighting it, not our loser govt.