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Dr. Deborah Birx told Trump in April that the coronavirus would soon be gone and influenced the administration's push to reopen the economy and lift lockdown

deborah birx president trump coronavirus briefing april
President Donald Trump and Dr. Deborah Birx.

Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

  • Dr. Deborah Birx, the chief medical officer on the White House's coronavirus task force, told administration officials in April that the virus would most likely soon go away, reported The New York Times on Saturday.

  • According to the report, Birx believed the US would follow the same trajectory as Italy, with a sharp increase in cases followed by a gradual decline.

  • The optimistic assessment provided by Birx reportedly influenced the Trump administration's push to reopen the economy and lift lockdown.

  • The Times said Birx appeared caught off guard by the extent to which Trump would urge a return to normal, with states ultimately lifting lockdown measures before infection rates were at recommended levels.

  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Dr. Deborah Birx, the chief medical officer on the White House's coronavirus task force, told the Trump administration in April that the virus was not a long-term problem for the US, The New York Times reported Saturday.

Birx predicted that the virus in the US would follow the same trajectory as it did in Italy, The Times said, with a sharp spike in infections followed by a gradual decline in infections.

The optimistic picture provided by Birx was reportedly welcomed by administration officials, as President Donald Trump pushed for states to lift lockdown measures and for the economy to gear up ahead of November's presidential election.

But things did not turn out the way Birx is said to have suggested, with infection rates sharply increasing after states lifted lockdown measures before infection rates were at recommended levels.

"Colleagues described her as dedicated to public health and working herself to exhaustion to get the data right, but her model-based assessment nonetheless failed to account for a vital variable: how Mr. Trump's rush to urge a return to normal would help undercut the social distancing and other measures that were holding down the numbers," The Times said of Birx.

In Italy, lockdown measures lasted longer and were imposed uniformly across the country. They were introduced piecemeal in the US, with different states imposing and lifting them at various points.

The report suggests Trump sought to make states responsible for coronavirus control measures to evade responsibility and political fallout.

Birx was criticized in March after lavishly praising Trump's grasp of science and attention to detail in remarks to reporters. Weeks later, video footage captured her appearing to struggle to contain her shock as the president theorized about a series of dangerous or unproven possible coronavirus treatments, including disinfectant injection.

With the US recording 70,000 new cases of the coronavirus on Friday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, the president has repeatedly sought to downplay the data, falsely claiming that increasing cases result solely from the US testing more people for the virus.

The president is thought to be no longer seeking the counsel of top public-health officials like Dr. Anthony Fauci, another key member of the task force. Fauci recently told the Financial Times that he hadn't spoken with Trump since early June.

CNN reported Friday that Birx was said to have largely assumed control of the day-to-day running of the task force.

"President Trump and his bold actions from the very beginning of this pandemic stand in stark contrast to the do-nothing Democrats and radical left who just complain, criticize and condemn anything this president does to preserve this nation," a White House spokesman, Judd Deere, told The Times.

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