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 In an interview with CNN, parts of which were released before
broadcast later on Sunday, Birx said there was an "excuse" for the
initial surge of deaths last year as the government grappled with
the start of the pandemic.
"There were about 100,000 deaths that came from that original
surge," Birx said. "All of the rest of them, in my mind, could have
been mitigated or decreased substantially."
More than 542,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the United
States, according to a Reuters tally, and almost 30 million have
been infected.
Trump downplayed the outbreak in its early stages, resisted
mitigation efforts and criticized harsh lockdown measures imposed to
stop the spread of the virus. He repeatedly eschewed guidance on
mask-wearing that health experts say prevents the spread of the
disease.
Birx, who has since left the government, said in the interview that
she received a "very uncomfortable" call from Trump after describing
how widespread the virus was in an interview with CNN in August,
during which she told people living in rural areas that they were
not immune.
Trump, who tested positive for and then recovered from the virus in
October, was running for re-election at the time.
"Everybody in the White House was upset with that interview and the
clarity that I brought about the epidemic," Birx said.
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 "I got called by the
president," she said. "It was very
uncomfortable, very direct, and very difficult
to hear." Birx at times faced
criticism for not standing up more forcefully in public to Trump's
misinformation about the pandemic, including his dangerous
suggestion that Americans could consume bleach to kill the virus.
Trump went on to hold large rallies in the final months of the
presidential election campaign despite public health guidance
warning against large gatherings. He lost to Democrat Joe Biden, who
campaigned largely on a promise to take the pandemic more seriously
than his opponent.
Birx became sidelined in the final months of Trump's administration,
and White House briefings about the pandemic largely ceased.
She was not offered a position in Biden's White House, and now works
in the private sector.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
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