Deborah Birx joins company that claims to purify the air from Covid after Biden declines to offer her a job

Public health expert finds new role in the private sector after acknowledging how ‘the Biden administration wanted a clean slate’

Donald Trump’s White House coronavirus response coordinator who was criticised over her failure to correct the former president’s wild claims about the virus has found herself a new gig in the private sector.

Deborah Birx joined a Texas manufacturer that advertises an ability to reduce Covid-19 from the air with its purifying products, after President Joe Biden declined to provide her with a role in his new administration. 

The internationally acclaimed public health expert recently opened up to Reuters about her time spent working for Mr Trump, during which she was met with backlash for sitting silently in the press briefing room as the former president spoke from the podium about his false theory that ingesting disinfectants may reduce symptoms associated with Covid-19.

She said she was still processing regrets from that time and added: “When you have the 100,000 people we lost over the summer, and the 300,000 people we lost over the fall-winter surge, you have to ask yourself and have to know that it didn’t go as well as it should have.”

“The Biden administration wanted a clean slate,” she told Reuters. “I understand that completely.”

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After Ms Birx officially stepped down from her government positions earlier this month, it was reported she would join Innovia, a biopharmaceutical company, as a board member, as well as the George W Bush Institute as a global health fellow. 

ActivePure, the company Ms Birx has joined after stepping down from her government duties, has not had its claims cleared by the FDA. It filed an application seeking approval to use its air purifiers against Covid-19 last year. 

In a statement on its website, the company says its purifiers “have been scientifically proven to reduce airborne SARS-CoV-2 novel coronavirus in the air”.

While Ms Birx was not offered a job under Mr Biden, her former mentor, Dr Anthony Fauci, has remained in his position as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease. He will also serve as a medical adviser to Mr Biden as the administration rolls out its vaccination plans and further efforts to end the pandemic. 

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, the infectious disease expert said misinformation has played a significant role in how the US has handled the virus after it swept through the country in 2020, and would continue to influence how he advises the new president on the pandemic. 

“There are a substantial proportion of people who do think this is not real, that it’s fake news, or it’s a hoax. This is extraordinary. I’ve never seen this before,” he said during a summit the newspaper held in December. “We have all got to be on the same page telling the American public we have to pull together. That, to me, is the most important thing.”

Ms Birx also spoke at the summit, saying at one point: “We have to go head-to-head with the misunderstandings people have with this virus.”

At least 534,000 people in the US have died as a result of Covid-19, according to daily tracking data published on Monday. Some estimates have said the actual number of coronavirus infections nationwide could be approaching 100 million.