Birx describes a White House divided on COVID response

By KEVIN FREKING
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Dr. Deborah Birx says the lack of clear, concise and consistent message in the earliest months of its spread resulted in inaction across the federal government. Birx, who served as the COVID response coordinator under Trump, testified for the first time during a hearing Thursday. She also was critical of the response during Trump’s final months, saying that conflicting advice to the president from another adviser, Dr. Scott Atlas “destroyed any cohesion in the response of the White House itself.” Birx has projected that 130,000 Americans’ lives could have been saved after the first wave of the pandemic if the federal government had implemented “optimal mitigation.”