Donald Trump’s coronavirus response coordinator, Dr Deborah Birx, sought to downplay the president’s dangerous suggestion that injected disinfectants and ultraviolet could be used as medical treatment for Covid-19, and argued on Sunday that the press should stop asking questions about the matter.
During a press briefing on Thursday, Trump encouraged research on whether disinfectant could be injected into the human body to combat the virus, prompting an immediate backlash from medical experts and industrial manufacturers who cited the potentially fatal outcome of such an approach. The day after, the US government’s public health body the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued guidance against the use of disinfectant as the president falsely claimed his remarks had been sarcastic.
Birx, one of the prominent public faces of the administration’s scientific response to the pandemic, was present at the briefing on Thursday and on Sunday described Trump’s remarks as “a dialogue” between the Trump and other administration scientists present.
Appearing on CNN’s State of the Union, Birx was asked if she was bothered by the fallout from Trump’s remarks.
“It bothers me that this is still in the news cycle, because I think we’re missing the bigger pieces of what we need to be doing as an American people to continue to protect one another,” Birx said. “As a scientist and a public health official and a researcher, sometimes I worry that we don’t get the information to the American people that they need when we continue to bring up something that was from Thursday night.”
Dr Birx said she had “made it clear” to the president that injected disinfectant “was not a treatment” but added: “That kind of dialogue will happen”.
Although Trump has not specified where the idea of using injected disinfectant as a possible remedy for Covid-19 came from, the Guardian revealed on Friday that a prominent group peddling the use of bleach as a “miracle cure” had written to the president earlier in the week.
Trump had also pushed the potential use of ultraviolet light on the body as a treatment for coronavirus, pushing research by the Department of Homeland Security exploring how heat and sunlight affect the virus on surfaces. Experts have also long cautioned against the dangerous, potentially lethal side effects of UV light on the human body.
On Sunday, Birx sought to distance herself from the president’s suggestion and instead cited research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) suggesting that sunlight can impact the aerosolization of the virus outdoors.
Trump indicated over the weekend he could halt the daily press briefings that have underpinned his shambolic response to the pandemic, drawing widespread criticism for their similarity to campaign rallies rather than public health briefings.
“What is the purpose of having White House News Conferences when the Lamestream Media asks nothing but hostile questions, & then refuses to report the truth or facts accurately,” he tweeted on Saturday at roughly the same time in the evening that the briefing would have taken place. “They get record ratings, & the American people get nothing but Fake News. Not worth the time & effort!”
Birx, a former Obama administration appointee with a background in HIV/ Aids prevention, told NBC on Sunday that while she remained hopeful for a slow reopening across the United States over the next few months, social distancing measures would likely remain a constant throughout the summer.
She added that the US required a “breakthrough innovation in testing” in order to speed up the reopening by testing for those who have already had coronavirus but displayed little to no symptoms in order to track the virus’ spread.
source https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/26/coronavirus-birx-trump-disinfectant-remarks
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