Dr. Birx Slammed For COVID Comments, Said Deaths Could Have Been Mitigated

In an interview for a CNN documentary airing Sunday, Dr. Deborah Birx explained that hundreds of thousands of COVID-related deaths could have been prevented. Her response generated backlash on social media.

Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator under President Donald Trump, had been the subject of criticism for allowing Trump to downplay the severity of the coronavirus.

"I look at it this way: The first time we have an excuse. There were about 100,000 deaths that came from that original surge," said Birx. "All of the rest of them, in my mind, could have been mitigated or decreased substantially."

Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator under former President Trump, said in a CNN documentary clip that she thinks the US could have saved hundreds of thousands of lives lost to Covid-19 following the pandemic's first surge. https://t.co/cB08LLbIaw pic.twitter.com/cXqvnYWYa7
— CNN Newsroom (@CNNnewsroom) March 27, 2021

CNN chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta spoke with Birx about what would have happened had the government "mitigated earlier, … paused earlier and actually done it."

She also said she received a "very uncomfortable" and "very difficult" phone call from Trump.

Birx's comments will appear in “Covid War: The Pandemic Doctors Speak Out,” which airs at 9 p.m. on Sunday.

After a clip of the interview was released online, there was immediate reaction from those who feel Birx should have done more to counter Trump's public comments during the height of the pandemic.

Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., and others were outspoken about Birx's role during the Trump administration.

The malicious incompetence that resulted in hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths starts at the top, with the former President and his enablers.

And who was one of his enablers? Dr. Birx, who was afraid to challenge his unscientific rhetoric and wrongfully praised him. https://t.co/PhiSTUtAzv
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) March 27, 2021

And yet Dr. Birx NEVER went before the cameras and said what you're being told by Trump is a LIE.

And yet Dr. Birx never quit in protest.

And yet Dr. Birx never wrote an op-ed alerting America to the lies they were being told.

And yet, and yet, and yet.

LIE
AFTER
LIE https://t.co/xAzWGpc6H8
— Don Winslow (@donwinslow) March 28, 2021

Dr. Birx’s attempt to clear her name after almost 550,000 American deaths is pathetic and shouldn’t be given air time.
— Daniel Uhlfelder (@DWUhlfelderLaw) March 28, 2021

Deborah Birx talks in CNN documentary about COVID deaths "1st time we had an excuse. About 100,000 deaths came from original surge. All the rest of them, in my mind, could have been mitigated or decreased substantially."
If only Dr. Birx were in a position to have said something.
— Janice Hough (@leftcoastbabe) March 27, 2021

Nearly 555,000 Americans have died from the coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins University.