Dr. Deborah Birx: I have always considered giving up Trump’s task force at the Covid White House

“I mean, why would you want to go through this, um, every day?” Birx told Margaret Brennan of CBS in a clip of an interview that will be released in full on Sunday.

“Colleagues of mine that I knew for decades – decades – in that one experience, because I was in the White House, decided that I had become that political person, even though they’ve known me forever,” she said. “I had to ask myself every morning: is there anything I think I can do that would be useful in responding to this pandemic? And it is something that I asked myself every night.”

When asked if she had already considered giving up, she replied: “Always”.

Birx, who served as White House coronavirus response coordinator under Trump, retired on Wednesday, according to a recently updated U.S. Department of State website. Often, she sought to jump the line between directly contradicting Trump about the pandemic and accurately portraying the data she examined. In the fall, Birx finally gave up White House territory to Trump’s adviser, Dr. Scott Atlas, as he hit the road to spread his public health message.

Birx acknowledged during the interview that he knew the outcome of the election would be a factor in government communication about the pandemic.

“When I got to the point where I could – I was getting nowhere and it was like just before the election, I wrote a very detailed communication plan of what needed to happen the day after the election and how it needed to be carried out. And there were many promises that this would happen, “she said, adding that she herself had never withheld information.

CNN reported in November that Birx privately told colleagues that he had not yet been contacted by anyone on the staff of then President-elect Joe Biden and expressed a particular interest in maintaining his role as coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force or a similar position within a government led by Biden. His work did not translate into a blemish on the new 12-member task force against Biden’s coronavirus.

In December, Birx told Newsy that he would help with the transition to the Biden government and “be useful in any role where people think I can be useful, and then I will retire.”

.Source