With uncertainty abound amid the coronavirus outbreak, a rattled public is clutching to glimmers of hope and levity, including embracing Deborah Birx as a pop culture icon.
Birx, 63, has become a celebrity of sorts as the country grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic, thanks in part to her handling of questions about the novel respiratory illness in the White House press briefing room on an almost-daily basis and her fashion-forward wardrobe.
From statement jackets to her rotating collection of scarves, Birx, a military-trained clinician and ambassador-at-large seconded to the Office of the Vice President as the country’s coronavirus response task force coordinator, has amassed a growing number of fans expressing their admiration on social media.
One, such as Rachel Hirsch of Washington, D.C., started an Instagram account chronicling the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator’s sartorial choices. Using the handle “doctorbirxlooks,” Hirsch said she was inspired by Birx’s boldness during the news conferences, “given the sedate styles you usually see for these things.”
“I mentioned it in one of my group chats, and we all started commenting, and I was like, well, this sounds like it could be a fun hobby,” she told the Washington Examiner.
For Hirsch, the feedback to her account has been mostly positive.
“Did get one guy hoping I was her, attempting to hit on her. That was weird. Otherwise, people have been super nice, and it’s a fun distraction,” she said. “These are our new celebrities.”
Birx has also been fawned over in fashion opinion pieces, from the Washington Post to the New York Post.
Robert Thompson, director of Syracuse University’s Bleier Center for Television & Popular Culture, explained it wasn’t unusual for “new guest stars in the ongoing drama that is 24-hour news cycle” to materialize. He cited the response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 as another example where “people we had never heard of before” suddenly became subjects of public intrigue.
Thompson added the situation was heightened in the case of the coronavirus because the majority of the country was homebound, creating a captive audience.
“There’s all kinds of fronts on which we are fighting the battle of our fears. I suppose what one looks to is someone who is, you know, calm,” he said. “She’s calm, and she’s never part of the debate. She’s got that both authoritative, but at the same time parental kind of look.”
But Thompson admitted he was “always really uncomfortable” about discussing what a woman looks like or wears.
“But it is interesting how she’s now become a fashion icon to a certain population. There has been a outpouring of, ‘She looks fabulous,'” he said. “The emerging celebrity of Dr. Deborah Birx and the emerging fan base for her sartorial style is not the 1st, 2nd, or 10,000th most important story. However, that isn’t to say that this isn’t something important to talk about because how people perceive somebody who is one of the, what, half a dozen people who seem to be at the forefront of leading the decisions that are made with this, that is important.”
