Deborah Birx


Deborah Leah Birx is an American physician and diplomat serving as the United States Global AIDS Coordinator for Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump since 2014; she has served as the Coronavirus Response Coordinator for the White House Coronavirus Task Force since February 2020. She specializes in HIV/AIDS immunology, vaccine research and global health, and was responsible for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief program in 65 countries supporting HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention programs.

Early life and education

Birx was born in Pennsylvania. She is the daughter of Donald Birx, a mathematician and electrical engineer, and Adele Sparks Birx, a nursing instructor. Her late brother Danny was a scientist who founded a research company, and her older brother, Don Birx, is president of Plymouth State University.
Her family lived in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, during her early life, where she attended Lampeter-Strasburg High School. Growing up, the siblings used a shed behind their family home as a makeshift lab for experiments in astronomy, geology, biology, and on one occasion, a homemade satellite dish antenna mounted on roller skates.
In Birx's sophomore year she won third place at the Lancaster City-County Science Fair, and she was featured in a front-page story in the Lancaster New Era with the subhead: Girls Sweep Top 3 Prizes. She told the Intelligencer Journal that, "third is alright, but I'll be back. I want that first prize." Her junior year she competed in the International Science and Engineering Fair in San Diego. Her family moved and she attended Carlisle High for her final year of high school. In her senior year, she competed at the Capital Area Science Fair and was awarded the Grand Prize. Her brother says that her experience competing in the fairs "really was part of encouraging her to go into science."
In 1976, Birx received a BS in chemistry from Houghton College, completing her undergraduate studies in just two years. In 1980, Birx earned an MD from the Hershey Medical Center, Pennsylvania State University.

Career

From 1980 to 1994, Birx served as an active duty reserve officer in the United States Army. From 1994 to 2008, Birx was active duty regular Army, achieving the rank of Colonel.
From 1980 to 1989, Birx worked as a physician at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. In 1981, Birx completed a one-year internship and did a two-year residency in internal medicine. From 1983 to 1986, she completed two fellowships in clinical immunology in the areas of allergies and diagnostics, where she worked in Anthony Fauci's lab. From 1985 to 1989, Birx was the assistant chief of the Walter Reed Allergy/Immunology Service. Birx started her career as a clinician in immunology, eventually focusing on HIV/AIDS vaccine research.
From 1986 to 1989, Birx worked at the National Institutes of Health as an investigator specializing in cellular immunology.
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. She was lab director in HIV-1 Vaccine Development for a year. 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. In that position, 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.

CDC

From 2005 to 2014, Birx served as the director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of Global HIV/AIDS, part of the agency's Center for Global Health.

President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief

In January 2014, President Barack Obama nominated Birx to be the Ambassador at Large and U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator as part of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief program.
Birx was confirmed by the Senate by voice vote on April 2, 2014, and was sworn in two days later. She 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. Her role has focused on the areas of HIV/AIDS immunology, vaccine research, and global health issues around HIV/AIDS. As part of her work with HIV prevention, Birx created a program called DREAMS, a public-private partnership focused on reducing infection rates in adolescent populations.

White House Coronavirus Task Force

On February 27, 2020, Vice President Mike Pence appointed Birx to the position of White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator. As part of this role, Birx reports to Pence on the White House Coronavirus Task Force. Pence called her his "right arm" on the task force.
In televised briefings, 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.
On March 26, 2020, Birx sought to reassure Americans in a press conference that "there is no situation in the United States right now that warrants that kind of discussion ... You can be thinking about it... but to say that to the American people, to make the implication that when they need a hospital bed, it's not going to be there, or when they need that ventilator, it's not going to be there, we don't have evidence of that right now."
Birx led the creation of a reopening plan presented by Trump on April 16, 2020, with voluntary standards for states to end coronavirus lockdowns.
During the state reopenings, Birx warned individuals to continue precautions against the virus, and opposed some activities like professional haircuts. "You need to continue to social distance," she said on May 3, 2020.
Critics have alleged that Birx minimized the dangers of coronavirus and downplayed equipment shortfalls. She was the White House's chief proponent for the idea in April that Covid-19 infections had peaked and the virus was fading quickly, when afterward infections surged. A board member at the American College of Emergency Physicians, Dr. Ryan A. Stanton, said Birx sounded like “the builders of the Titanic saying the ship can’t sink." Birx was also accused of squandering her credibility and bringing her independence into question with her public praise of Trump, whom many believed bungled the coronavirus response.

Personal life

Birx is married to Paige Reffe. She lives with her parents, husband, and the family of one of her daughters in a multi-generational home. She was formerly married to Bryan Raybuck.

Memberships

Citations

Attribution

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