Thread by @saletan

Kudos to @nytimes and @SherylNYT for publishing this article on Birx, which rectifies some of the unfair criticism aimed at her in NYT's July 18 article. This one tells the rest of the story: She's been pushing the White House and governors to do more. /1 nyti.ms/30AEgS0

The July 18 article was full of criticisms of Birx, many of them anonymous, that exceeded, and in some cases contradicted, evidence in the public record. Some of that evidence was in the article itself. I described some problems with that article here. /2

https://twitter.com/saletan/status/1284683054095781888

Among the additional info in the new article:

1) "Inside the White House, aides refer to Dr. Birx as 'Dr. Doom' for her efforts to temper the president’s positive spin."

2) A State Department adviser says Birx told Pence, "You’re putting a mask on and appearing with a mask." /3

3) The Dem governor of KY says Birx stood up, in the administration's name, to give him cover for issuing a mask order and considering a shutdown of bars.

4) The GOP governor of MS says Birx "prodded him for weeks to institute a statewide mask order; this week he relented." /4

These tweets from NYT reporters indicate that while others were blaming Birx (some of it looks like White House political people trying to cover their own malpractice), she wouldn't tell her side of the story. Now she has folks speaking up for her. /END

https://twitter.com/shearm/status/1289998629810266112