Deborah Leah Birx was born on April 4,1956 and is an American physician and diplomat who served as the White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator under President Donald Trump from 2020 to 2021.
32 Facts About Deborah Birx
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Deborah Birx was part of the White House Coronavirus Task Force from February 2020 to January 2021.
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In March 2021, Deborah Birx joined ActivePure Technology as Chief Medical and Science Advisor.
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Deborah Birx is the daughter of Donald Birx, a mathematician and electrical engineer, and Adele Sparks Birx, a nursing instructor.
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Deborah Birx's late brother Danny was a scientist who founded a research company, and her older brother, Donald Birx, is president of Plymouth State University.
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Deborah Birx's family lived in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where she attended Lampeter-Strasburg High School.
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In 1976, while enrolled at Hershey Medical School, Deborah Birx married a fellow medical student Bryan Dudley Raybuck and future cardiologist she met at Houghton College, and received a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry, completing her undergraduate studies in two years.
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In 1980, Birx earned an Doctor of Medicine from the Penn State Milton S Hershey Medical Center.
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From 1980 to 1994, Deborah Birx served as an active duty reserve officer in the United States Army.
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From 1994 to 2008, Deborah Birx was active duty regular Army, achieving the rank of Colonel.
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From 1980 to 1989, Deborah Birx worked as a physician at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
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In 1981, Deborah Birx completed a one-year internship and did a two-year residency in internal medicine.
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From 1986 to 1989, Deborah Birx worked at the National Institutes of Health as an investigator specializing in cellular immunology.
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Deborah Birx returned to Walter Reed, where from 1989 to 1995 she worked in the Department of Retroviral Research, first as an assistant chief and then as chief of the division.
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Deborah Birx was lab director in HIV-1 Vaccine Development for a year.
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Deborah Birx became the director of the United States Military HIV Research Program at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, a position she held for nine years, from 1996 to 2005.
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In that position, Deborah Birx led the HIV vaccine clinical trial of RV 144, the first supporting evidence of any vaccine being effective in lowering the risk of contracting HIV.
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In March 2020, Deborah Birx became a board member of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
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In January 2014, President Barack Obama nominated Deborah Birx to be the Ambassador-at-Large and US Global AIDS Coordinator as part of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief program.
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Deborah Birx was confirmed by the Senate by voice vote on April 2,2014, and was sworn in two days later.
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Deborah Birx described her role as ambassador to help meet the HIV prevention and treatment targets set by Obama in 2015 to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030.
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In televised briefings, Deborah Birx interpreted data on the virus, urged the public to practice social distancing, and tried to avoid publicly contradicting Trump, who frequently offered unscientific digressions.
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Deborah Birx led the creation of a reopening plan presented by Trump on April 16,2020, with voluntary standards for states to end coronavirus lockdowns.
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In July 2020, a working group convened by Deborah Birx ordered hospitals to bypass the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and instead send all COVID-19 patient information to a database at the Department of Health and Human Services.
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Deborah Birx, who had criticized hospitals and the CDC for being slow to gather data, helped select the data firm Palantir to help run HHS's new system.
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Deborah Birx said that the United States was in a "new phase" of the coronavirus epidemic that was "extraordinarily widespread".
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Deborah Birx was alternately praised and pilloried by various sides, both for her responses as well as the actions in general of the CDC as well as the coronavirus task force.
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Critics alleged that Deborah Birx minimized the dangers of coronavirus and downplayed equipment shortfalls.
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Deborah Birx was accused of squandering her credibility and bringing her independence into question with her public praise of Trump, whom many believed bungled the coronavirus response.
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Deborah Birx's announcement came after news broke that she hosted three generations of her own family from two households during Thanksgiving after she had urged Americans to restrict such gatherings to "your immediate household".
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In March 2021, Birx joined the George W Bush Institute in Dallas, Texas, as a senior fellow, working on initiatives to reduce health disparities and prepare for future pandemics.
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Deborah Birx's husband, Paige Reffe, is a lawyer who held managerial roles in the Carter, Reagan, and Clinton administrations.