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.
US Navy Sailor Admits to Killing Fellow Sailor in Barracks
Sen Tom Cotton urges DOJ to probe Chinese bid to ‘kneecap’ American AI
Bill Gates faces House investigators over Jeffrey Epstein ties
Ron DeSantis Calls Out Fellow Republicans for an AI Blunder That Left the Door Wide Open for Democrats
Judicial turf war ignites over DOJ investigations into transgender drugs and surgeries for children
Top takeaways from the primary elections in Maine and South Carolina: ‘Movement about us’
Judge blocks Alabama’s nitrogen gas execution method, rules it is unconstitutionally cruel
Trump-endorsed candidate will face top GOP target in Nevada House district
Gaming-world veteran who ripped ‘woke’ culture scores Trump-backed battleground primary win
Top GOP target Dina Titus fends off House primary challengers
BREAKING: Karmelo Anthony Prison Sentence Announced, Roughly 4 Hours After Guilty Verdict Read
Trump administration to offer ‘premium’ expedited visa interviews for $750
Billionare Tom Steyer ends California governor campaign after falling short in Jungle Primary
Nick Reiner, Charged with Murdering His Parents, Demands Access to $1.5 Million Inheritance
GOP Finally Defeat Democrats, Pass Bill to Fund ICE, Border Patrol for Years to Come
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.
