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.
Viral photo shows Bernie Sanders, AOC and Mamdani together in NYC ahead of ‘Fighting Oligarchy’ rally
DHS Wrecks NYT for Puff Piece on Deported Murderer: ‘When Will They Finally Shed Light on Their Victims?’
‘Worse Than Cracker Barrel’: Austin, Texas, Roasted for Butchering City Crest in Bizarre Rebrand
DOJ: Two U.S. citizens used Minnesota as base for overseas kidnappings and bombings
Two Teens Arrested in Murder of Republican Congressional Intern
Trump roils Chicago Democrats with Apocalypse Now meme hinting at National Guard deployment
Social media firestorm erupts after massive Georgia immigration raid: ‘Taking bold action’
The ‘chance encounter’ and unbroken promise that changed the course of the Idaho student murders case
Protestant Pastor Arrested in Sudan in Middle of Funeral
JD Vance clashes with anti-Trump social media personality over cartel killings: ‘I don’t give a s—‘
America’s largest gun lobby speaks out as Trump admin mulls possible trans firearms ban
Top Biden officials questioned and criticized how his team issued pardons, used autopen: report
Christian Counselor Defeats Cancel Culture Campaign Over His Biblical Stance on Sexual Ethics
ICE deports Mexican illegal immigrant accused of aggravated rape against family member
Gilgo Beach suspect Rex Heuermann loses bid to toss DNA evidence at upcoming murder trial
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.