Former White House Coronavirus Task Force Response Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx left the Centers for Disease Control following President Donald Trump's transition out of the White House. Her retirement announcement was made after she bucked CDC guidelines and decided to travel to spend time with family over the Thanksgiving holiday. This was after she advised Americans not to travel for Thanksgiving and Christmas gatherings.
"The Biden administration wanted a clean slate," Birx told Reuters. "I understand that completely."
Fast forward and Dr. Birx has landed on her feet again, this time with a job in the private sector. She joined ActivePure Technology, a Texas-based filtration company that is working to receive FDA approval to sell air purifiers designed to remove Wuhan coronavirus particles from the air. Birx will serve as chief medical and scientific adviser for ActivePure.
While ActivePure waits for the FDA approval, the company has been aggressive in its marketing. On their website, the company says their filtration systems have a "kill rate of over 99.9 percent of airborne SARS-COV-2 within 3 minutes."
Throughout the course of the pandemic, air-purifying companies have been allowed to market their products as technology that will kill off the virus. The only stipulation they have is identifying whether or not the FDA has given their technology the green light.
In addition to her new private-sector job, Birx also joined the George W. Bush Institute as a global health fellow. She will be focusing on addressing "health disparities" that COVID has "exacerbated," POLITICO reported. Dr. Birx also agreed to serve on the board Innoviva, a biopharmaceutical company.
