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.
LeBron James Announces He’s Headed to a New Team – One Peculiar Line from His Explanation Stands Out
Ilhan Omar’s office housed inside Somali community center that received redirected Feeding Our Future donations
Injuries reported in crash involving police vessel near Westminster Bridge in London
‘Allahu Akbar!’ Jewish and Asian Victims Stabbed by Man Shouting Islamic Battle Cry in Mamdani’s NYC
Bombshell memo shows Biden planned to leave Trump with even more massive immigration crisis
‘McCarthy trials’: Hasan Piker, far-left figures erupt over subpoenas in $39M Singham probe
Democrats weigh backing Trump’s push to pair Iran with Russia sanctions
Watch: Boy, 9, Has Slick Message for Bank Robber He Rescued His Nana From
Watch: Legendary ‘Journey’ Band Member, Songwriter Tells Trump-Hating Bruce Springsteen to ‘Shut Up’
Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed accused Trump of inciting terrorism over Whitmer kidnapping plot
WATCH: Scalise serves up Olive Garden reality check for Democrats in voter ID fight
Illinois worker spent over six hours trapped in gas station sign too tall for fire truck ladders to reach
Purported Nancy Guthrie note includes unusual demand that breaks basic ransom rule: retired FBI negotiator
Rep. Jimmy Gomez’s toughest opponent may be an ethics investigation
Secret Service offers glimpse into WHCA Dinner security after alleged Trump assassination attempt
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.
