(NewsNation) — Dr. Deborah Birx, the former White House COVID-19 response coordinator, is calling for a 9/11-style commission to investigate the handling of the coronavirus pandemic, saying transparency is needed to rebuild trust in science and public health.
“I’ve called for over and over…a 9/11-like commission where all of this is laid out,” Birx said Wednesday on NewsNation’s “CUOMO.” “When we talk about rebuilding trust in science and data and information, it starts with transparency.”
Birx was in the spotlight nearly daily in 2020, informing the public on how the Trump administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were handling the infectious disease that killed more than 1.1 million Americans.
Birx said such a commission should examine what mitigation efforts worked, the efficacy of vaccines, issues around long COVID, and whether enough safeguards are in place to prevent future lab leaks of dangerous pathogens. She noted people are “working with zoonotic viruses every day in multiple labs across the globe.”
One thing that went wrong early on in the pandemic: The pharma giant AstraZeneca requested that the European authorization for its COVID-19 vaccine be pulled.
The European Medicines Agency first gave AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine the nod in January 2021. Within weeks, however, concerns grew about the vaccine’s safety, when dozens of countries suspended the vaccine’s use after unusual side effects were noted, including rare blood clots detected in a few immunized people. The European Union regulator concluded AstraZeneca’s shot didn’t raise the overall risk of clots, but doubts remained.
Birx said the vaccines were “very effective” at preventing severe disease, hospitalizations and deaths, which is what the clinical trials studied.
However, she said questions remain about vaccinating lower-risk populations, potential side effects and long-term impacts that require further transparent investigation.
“There has to be this transparent panel and discussion,” she told NewsNation.
Birx pushed back against conspiracy theories that the vaccines were ineffective or caused widespread harm, noting far more people suffered from long COVID than reported any adverse vaccine reactions. But she said people’s concerns need to be heard and addressed.
“Until we’ve listened to each and every one of them and addressed their concerns, and they believe they were heard, people are going to continue to spread conspiracy theories,” Birx said.
The epidemiologist also criticized China’s lack of transparency, saying it began at the pandemic’s onset when Beijing officials initially claimed no there was no human-to-human transmission despite hospitals being overrun.
