Report: Dr. Deborah Birx Has Stopped Attending Task Force Meeting Because of Scott Atlas
When Donald Trump was tasked with beating back the coronavirus in early March, he failed spectacularly. At that point, he was backed by experienced doctors like Deborah Birx and Anthony Fauci.
The COVID pandemic is once again growing in America. While Trump has behaved as if the country has put it behind them, the US is close to hitting 100,000 new cases a day.
And voices like those of Birx and Fauci have been silenced within the White House. They’ve been replaced by that of Scott Atlas, an unqualified doctor who is often willing to tell Trump whatever he wants to hear.
And because of the presence of Atlas, Birx has reportedly stopped attending task force meetings and hasn’t been to one since the summer.
CNN’s Kate Bennett says, “I hate to use the term doctor shopping, but it almost feels like if this is what President Trump did until he found someone in the medical field that agrees with him.”
A colleague of Birx, Dr. Jerome Kim, told host Jake Tapper:
“I’ve known Debbie a long time. She really is completely driven by getting things done and being effective, and I think she’s frustrated. If she can’t get it done in the White House, the way to do it is go into the field and use personal diplomacy to convince politicians there is a right way to do this and a right way to approach things, and the consequences of failure are significant. Without an authority coordinating things centrally, the only thing you can do is make people aware of the facts and the truth, and my guess is this is her solution.” |
