What the HELL is it with these people?

[George K]

"Doc Scarf" celebrates Thanksgiving.

As COVID-19 cases skyrocketed before the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House coronavirus response, warned Americans to “be vigilant” and limit celebrations to “your immediate household.”

For many Americans that guidance has been difficult to abide, including for Birx herself.

The day after Thanksgiving, she traveled to one of her vacation properties on Fenwick Island in Delaware. She was accompanied by three generations of her family from two households. Birx, her husband Paige Reffe, a daughter, son-in-law and two young grandchildren were present.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has asked Americans not to travel over the holidays and discourages indoor activity involving members of different households. “People who do not currently live in your housing unit, such as college students who are returning home from school for the holidays, should be considered part of different households.”

Even in Birx’s everyday life, there are challenges meeting that standard. She and her husband have a home in Washington. She also owns a home in nearby Potomac, Maryland, where her elderly parents, and her daughter and family live, and where Birx visits intermittently. In addition, the children’s other grandmother, who is 77, also regularly travels to the Potomac house and returns to her 92-year-old husband near Baltimore.

“To me this disqualifies her from any future government health position,” said Dr. Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Georgetown Center for Global Health Science and Security. “It’s a terrible message for someone in public health to be sending to the American people.”

After The Associated Press raised questions about her Thanksgiving weekend travels, Birx acknowledged in a statement that she went to her Delaware property. She declined to be interviewed.

She insisted the purpose of the roughly 50-hour visit was to deal with the winterization of the property before a potential sale — something she says she previously hadn’t had time to do because of her busy schedule.

“I did not go to Delaware for the purpose of celebrating Thanksgiving,” Birx said in her statement, adding that her family shared a meal together while in Delaware.

Birx said that everyone on her Delaware trip belongs to her “immediate household,” even as she acknowledged they live in two different homes. She initially called the Potomac home a “3 generation household (formerly 4 generations).” White House officials later said it continues to be a four-generation household, a distinction that would include Birx as part of the home.

Was she wrong to do this? I really don't know.

What I do think is that it looks terrible and privileged.

[Copper]

She doesn't believe the guidelines/restrictions/rules/laws

If she did believe that the rules provided reasonable protection, of course she would follow them.

She doesn't believe

If she did, would she endanger all those family members?

She is an expert

I don't care at all about appearances.

I would like to know how to quantify the benefit provided by the rules. Cold, hard, accurate numbers, without that I am not impressed with the rules.

I know, I know, put on the mask! Stupid

Tell Ms. Birx exactly what the danger is to her and her family.

For example
Not following the rules means a 95% likelihood she will take between 48 hours and 6 months off of her mother's life.

[Mik]

I suspect she and her family have had plenty of access to testing.

[taiwan_girl]

@george-k said in What the HELL is it with these people?:

Was she wrong to do this? I really don't know.
What I do think is that it looks terrible and privileged.

Yes, she was wrong. And yes it looks terrible. Boo!