The head of the White House coronavirus task force has moved into a West Wing office space, according to an aide to Vice President Mike Pence.
Dr. Deborah Birx, who reports to Vice President Mike Pence, is a longtime health official who spent nine years as the government’s point person on global efforts to fight HIV and AIDS at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
An Obama-era State Department appointee, Birx has taken a prominent role in the White House’s coronavirus response, appearing at press briefings almost daily alongside President Trump. In February, Pence introduced her as “my right arm.”
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A medical doctor and retired Army colonel, Birx has invoked her millennial daughters to make the point that all ages should abide by the administration’s guidance to practice social distancing.
The White House began to advise stricter measures last week and is pressing younger Americans to take the guidance seriously.
Asked about this at a White House press conference Monday, Birx confirmed that an Imperial College London study, advising that without drastic action, the United States could see 2.2 million deaths, was behind the recommendations that Americans limit their interactions as much as possible. The report calculated that each person infected with the virus early in the outbreak could spread it to more than 2.5 others, on average.
The lead author of the study told the New York Times that his team had shared its projections with the White House last week and that an early version of the report was sent to the White House over the weekend.
“I want to speak particularly to our largest generation now, our millennials,” Birx said Monday. As “the mom of two wonderful millennial young women who are bright and hardworking. And I will tell you what I told to them — they are the core group that will stop this virus.”
