Just in Time for the Midterms, Dr. Birx Warns of Potential Summer COVID Surge

Dr. Deborah Birx, best known for her role as the coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force during the Trump administration, joined Margaret Brennan, the host of CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday to tout her new book, “Silent Invasion: The Untold Story of the Trump Administration.”

While it’s labeled on Amazon as the No. 1 best-selling book in epidemiology, it doesn’t appear to be flying off the virtual shelves. As of Tuesday afternoon EDT, there were only nine reviews.

The big takeaway from their discussion was Birx’ warning that Americans should prepare for a potential surge in COVID-19 this summer, particularly “across the southern United States.”

Birx based this assessment on the current spike in COVID cases in South Africa.

She told host Margaret Brennan: “If you look at what we’ve been through, we went through a mini alpha variant surge in the same locations last year at this time. Then we went into that lull of May, where everybody thought it was over, and in middle of June, and then we had the predictable surge across the South.

“And what you need to be looking at is global data. So I follow South Africa very closely. They’re good about testing. They’re good about sequencing and finding their variants. They’re on an upslope again. Each of these surges are about four to six months apart. That tells me that natural immunity wanes enough in the general population after four to six months that a significant surge is going to occur again. And this is what we have to be prepared for in this country.

“We should be preparing right now for a potential surge in the summer across the southern United States because we saw it in 2020 and we saw it in 2021.”

Brennan argued that Birx’ warning wasn’t the “general consensus right now.” But Birx isn’t the only one talking this way.

Last month, Birx’ former task force partner, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, predicted we would see a COVID surge in the fall.

I am not an epidemiologist and I have no idea if a surge will materialize later this year or not. We know that COVID is now considered to be endemic. It’s here to stay and there may be some seasonality to it as there is with the flu.

But Birx and Fauci are talking about something more than that — they’re using the word “surge.”

Because we’ve seen the coronavirus used as a political tool so often over the past couple of years, particularly by governors in blue states, many Americans have become skeptical of predictions from partisans like Birx or Fauci — especially when the time frame for the expected surge is the summer or fall before a critical midterm election that will help determine the course of President Joe Biden’s presidency.

And we wonder when, not if, the calls for mail-in voting from the Democrats will begin.

Brennan commented on Birx’ presence at Saturday night’s White House correspondents’ dinner. The highly partisan physician and diplomat had attended as a guest of CBS News.

One of the few attendees to wear a mask at the event, she explained: “There were probably, just by odds and science, probably 15 to 20 people infected, even though everyone was tested in the morning or within 24 hours. And so I just always know and then I keep testing. So I’ll test every day for five days after an exposure. And I consider that an exposure. I tested this morning because I knew I was going to see you in person, unmasked.”

Fauci, Biden’s chief medical adviser, opted to skip the event over COVID fears. He did, however, attend at least one pre-party where he was photographed indoors with his pal Don Lemon and several others, sans mask.

I’m glad The Help in the background is masked for the safety of Don Lemón and Dr Kevorkian #WHCD pic.twitter.com/bk1tjqNjGA

— Hollaria Briden, Esq. (@HollyBriden) May 1, 2022