The Senate Republicans' report published this week about the "most likely" origin of the novel coronavirus being a lab in Wuhan, China, is vital because such questions must be answered to develop guidance that will protect Americans in the future, Dr. Deborah Birx, the coordinator of the White House Coronavirus Task Force during the Trump administration, said on Newsmax Friday.
"All of these questions need to be answered because we have to put different policies and guidance in place to protect Americans in the future," Birx told Newsmax's "National Report." "When we create dogma rather than looking objectively at the data, both in this case and in our response to COVID, we do a disservice to the American people."
Continuing to question and to get answers is what "drives our creativity and innovation," she added.
Birx said there are two parts of the report she liked, including the foreword, where Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., the ranking GOP member on the Senate, Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee and who released the report, made it clear that there is evidence still missing.
"Then, in a dispassionate, objective way, they lay out the evidence of their concerns of why they think this needs to be revisited in a very clear way and a very data-driven way, and that's what we should be doing," she said.
Birx said she also agrees with Burr's statement that there is not yet enough scientific evidence to come to a definite conclusion about the coronavirus's origins.
"I think the strongest piece that's in this report is the epidemiology doesn't match," said Birx. "It doesn't match with prior zoonotic events. I said this last August in the hearing that this virus came out adapted to humans in a way that we haven't seen with other zoonotic events."
And, she said, if there had been transparency from China or the Wuhan laboratory, matters could have been much different when the United States reacted to the emergency in February 2020.
Meanwhile, when asked if she agrees there should be continuing vaccine mandates, particularly for children, Birx said she believes there must be an objective look at what is and what's not known about the vaccines.
"I've been trying to raise the alert for two years that based on the natural history of this virus, we didn't believe the vaccines could produce herd immunity or protection from transmission and infection and I think that's an important concept," said Birx. "That's why I want to have this transparent discussion so Americans can see the evidence."
The doctor further said that if Republicans take control of Congress and order more hearings on the pandemic, she'll cooperate fully and pointed out that she wrote a book about the response to the disease so people will know what worked and where mistakes took place.
"This transcends who is in the White House," said Birx. "We have to hold our institutions accountable, the federal institutions that are supposed to be protecting the American public accountable so that we can do better next time."
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