White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx traveled to her vacation home to have a meal with her family around the Thanksgiving holiday despite warning the public not to participate in similar gatherings.
“To me this disqualifies her from any future government health position,” Dr. Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Georgetown Center for Global Health Science and Security, told the Baltimore Sun. “It’s a terrible message for someone in public health to be sending to the American people.”
Birx’s trip happened the day after Thanksgiving, when she traveled to her Delaware vacation property along with members of her family from two other households.
The trip was a vast departure from the doctor’s public messaging, where she called gathering “over the Thanksgiving time period” a mistake.
“We know people may have made mistakes over the Thanksgiving time period,” Birx said during an interview on CBS’s Face the Nation in November. “If you’re young and you gathered, you need to be tested about five to 10 days later. But you need to assume that you’re infected and not go near your grandparents and aunts and others without a mask.”
Despite her own trip, Birx continued to warn the public against such gatherings leading up to Christmas.
“We cannot go into the holiday season, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, with the same kind of attitude, that those gatherings don’t apply to me,” Birx said during a December appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press. “They apply to everybody.”
“If you do not want to lose your grandparents, your aunts, let’s be clear: If you’re over 70, 20% of those over 70 who contract Covid are hospitalized, and still, 10% of them are lost,” Birx added.
In a statement after reports revealed her trip, Birx insisted that the purpose of the gathering wasn’t for “celebrating Thanksgiving” but did acknowledge she shared a meal with family while she was there.
Birx added that the family members were part of her “immediate household,” even though she admitted that they lived in two different homes.
News of the doctor’s gathering was revealed by Kathleen Flynn, whose brother is married to Birx’s daughter. She said she came forward with the information because she was concerned for her own parents.
“She cavalierly violated her own guidance,” Flynn said of the trip.
Birx has expressed interest in remaining on the White House Coronavirus Task Force when President-elect Joe Biden takes office, but some medical experts have expressed doubts she should maintain her role given the revelation of her gathering.
“We need leadership to be setting an example, especially in terms of things they are asking average Americans to do who are far less privileged than they are,” said Dr. Abraar Karan, a global health specialist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
The revelations come as many high-profile Democrats, such as California Gov. Gavin Newsom and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have been caught breaking their own coronavirus restrictions and warnings.
Lawrence Gostin, a public health expert at Georgetown University, expressed more confidence in Birx but added that leaders in her position should make sure to set a positive example.
“It’s extraordinarily important for the leaders of the coronavirus response to model the behavior that they recommend to the public,” Gostin said. “We lose faith in our public health officials if they are saying these are the rules, but they don’t apply to me.”
Birx’s office did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
