Most COVID-19 deaths could’ve been prevented, Dr. Deborah Birx says in new doc

Melissa Klein

featured

Mar 29, 2021

Most of the nation’s COVID-19 deaths could have been prevented, Dr. Deborah Birx contends in a new documentary.

Birx, who headed the coronavirus task force under former President Donald Trump, said of the approximately 100,000 deaths that came from the initial surge of the virus, “we have an excuse.”

Bodies are moved to a refrigeration truck serving as a temporary morgue at Wyckoff Hospital in Brooklyn in April 2020.Bryan R. Smith/AFP via Getty Images

“All of the rest of them in my mind could have been mitigated or decreased substantially,” Birx says in a clip from the documentary posted on the CNN site. The documentary is set to air Sunday.

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Dr. Deborah Birx speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in March 2020. — Dr. Deborah Birx speaks about the coronavirus at the White House in March 2020.Alex Brandon, File/AP

A hospital worker places a "COVID Patient" sticker on a body bag holding a deceased patient at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in the Mission Hills section of Los Angeles. — A hospital worker places a “COVID Patient” sticker on a body bag holding a deceased patient at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Los Angeles.Jae C. Hong, File/AP

A patient who died lays in a body bag inside a COVID-19 unit at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, Texas. — A patient who died lays in a body bag inside a COVID-19 unit at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston.Callaghan O'Hare/Reuters

Deborah Birx listens during the daily briefing on COVID-19 in April 2020. — Dr. Deborah Birx seen during the daily briefing on COVID-19 in April 2020.Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci, center, speaks as Vice President Mike Pence, right, and Dr. Deborah Birx, White House coronavirus response coordinator, left, listen during a news conference with members of the Coronavirus task force at the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington. Fauci has warned that the United States could soon see 100,000 infections per day. “We haven’t even begun to see the end of it yet,” Fauci said during a talk hosted by Stanford University’s School of Medicine. — Dr. Anthony Fauci also took part in the CNN special on COVID-19.Susan Walsh, File/AP

States and cities needed to act more aggressively and heed the lessons from the first surge to reduce cases last spring, she said.

The film, “COVID WAR: The Pandemic Doctors Speak Out,” also includes an interview with Dr. Anthony Fauci.

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