'It's complicated': Biden team weighs whether to retain Deborah Birx
Source: Politico
The debate over Birxs future has vexed transition officials, with advocates for the longtime public health official arguing that her experience on the front lines of the pandemic could aid a Biden administration that will be thrust into the middle of a deepening crisis.
Yet others are far more skeptical, voicing worries that her nine months as coordinator for the Trump White Houses coronavirus task force have permanently eroded her credibility and that keeping Birx on would jeopardize Bidens plan for selling the American public on a full reset of the federal governments pandemic response, according to interviews with Bidens Covid-19 advisers and others involved in the transition.
Its complicated, said Céline Gounder, who sits on Bidens Covid-19 advisory board. Its almost like she herself has been politicized.
Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/18/biden-coronavirus-team-deborah-birx-437923
choie
(4,111 posts)her reputation is ruined and it's her own doing.
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)shouted out in a press conference that well all die if trump isnt removed. The presser where he asked about injecting bleach would have been perfect.
Honestly early on, Fauci was wrong on masks, etc. I like to think he said masks were not helpful because of the shortage, but still . . . . .
C_U_L8R
(45,002 posts)Scarfy is a self-serving collaborator. She just sat there as Trump lied, people died and she did not say a thing. Our country does not need her kind of help.
rickford66
(5,523 posts)JDC
(10,127 posts)To spend more time with her family.
Rebl2
(13,501 posts)lastlib
(23,226 posts)and then shove her over the side??
asking for a fiend.
(no, that was not a typo....)
Phoenix61
(17,003 posts)let Twitler blather on about bleach and lights. I dont trust her as far as I could throw her. Im sure there are plenty of other people just as qualified as she is.
iluvtennis
(19,852 posts)L.Pharmstrong
(152 posts)But rather whether she is uniquely qualified to contribute to the Biden Administration and its COVID-19 response. I dont know enough about the science or Dr. Birxs qualifications to make that call, and Im guessing that no one else participating in this discussion does either.
Phoenix61
(17,003 posts)totally unqualified people. On the outside chance that she may be qualified theres the issue of whether or not she is believable. I think she torched her reputation when she refused to push back against Twitlers insane statements about covid and ways to treat and control it. There are plenty of people who are as qualified as she is without all the baggage.
L.Pharmstrong
(152 posts)Last edited Thu Nov 19, 2020, 11:19 AM - Edit history (1)
There are certainly issues that could make her reappointment problematic. https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/10/inside-story-how-trumps-covid-19-coordinator-undermined-cdc
But she has been in Government for a long time and was appointed by Obama as Ambassador at Large and U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator as part of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) program.
She certainly has lost some credibility working for the Trump administration. But there is also a reason she has been moved to the background by Trump and less visible for the past few months.
Mr.Bill
(24,284 posts)while Trump was saying that to a national audience should have their license to practice medicine revoked.
Dave Starsky
(5,914 posts)I'd be immediately on the phone with my HMO asking to be reassigned, as well as requesting a second opinion on everything he ever diagnosed.
catrose
(5,066 posts)yankeepants
(1,979 posts)LiberalFighter
(50,912 posts)If he thinks she should stay it would only be under the following conditions:
1) She does not make any public appearances.
2) She retires after the pandemic is over unless it lasts another 18 months then she retires at the end of 18 months.
Hekate
(90,677 posts)magicarpet
(14,150 posts)Biden needs a new clean slate where the baggage of trDump is left behind and competence rules the day. The pandemic is a health issue that must be taken seriously and not co-mingled or muddled up with politics.
Brix failed to discipline herself to draw a line in the sand to remain serious,.. professional,... and non-political so she rendered herself ineffectual as a respected pandemic solver. She seems more concerned the direction the political winds are blowing and how she can best gain from the prevailing breeze in Washington DC and the hot air that emanates forth from trDump.
TeamPooka
(24,225 posts)LogicFirst
(571 posts)Cha
(297,200 posts)Bye Felicia
Skittles
(153,160 posts)there are far better people for the task out there
NBachers
(17,108 posts)Hekate
(90,677 posts)No, I think she has become too compromised and politicized.
Mz Pip
(27,442 posts)There are many more credible scientists who Biden can recruit. Brix became anpther Trump sycophant.
