Dr. Deborah Birx on Tuesday said that medical experts failed to understand the seriousness of the coronavirus because of incomplete data coming out of China.
“I think the medical community interpreted the Chinese data as that this was serious but smaller than anyone expected,” she said. “Because I think probably we were missing a significant amount of the data.”
Birx spoke about the experts’ relationship with the data during a White House press briefing on Tuesday evening.
She acknowledged frankly that when she saw early data from China reporting only 50,000 cases of the virus among the 20 million people in Wuhan, China, and the 80 million in Hubei province, she felt that the threat was similar to that of SARS, which had 8,098 cases globally and 774 deaths.
New Jersey governor, Democratic senator spend Memorial Day protesting ICE facility
Sex Trafficking: More Disastrous Graham Platner Comments Surface as Dem Buyers Regret Reaches New High
Hollywood Ignored the ‘Project Hail Mary’ Blueprint as ‘Star Wars’ Stumbles and Nolan’s ‘Odyssey’ Looks Headed for Trouble
Tim Walz’ Gun-Control Bill Goes Down In Flames Despite Dems’ Sit-In Protest
Rubio pushes back on India’s concerns over US visa curbs, says policy must be ‘America First’ under Trump
Parents Revolt After College Tries Surveillance Experiment On Kids, Report Shows
Vets torch Dem Senate hopeful who called Army ‘fat, lazy trash,’ mocked soldier shot four times
Omar confronted on camera over GOP proposal targeting foreign-born lawmakers: ‘Good luck to her’
UFO insider claims US has bodies of 4 different alien species from downed spacecraft in government custody
EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Marine vet prosecutor refuses to cross constitutional line on Spanberger ‘assault weapon’ ban
GOP senators spurn anti-weaponization fund payout for phone data seizure: ‘I don’t need any compensation’
Operation Benjamin: Restoring fallen soldiers’ lost Stars of David
Baby pulled from vehicle trapped in raging floodwaters in dramatic rescue caught on video
Teen sailor killed aboard USS West Virginia at Pearl Harbor identified after 82 years through DNA analysis
Stampede erupts at South Carolina biker festival, 19 injured in late-night chaos
The devastation hitting countries like Italy and Spain and South Korea gave the experts much more complete data, helping them draw models that were far more alarming.
“Let’s see if we can do much better than that,” President Donald Trump said during the briefing, pointing to the models predicting 100,000 to 240,000 deaths in the United States.
Trump noted that the virus was also more contagious than expected.
“I think the one thing that nobody really knew about this virus was how contagious it was,” he said. “It’s so incredibly contagious, and nobody knew that.”
Story cited here.
