Trump's White House ignored advice on COVID-19 that could've saved over 130,000 lives, Dr.Birx testified

Trump's White House ignored advice on COVID-19 that could've saved over 130,000 lives, Birx said The 2020 election "distracted" Trump and took his attention away from the nation's pandemic response, Birx testified to House lawmakers. YahooNews

Dr. Deborah Birx, the former White House COVID-19 response coordinator, in testimony to the House select subcommittee on the coronavirus crisis said that former President Donald Trump's approach to the pandemic led to a massive number of preventable deaths.

"No," Birx said when asked if Trump did everything in his power to curb the spread and save lives, per excerpts of her testimony released by the committee on Tuesday.

"And I've said that to the White House in general, and I believe I was very clear to the president in specifics of what I needed him to do," she added.

Birx, who testified before the committee in mid-October, said that over 130,000 lives could've been saved in the early stages of the pandemic had Trump's White House adhered to the science and pushed for measures advocated by experts.

"I believe if we had fully implemented the mask mandates, the reduction in indoor dining, the getting friends and family to understand the risk of gathering in private homes, and we had increased testing, that we probably could have decreased fatalities into the 30% less to 40% less range," Birx said. ...