The country is unprepared for the next pandemicperhaps even less prepared than it was on the eve of COVID-19, Trump-era White House COVID response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx said Wednesday.
Were not readywe have to start with that, Birx told the audience at Fortunes Brainstorm Health conference in Marina del Rey, Calif.
In fact, I worry that weve drifted even farther back than where we were in 2019.
The country wasnt in a great place in 2019, either. Its pandemic preparedness plan failed in the first week, when those in charge didnt consider that people infected with the virus could have itand spread itwithout symptoms, Birx said.
On March 2the day she came on board at the White House under former President Donald Trumpthere were no tests, she recalled. The only tests that were being done were through a public health lab.
Her third day on the job, she called a meeting of private sector health care leaders and told them we need tests within days, she said. And they delivered.
At Birxs request, companies collaborated, lost profit when they sent supplies to safety net hospitals, rearranged their supply chains, and dropped all pretense of competition and just helped, she said.
I think people in the federal government believe the private sector is not there to help, she added. But the private sector stepped in to develop and produce tests, vaccines, and monoclonal antibody treatments that have saved millions of American lives.
To me, across the board, the private sector is really an unsung hero.
The countrys pandemic preparedness plans will continue to fail, Birx says, until the private sector is brought to the table. Every year, federal agencies gather for a pandemic preparedness exercise, and companies that inevitably step in and save the day arent there, because theyre not welcome, Birx said.
In her mind, it makes no sense.
The group that saved Americans was the private sector, she said. To not have the private sector at the table makes certain that were not going to be prepared.
