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Morning Briefing

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Monday, Jan 25 2021

Full Issue

'Parallel Data' Given To Trump, Maybe From Atlas, Birx Says

Also, Dr. Anthony Fauci vented over the weekend about what it was like to work with former President Donald Trump.

While Deborah Birx served as the White House coronavirus response coordinator under President Donald Trump, 鈥渙utside advisers鈥 were bringing him 鈥減arallel鈥 sets of data on the Covid-19 pandemic, she said in an interview that aired on Sunday. 鈥淚 saw the president presenting graphs that I never made,鈥 Birx said on CBS鈥 鈥淔ace the Nation.鈥 鈥淪o, I know that someone 鈥 or someone out there or someone inside was creating a parallel set of data and graphics that were shown to the president.鈥 (Hooper, 1/24)

[Dr. Deborah] Birx, who announced her retirement as President Joe Biden took office last week, said she doesn鈥檛 know the identity of the person who gave the president different information. She added that there were Covid-19 deniers within the Trump administration. 鈥淭here were people who definitely believed that this was a hoax,鈥 she said. 鈥淚 think the information was confusing at the beginning. I think because we didn鈥檛 talk about the spectrum of the disease, everyone interpreted what they knew.鈥 (Newburger, 1/24)

Not being publicly outspoken enough about issues with the Covid-19 response may have been Deborah Birx鈥檚 biggest mistake, the former White House coronavirus task force coordinator said in a 30-minute interview that aired Sunday morning on CBS News鈥檚 Face the Nation. (Sheridan, 1/24)

Facing criticism from the administration she worked for and some in the scientific community, Deborah Birx, coordinator of the Trump White House鈥檚 coronavirus response, 鈥渁lways鈥 considered quitting her job, she said in an interview set to air Sunday. 鈥淚 mean, why would you want to put yourself through that every day?鈥 Birx said in a clip of her conversation with Margaret Brennan on CBS News鈥 鈥淔ace The Nation.鈥 (Kornfield, 1/22)

And Dr. Anthony Fauci describes what it was like behind the scenes 鈥

In an hourlong conversation with The New York Times over the weekend, Dr. Fauci described some of the difficulties, and the toll, of working with President Donald J. Trump: ... "The people around him, his inner circle, were quite upset that I would dare publicly contradict the president. That鈥檚 when we started getting into things I felt were unfortunate and somewhat nefarious." (McNeil Jr. 1/24)

Anthony Fauci, the federal government鈥檚 leading infectious disease expert, said it was 鈥渃hilling鈥 to see the pressure put on scientists during the Trump administration by officials seeking to project rosy messaging聽about the coronavirus. Fauci recounted on 鈥淭he Rachel Maddow Show鈥 on Friday night that officials under former President Trump pressed government scientists in what he said was an unusual dynamic compared聽with his work under past administrations,聽describing "a situation where science was distorted and/or rejected." (Axelrod, 1/23)

This is part of the Morning Briefing, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.
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