Dr. Deborah Birx announced her intent to retire after it was revealed that she violated her own advice on traveling during the holidays. It’s a good start, but she should not be the only high-profile government official stepping down over this kind of hypocrisy.
Birx had said that gatherings for Thanksgiving were a mistake and had said ahead of the Christmas season that the rules on gatherings apply to everybody, while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended against travel for the holidays. She then ended up traveling to her Delaware vacation property the day after Thanksgiving, enjoying a meal with family members from two different households.
Birx had often been the target of unfair criticism in her role, particularly from Democratic critics who tripped over themselves to praise Dr. Anthony Fauci. She also brought up an important point about the effects of lockdowns on members of her own family. “My parents haven’t seen their surviving son for over a year,” Birx said. “These are all very difficult things.”
The problem is that these are difficult things for everybody. Birx and her family are no exception, and as someone pushing the very recommendations that lead to this isolation, she owes it to the rest of the country to follow her own advice. That alone is enough for her to leave her position, and fortunately, she recognizes that. But what about the other coronavirus hypocrites holding office across the country?
Gavin Newsom remains the governor of California, dictating another round of shutdowns, even after he violated his own guidance to attend the birthday party of a lobbyist friend. Both Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi violated protocols to get their hair done. Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser shamelessly flouted her quarantine rules to attend a Delaware election party for Biden.
Others include New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who announced that he was going to ignore his own advice to New Yorkers to celebrate Thanksgiving with family, only to change his mind in the face of public backlash. Ever the beacon of how not to handle a pandemic, Cuomo has repeatedly violated his own rules on masks.
It’s good that Birx is going to retire, but her hypocrisy pales in comparison to those such as Newsom or Bowser, who simply decided that none of the rules they have imposed on their residents applies to them. Apparently, even an unelected bureaucrat is more capable of feeling shame than Democratic politicians in deep-blue cities and states. Birx should not be the last government official to step down over coronavirus hypocrisy.
