Birx says inconsistent messaging was ‘biggest mistake’ in fight against COVID-19

In a documentary that aired on CNN Sunday evening, former White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Deborah Birx said the biggest mistake the federal government made in handling the pandemic was not providing “consistent messaging.”

“The federal government did not provide consistent messaging to the American people,” Birx told CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Sanjay Gupta, adding it was “the biggest mistake made.”

Dr. Birx told me that “the Federal government did not provide consistent messaging to the American people.” And, she acknowledges her own role in that. This could be, above all others, “the biggest mistake made.” #COVIDWAR

— Dr. Sanjay Gupta (@drsanjaygupta) March 28, 2021

Birx gave the assessment while appearing in a CNN documentary titled “COVID WAR: The Pandemic Doctors Speak Out.” Anthony Fauci, former CDC Director Robert Redfield and former Assistant Secretary for Health Brett Giroir were also featured in the documentary.

“I’m very self-reflective on what could I have done better because I don’t ever want us to make the same mistakes,” Birx told Gupta. When Gupta asked if she was upset with the Biden administration’s decision not to keep her on, she said she was “encouraged” that there was a coronavirus team continuing to operate in the White House.

She also added that she was not prepared for the politics involved in working for the White House when she first began near the beginning of the pandemic.

During the documentary, Fauci said that he had been the “bad cop” while Birx had taken up the “good cop” role within the COVID-19 task force in the Trump administration. Fauci said he believed Birx “had a much more difficult situation” than he did.

“She had an office right there in the West Wing,” Fauci said. “So I am very, very reluctant to condemn anything that — even though there are people who feel that she should have pushed more, she probably should have.”

“But boy, she did a lot of good,” he added. “She knocked herself out getting up at 3 o’clock in the morning putting that data together, presenting it every day.”