Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House COVID-19 response coordinator under former President Donald Trump, told Newsmax on Thursday that the Biden administration's latest extension of the COVID-19 public health emergency is being used "to make it seem like we're doing something to combat the current problem with our COVID response."
"I think over the last 22 months we've lost over half a million Americans," Birx said on "National Report." "Over the last year of 2022 we've lost almost a quarter of a million Americans."
Birx said she has expected to see "a new strategy and a plan that recognizes the failures that we have been having in really protecting vulnerable Americans from severe disease, hospitalization, and death."
When asked if she thought a new strategy might be forthcoming, considering that President Joe Biden declared the pandemic over, Birx said Biden did a disservice to older Americans by making that statement.
"I think, unfortunately, by saying that, a lot of elderly Americans decreased their amount of mitigation or increased their risk of exposure," Birx said. "I think three things need to happen: One, we need a new strategy based on the current hospitalizations and deaths to understand who's being hospitalized and how we're going to prevent that.
"Secondly, we need more durable vaccines, vaccines that last more than four to six months. I want to know the progress and producing and doing the science and the data to have those new vaccines. I expected a plan on what they were doing to replace our monoclonal antibodies that were effective in preventing a lot of hospitalizations of vulnerable Americans. That hasn't happened.
"And finally, I want to know what they're doing about the high level of deaths in rural Americans and tribal nations. By doing this extension, it's hiding the fact that we need a new strategy because we have over 400 deaths a day primarily in people over 70 and I value people over 70."
Birx said people over the age of 70 are "an important contribution to America. So let's stop disregarding their existence, admit we have failed them and come up with a strategy to save their lives."
Birx also talked about the push to send children back to school and said there was "very compelling data" to suggest that the removal of kids from their school social networks had increased their risk for anxiety and suicide.
"I think parents want a complete picture of what's at risk for their children, and we kept that from them, and we knew that data then," she said. "I think to all of a sudden wake up a year later and say, Oh, my gosh, the mental health of our children!' We knew that a year before."
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