Dr. Deborah Birx, Trump’s Covid-19 coordinator, said she was considering quitting

Dr Deborah Birx, who had been one of the White House’s senior coronavirus response coordinators, said on Friday she was considering stepping down under former President Donald Trump, whose cavalier attitude towards the fight against the disease has created consternation among public health officials.

Birx, in a clip for CBS News’s “Face The Nation”, said she “always” considered quitting, especially when her colleagues began to see her differently after becoming one of the faces in the response. to the coronavirus pandemic under Trump. The full interview will air on Sunday.

“I mean, why would you want to do this to yourself every day? Colleagues of mine that I’ve known for decades – decades – in this experience, because I was in the White House, decided that I had become that politician, even though they’ve known me forever, ”she said in the interview.

“I had to ask myself every morning: is there something I think I can do that would be helpful in responding to this pandemic? And it’s something I asked myself every night,” said Birx.

Birx, who has been criticized for traveling and hosting Thanksgiving with her family as Covid-19 cases skyrocketed, was in the White House briefing room in April 2020 when Trump suggested that the injection of bleach or other disinfectants – as well as light – could kill the virus. She was visibly uncomfortable when the president turned to her and asked if she had ever heard of the heat killing the virus in humans.

His comments come a day after Dr Anthony Fauci, one of the government’s other leading public health experts, said he felt free to speak honestly about Covid-19 now that Trump was out of office. Fauci said the new administration was committed to being “completely transparent, open and honest,” a sharp break with Trump’s White House when Fauci said he often thought there would be repercussions for speaking honestly of the pandemic.

Birx, who said she never withheld information from the public, suggested in the interview that she felt blocked from trying to work effectively with the Trump administration to fight Covid-19, which l urged to recreate public messages.

“And, when it got to a point where … I wasn’t going anywhere, and that was right before the election, I wrote a very detailed communications plan – which was to happen the day after the election and how it is to be executed, “she said.” And there were a lot of promises that would happen. “

Last December, Birx said in an interview with news site Newsy that she was planning to retire but had not given a deadline for her exit. She said at the time that she wanted to first help President Joe Biden’s team “in any role” with their response to the coronavirus.