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.
Alaska woman uses weapon to survive terrifying bear attack after predator mauls pooch: ‘I thought I was dead’
Son of Mango fashion billionaire heard tearfully telling 911 operator his father had ‘fallen down a ravine’
Vance Gives Perfect Response After ‘View’ Host Brings Up His Past Criticism of Trump
Republicans bat down bid to handcuff Trump’s war powers as peace deal nears
15 Antifa radicals indicted, 12 arrested in sweeping federal probe into Minneapolis anti-ICE operations
JD Vance Responds as Lindsey Graham Expresses Skepticism About Iran Deal
Mother’s tip helped unravel White House UFC drone plot: Affidavit
Lawmakers demand answers after NIH scientists charged in monkeypox smuggling conspiracy
MLB Reprimands Christian Players Who Took a Stand Against ‘Pride Night’
Todd Blanche earns attorney general bid endorsement from law enforcement alliance ahead of confirmation
Trump Says Israel Is Fighting ‘Too Long, and Too Many People Are Being Killed’
Hungary changes constitution to ban Viktor Orban reelection as Peter Magyar prepares to oust president
Report links anti-Christian extremism and ‘assassination culture’ to alleged plot against Erika Kirk
Luigi Mangione supporter working for far-left DC mayoral candidate likened to Mamdani
South Carolina personal trainer goes missing, last spotted walking toward wooded area
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.
