Andrea Mitchell: Credibility of Scientists in White House Is Now On the Line

NBC’s Andrea Mitchell said Sunday that top doctors in the Trump administration tasked with informing the American people about the coronavirus are beginning to lose the public’s trust.

This comes after Dr. Deborah Birx on a couple Sunday shows downplayed President Trump’s comments earlier this week about the possibility of injecting disinfectant or cleaner into the body to treat the virus, saying that Trump was just vocalizing the potential benefits of a DHS study about the effect of sunlight on the virus. Birx added that it “bothers her” that Trump’s comments are still in the news cycle.

“I think the credibility of the scientists really now is on the line,” Mitchell said. “They have to decide whether to stay inside and be valuable, or whether or not they have to see another alternative, like [former Secretary of Defense] Jim Mattis, and quit.”

Mitchell went on to say that Birx “is perpetuating an unscientific, untested, single study presented by a nonscientist” which led to Trump not fully understanding the data at his regular coronavirus press briefings. Birx, she added, “needed to be very clear on disavowing it, and to this point, she still has not been, even this morning.”

Watch the video above, via NBC.