Dr. Deborah Birx says the media may want to consider focusing on the “bigger pieces” regarding the coronavirus pandemic instead of minutiae related to President Trump.
The world-renowned medical expert — now the U.S. government’s coronavirus response coordinator — made the remark over the weekend after CNN’s Jake Tapper warned of Mr. Trump’s “anti-scientific musings.”
“There is going to be a history of this era written,” the “State of the Union” host said Sunday. “And those who are pretending this irresponsibility is not happening, they will be remembered as villains.”
At issue for Mr. Tapper was Mr. Trump’s past comments on the possible benefits of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine to combat the contagion, along with the president’s April 23 remarks mentioning ultraviolet light therapy.
“As a doctor, doesn’t that bother you, that you have to even spend any time discussing this?” Mr. Tapper asked.
“Well, I think 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,” Dr. Birx replied, NewsBusters reported. “So, I think, 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.”
Mr. Tapper countered by deflecting blame away from media outlets.
“I would agree with that,” he said. “I would say that I think the source of the misinformation is not the news media on this.”
Mr. Trump’s exact words on the matter made clear that he was not speaking as a medical expert and that those tasked with finding a cure for the virus would continue their experiments.
“I said [to medical experts], supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way,” Mr. Trump said to members of his team. “I think you said you’re going to test that, too. It sounds interesting. And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute.
“And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning? Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs,” he continued. “So it would be interesting to check that. So, that, you’re going to have to use medical doctors with. … The whole concept of the light, the way it kills it in one minute, that’s — that’s pretty powerful.”
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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