Dr. Birx retires

[brooklynite]

Link to tweet

[soothsayer]

1. You had your chance.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

2. Bye bye, scarf lady!

[LiberalFighter]

3. What would she have done if she was in a Japanese government position?

[SunSeeker]

4. Well, Biden doesn't need fawning praise, so there was no need for her. nt

[njhoneybadger]

5. So now she retires?

[Solomon]

19. More like she was retired.

[MoonlitKnight]

6. Birxit

[doubleplusgood]

18. LOL!!! nt

[dchill]

7. That's a shame.

In a Seinfeld kind of way.

[COLGATE4]

8. Said she wanted to spend more

time with her scarves.

[Native]

9. Good one!

[zipplewrath]

10. I've see this before

I saw mid-career professionals hook their wagon to some VP or director that were generally loathed by everyone else. Then the VP retires and no one wants to work with the guy that hooked their wagon to that train.

[helpisontheway]

11. In disgrace. Ruined her reputation by being a bobblehead for the orange one. Nt

[Wounded Bear]

14. #ETTD...nt

[steve2470]

12. it's really a shame she could not or would not resign

I am guessing she was very competent before the dictator-wannabe forced her to compromise her professional excellence. She said a few things that made me go WHAT ??

[Wounded Bear]

13. Someone asked about her at the presser today...They didn't know at the time.

Good news. Dr Birx had some credibility at one time, but ETTD.

Bye bye.

[irisblue]

15. Sold her previously good history for a 'mess of pottage'and scarf cartoons.

[twin_ghost]

24. She wore scarfs because she had a skin condition.

I don't blame her for TRump's scientific ignorance. There was only so much she could do.

[irisblue]

25. I will strongly fault her for her failure to stop trumps scientific ignorance

It is a major piece of a physicians duty to do no harm.

She worked at Walter Reed, she worked with HIV/AIDs research. She knew what was going on in regards to the exponentially dangerous rising rates of Corona.
If she had even worn a damned mask when she danced attendance and fawning during those pressers behind trump her sins would have been lessened.

During her time of working for trump, IMO, her passivity is grievous error. She is a scientist and a physician and SHE KNEW BETTER.

(glad I got that off my chest)

[twin_ghost]

26. You can lead a horse to water, but can't make it drink the water.

Trump was a first classs jerk that was President. She can't help that.

[irisblue]

27. I do get that he is beyond stupid. I spent an almost 30 yr career in health care

My POV is from the staffer behind. She was such an important leader in the development of the HIV/AIDs first meds that helped extend lives of positive women & men who were dying ugly.

"what might have been"

[ProfessorGAC]

16. I'll Guess There Was A Conversation...

...that ended with "You should retire, Deb."

[cyclonefence]

17. Deborah Birx has been unfairly tarred

See The Plague Year by Lawrence Wright in 1/4/21 New Yorker.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/01/04/the-plague-year (paywall, unfortunately; worth it to buy the issue)

[peggysue2]

20. I did have a change of opinion after reading that article

But the bleach injection press conference was unforgivable.

To her credit, Dr. Birx and a colleague spent many weeks on the road providing basic public health information around the country. And from the report, she did manage to change some minds. She deserves credit for that and for a long distinguished career dealing with the AIDS epidemic and Ebola.

Donald Trump ruined a lot of careers. Dr. Birx's reputation is one of many hitting the dumpster. Fair or not, everything/everyone Trump touched was tainted.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

21. Her early praise of Trump ruined her, at least for me.

If the praise seemed evenly remotely true, that would've been a different story.

Saying NOTHING about him would've been the wise decision.

https://www.vox.com/2020/3/27/21197074/deborah-birx-praised-trump-scientific-literature-coronavirus
-----
“He’s been so attentive to the scientific literature and the details and the data,” Birx said. “I think his ability to analyze and integrate data that comes out of his long history in business has really been a real benefit during these discussions about medical issues.”

Despite what Birx would have you believe, Trump has been pushing misleading and contradictory medical advice. On February 26, for instance, he claimed coronavirus cases would “be down to close to zero.” His claim was hard to swallow then, and barely a month later the US has more than 85,000 cases.

It’s true Trump is sensitive to certain kinds of data — but those kinds generally include his own poll numbers and the stock market, not indicators of public health. Relatedly, Trump is currently pushing to reopen businesses currently shuttered by Easter — a timetable much faster than what public health experts recommend. So not only is Trump not “attentive to the scientific literature,” but, as I’ve detailed, a number of comments he’s made this week have illustrated that he doesn’t get the basics about how public health crises work.

But instead of acknowledging that reality — or at the very least dodging questions about it — Birx decided to go all in on praise.
-----

[cyclonefence]

22. Yes

As Peggysue2 says above, she's only one of many whose reputations were ruined by their association with Trump.

I had the greatest contempt for her until I read about her face-to-face, often successful attempts to change state mask policy, but because of her early loyalty to Trump, no one will remember her for that, or for her heroic work in Africa for AIDS.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

23. Science can be harsh.

It comes with the territory.

The chemists Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons learned that decades ago, after they believed they had discovered a way to create nuclear fusion at room temperature.

It became a media frenzy and later disproven by other scientists who made more accurate measurements.

They were later mocked in the media and both of them left the country eventually.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Fleischmann

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Pons