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.
Trump admin scores court win to end deportation protections for Ethiopian migrants
Prosecutor corners Lindsay Clancy’s Catholic mother-in-law with ‘mortal sin’ question
Two planes blow tires while landing at major US airport hours apart, FAA investigating
Anti-socialism push can flip battlegrounds, Republican leader bets as party fights to hold House
Judge rules Trump can begin paint tests on 19th-century building after preservation groups sued
Democratic Congressman Under Ethics Committee Investigation for Alleged ‘Inappropriate Sexual Contact’
Blue state mayor arrested for fraud sparks uproar for not speaking English in viral clip: ‘How is this real’
Socialists accused of ‘motor mouth’ rhetoric as longtime Dem strategist unloads on far-left candidate
Sammy ‘The Bull’ Gravano recounts turning on John Gotti
Tragedy Deepens as Hayden Panettiere Dad’s Friends Reveal He Was Only Just Beginning to Recover from Losing Son
Cop Fired After Allegedly Using Flock Cameras to Stalk Former Boyfriend – She Abused System 166 Times
Andy Burnham insists ‘zero consequence’ from falling for Susie Wiles impersonator as ministers’ phone numbers appear online
Appeals court upholds limits on warrantless ICE arrests at churches
Trump Sends Election Day ‘Impostor’ Warning to Alaska Voters: ‘Don’t Let These Fraudsters Get Away with This Hoax’
Antisemitism fight explodes in Florida as voters head to the polls: ‘Political pogrom’
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.
