PHILADELPHIA — Deborah Birx — the Pennsylvania-born government doctor who rose to international prominence during the pandemic — is back in the news, this time promoting her account of her controversial stint as the first coronavirus response coordinator under former President Donald Trump.
In an interview with ABC News promoting her new book, Birx claimed she became “paralyzed” when Trump famously floated the idea of injecting disinfectant to treat the coronavirus in April 2020, and further detailed a resignation pact she formed with other doctors on Trump’s coronavirus task force.
Donning her signature scarves, Birx became a daily fixture at the White House news briefings early in the pandemic, and eventually faced blowback for not standing up against Trump’s misinformed comments. And though she said she doesn’t regret taking the job, Birx called the disinfectant episode a “tragedy on many levels” and regretted not rebuffing the claim more forcefully at the time.
“I just wanted it to be ‘The Twilight Zone’ and all go away,” Birx told ABC News’ medical correspondent Jennifer Ashton. “I mean, I just — I could just see everything unraveling in that moment.”
Birx hails from Carlisle, Pa., about 23 miles outside Harrisburg, where from a young age she excelled at local science fairs and put herself on an accelerated path to a career in medicine.
After graduating from Pennsylvania State College of Medicine in Hershey, she took her first government job in 1985 at the Department of Defense as a military-trained clinician in immunology. She later attained the rank of colonel and became one the U.S. military’s leaders in the global fight against HIV/AIDS, among other viruses.
After the infamous briefing on April 23, 2020, Birx agreed it would have been “logical and important” to stand up and refute the president’s claims but said she was “paralyzed.” Instead, she said, she went to Trump’s most senior staff and other members of the White House coronavirus task force to reverse the president’s damaging suggestion.
“[I] said: This has to be reversed,” Birx said. “And by the next morning the president was saying this [what he had said] was a joke.”
Despite what she described as a politically toxic atmosphere in the White House, Birx said she felt her skill set was valuable to the administration at the dawn of a global health crisis.
“I think I was the only one around the table who had on-the-ground pandemic experience,” Birx said Monday on Good Morning America, referring to her years of battling ebola, tuberculosis, and malaria, in addition to HIV/AIDS, for the federal government. “I really understood how practical and common sense you need to make things.”
During her time on the coronavirus task force, Birx had praised Trump’s being “attentive to the scientific literature and the details,” averring that “his long history in business has really been a real benefit during these discussions about medical issues.”
In publicizing her new book — "Silent Invasion: The Untold Story of the Trump Administration, COVID-19, and Preventing the Next Pandemic Before It’s Too Late" — Birx has also detailed a pact between herself and other doctors on the task force. If one of them was removed, Birx recalled, then all of them would resign.
Birx said she did not feel herself under pressure from the White House, but worried about other members of the task force, which at the time included Anthony Fauci, Robert Redfield, and Stephen Hahn.
“I think that was really important, because I really wanted to protect Bob Redfield and Steve Hahn, and they were under enormous pressure,” Birx said.