Weve had enough of that.
kiri
(794 posts)Deborah Birx is an evangelical Christian who has been associated with HIV research for many years, going back to the 1980s. Birx runs PEPFAR, George W. Bush's global AIDS initiative, and both she and Redfield have been involved with Children's AIDS Fund International, which lobbies for abstinence-only sex education around the world.
https://www.salon.com/2020/03/09/is-the-christian-right-now-in-charge-of-public-health-inside-the-trump-administration/
She is "part of a conservative subculture of evangelical Christians who have found a foothold in the Trump administration clustered around Mike Pence's office. Along millions of other evangelicals, it appears they really believe in Donald Trump."
"what Trump wants these people to do cover up his own ignorance and incompetence is totally at odds with what they must know is best for the health of the American public. Is their worshipful admiration for this man blinding them to the need to communicate honestly with the American people about this crisis"?
She is adamantly opposed to gay marriage, to abortion, of course, and to contraception. In my opinion, she has never done good in keeping her extreme religious beliefs compartmentalized from her scientific knowledge. She also believes in Noah's Flood and rejects evolution!
democrank
(11,094 posts)No, no and no.
PatrickforO
(14,573 posts)There's a guy who will actually do the job without worrying about politics.
patricia92243
(12,595 posts)StarryNite
(9,444 posts)fearnobush
(3,960 posts)The pandemic response. She told a group of reporters how a God like he was and intuitive etc etc etc. she needs to go on day one.
jb5150
(1,178 posts)Have a nice life, get the fuck out.
orleans
(34,051 posts)flamingdem
(39,313 posts)She's another liar and a FUNDIE!
TigressDem
(5,125 posts)sprinkleeninow
(20,246 posts)ananda
(28,859 posts)She was a Trump toadie.
Ditch her!
torius
(1,652 posts)It certainly isn't easy. They don't listen to anyone who seems all sciency and fact-based. If she can get them to take basic precautions, then that's of value.
niyad
(113,302 posts)she not done so before now??
Mike Nelson
(9,954 posts)... NO. Politely show her the EXIT. She will take it - she will retire and keep her pension.
Lonestarblue
(9,988 posts)Get rid of her. Shes wishy washy and lost her reputation when she sucked up to Trump. She is not needed on the Biden team.
Maeve
(42,282 posts)Dave Starsky
(5,914 posts)Actions like that have serious life consequences. We must never let people in positions of authority to forget that. We have crossed over into a Twilight Zone existence where "facts" are whatever the person with the loudest voice says they are, and even the basic laws of nature are questioned. That shit has just got to stop.
usaf-vet
(6,186 posts)...... "First do no harm" See here for the complete oath: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocratic_Oath
And then she took the oath of office, saying in part, "to support and defend the CONSTITUTION against all enemies foreign and domestic."
General Milly's in a recent speech makes it clear that she failed her oath of office.
And I would suggest she also failed her Hippocratic Oath "First do no harm"
She failed on both counts IMO. PERIOD!
soothsayer
(38,601 posts)Marthe48
(16,950 posts)At least try to find out WHAT WAS SHE THINKING!
Turbineguy
(37,324 posts)KPN
(15,645 posts)being party to over a quarter of a million Americans dying, maybe then I'll be vexed. Not before.
ssgbryan
(23 posts)No one in the government is "irreplaceable"
Anyone in the government can be replaced it 5 minutes. If an office can't function without someone - the leadership has failed, and needs to be replaced. (1st rule in govt. - start training your replacement (so you can move up). 2nd rule in govt. - an action passed is an action completed.)
She has to go.
No, it's not complicated. No, she has nothing to offer. She is a collaborator.
Response to brooklynite (Original post)
geralmar This message was self-deleted by its author.
Yeehah
(4,587 posts)She should not be on the national task force.
ProfessorGAC
(65,013 posts)...that a thousand other doctors also know?
And, she was part of a team that engineered only a few marginal successes & an overall failure.
Then the word used was "reset". What part of "reset" does Ms. Founder not understand?
If she's an impediment to selling a reset, she's got to go. It is NOT complicated at all.
Our side has failed at selling good plans. If "reset" needs to be sold, we shouldn't self-inflicted our own impediments.