Top Official Strongly Contradicts Trump on COVID-19, Saying ‘Aggressive’ Action Vital

In an internal memo to senior officials, the coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force noted on Monday that Trump and his advisers were focussing too much on opposing lockdowns rather than controlling the virus.

“We are entering the most concerning and most deadly phase of this pandemic... leading to increasing mortality (sic)," Birx announced in the memo, first reported by The Washington Post.

"This is not about lockdowns — It hasn’t been about lockdowns since March or April. It’s about an aggressive balanced approach that is not being implemented," she added.

The warning from Birx is in direct conflict with Trump’s claims in public, where he has repeatedly attempted to downplay the seriousness of the threat from the pandemic. 

Birx pointed instead to a worsening situation, as the nation recorded more than 91,300 new cases, its second-highest daily total.

“Cases are rapidly rising in nearly 30 per cent of all USA counties, the highest number of county hotspots we have seen with this pandemic,” the memo said, adding, “Half of the United States is in the red or orange zone for cases despite flat or declining testing.”

The memo called for “much more aggressive action from messaging to testing, to surging personnel around the country before the crisis point”.  

Birx’s report also disputed Trump’s claims that COVID-19 cases have increased due to an increase in testing. Her report notes that while testing is flat, the number of positive cases is rapidly increasing, implying, “community spread is much worse than is evident by current [measurements].”

The blunt message from Birx is particularly striking also because she has previously resisted disagreeing with Trump during her public appearances. That’s in contrast to Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has repeatedly contradicted the president and who could now be sacked after the election. 

According to reports, the White House's coronavirus task force has actually become less visible over the last month, and now only meets once a week. Sources told CBS News that "nothing of substance" is happening in the meetings, but it has not been disbanded because the president does not want to deal with the bad press.

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows acknowledged on Sunday that everyone on the task force already knew that the Trump administration is "not going to control the pandemic”.  

The president’s own language around coronavirus has become less cautious after he overcame the virus himself, with the aid of the best medical treatment available in the country. On Friday, he called Fox News host Laura Ingraham “politically correct" for wearing a mask.