This is an old revision of the document!
Ambassador Colonel Dr. Deborah Birx
1980 to 1994, Birx served as an active duty reserve officer in the United States Army.
1994 to 2008, Birx was active duty regular Army, achieving the rank of Colonel.
1980 to 1989, Birx worked as a physician at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator
February 27, 2020
Ambassador Birx is a world-renowned global health official and physician. She will be detailed to the Office of the Vice President and will report to Vice President Mike Pence. She will also join the Task Force led by Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. She will be supported by the National Security Council staff. Dr. Birx serves as the U.S. government’s leader for combatting HIV/AIDS globally and will continue to oversee this critical work through her able Deputy Angeli Achrekar, while bringing her interagency expertise and coordination that brought ground-breaking progress to the global HIV/AIDS pandemic to the Coronavirus response in the White House.
Ambassador Birx is a scientist, physician, and mom, with three decades of public health expertise, including virulent diseases, their vaccines, and interagency coordination. She has been utilizing the best science to change the course of the HIV pandemic and bring the pandemic under control, community by community and country by country.
Her focus over three decades has been on HIV/AIDS immunology, vaccine research, and global health. She has developed and patented vaccines, including leading one of the most influential HIV vaccine trials in history. Three different Administrations across both political parties have relied on her knowledge and judgement. Ambassador Birx has previously coordinated the Army, Navy, and Air Force in their HIV/AIDS efforts and led the CDC’s Division of Global HIV/AIDS, Center for Global Health, and their global implementation of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief program.
She has deep experience in coordinating across agencies. She has worked from the research bench to the clinic, but understands the primary focus must always be to reach the individuals most in need. She will bring her infectious disease, immunologic, vaccine research and interagency coordinating capacity to this position. 1)
Trump Criticism
NBC News
Trump calls Birx's COVID-19 warnings pathetic — but the real test is what she does next -
Doctors like Fauci and Birx find themselves in an unenviable position, as do so many employed by the Trump administration. But given our national crisis, there is little room for excuses.
Yet, when Birx finally countered some of Trump's conspiracy theories and half-truths this month, she predictably found herself in his crosshairs.
She stated the obvious last week, describing infections as “extraordinarily widespread”throughout the nation. This irked Trump, who accused Birx of taking “the bait” from Pelosi and attacking the administration's response.
(tweet) So Crazy Nancy Pelosi said horrible things about Dr. Deborah Birx, going after her because she was too positive on the very good job we are doing on combatting the China Virus, including Vaccines & Therapeutics. In order to counter Nancy, Deborah took the bait & hit us. Pathetic! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 3, 2020
Birx, a colonel in the Army who serves at the pleasure of the president, highlights the metamorphosis that seemingly competent and objective individuals undergo inside Trump's White House. As David Smith wrote in the Guardian, “Like other White House officials before her, she is said to be sacrificing a hard-won professional reputation at the altar of Trump's vanity.”
Now, as America enters a new, critical coronavirus phase, Birx finds herself at a fork in the pandemic road. Will she continue to walk the line between truth and the politicized “truth” Trump desires to hear? Or will she opt to clearly put her medical oath over job security?
August would be an ideal time for Birx to grow a spine. With the protracted first wave of the virus inching closer to the dreaded fall and with schools now reopening, the country remains all but rudderless in its response to the coronavirus pandemic. After the federal government abdicated its role to helm a coordinated response, 50 states scrambled to cobble together 50 different plans. 2)