2026年7月29日 / 美国东部时间晚上7:46 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
这位前白宫新冠疫情应对工作组协调员表示，这场将安东尼·福西博士及其日记置于审视之下的激烈参议院听证会，暴露出民众仍对政府在疫情期间的应对举措存在“持续不满”。
在接受哥伦比亚广播公司新闻《外卖访谈》节目采访时，黛博拉·伯克斯博士表示，她认为在疫情期间担任宾夕法尼亚州副州长的民主党参议员约翰·费特曼“最能理解我们所有人的处境”。伯克斯说，费特曼当时提出了一个问题：“我是否在拯救生命与维持民众生计之间找到了平衡？”
“这是一个非常深刻的问题，我认为你们今天听到的（声音），仍是多数美国人尚未得到这个问题的充分解答而产生的持续不满，”伯克斯在接受哥伦比亚广播公司新闻华盛顿首席记者梅杰·加勒特采访时说道。
“我们必须找到这个问题的答案，我们必须找到比现在更好的前进道路，”伯克斯说。
她还表示，福西或许正处于这些问题的核心，因为他在特朗普和拜登两届政府期间都担任过职务，而左右两派民众对于双方各自的抗疫举措仍存在深刻分歧。
疫情爆发六年后，一个长期存在的疑问是：新冠病毒究竟是源自中国武汉一家农贸市场的动物，还是从当地一家实验室泄漏。参议员们在周三的听证会上多次就此向福西提问，但他针对所有问题都援引了第五修正案拒绝作答。
领导参议院国土安全委员会的共和党参议员兰德·保罗传唤福西出席该委员会的听证会，作为其对新冠病毒起源调查的一部分。
保罗支持病毒从中国武汉一家实验室泄漏的理论，而非该病毒自然地从动物跨物种传播至该市农贸市场的人类身上。他长期以来一直指责福西和其他顶尖卫生官员淡化实验室泄漏的可能性，并误导公众。
福西此前否认自己拒绝或淡化了实验室泄漏理论，坚称他始终对新冠病毒的起源持开放态度，尽管他曾多次表示有证据表明自然跨物种传播的可能性更大。
福西在周三的开场陈述中表示，他计划援引第五修正案，称保罗“显然痴迷于要求起诉我”，并对他发表了“诽谤性言论”。随后，在保罗和其他共和党议员批评他、民主党议员为他辩护的数小时听证会上，福西全程援引了第五修正案。
伯克斯没有就此问题发表意见，但她表示这是一个重要的问题，因为“我们确实需要额外的防护措施”以及“围绕这些问题制定更多政策”。
“我们都知道曾发生过实验室事故，”她说，并补充道，“我希望未来我们能认真审视这些情况，制定完善的政策来保护实验室工作人员、保护美国民众，并真正重建美国民众的信任。”
她还告诉加勒特：“我们所有人都必须坦诚面对自己”，不仅要正视新冠相关信息的演变过程，还要反思防疫应对措施“本应如何演变”。
伯克斯指出，疫情早期，“我们没有足够的检测手段，完全无法阻止病毒传播。医院人满为患，我们也没有能满足需求的供应链。”最初的几个月“是一场危机”，她说。
后来，单克隆抗体和瑞德西韦等额外治疗手段的出现，使得政府“得以放宽部分防疫限制措施”，伯克斯说。
“但由于当年是选举年，一些州坚持实施极为严格的防疫限制，而另一些州则为我们展示了可以开放K-12学校和高等教育机构的可行方案，”伯克斯说。检测“确实有效阻止了病毒传播”，她说。
她呼吁展开对话，共同探讨“下次疫情来袭时我们该如何应对？”伯克斯表示，她希望弄清楚，美国将如何阻止病毒传播、维持学校开放、保障企业正常运营？
“存在这样的可行方案，”她说。“一旦我们制定出路线图，就需要将其转化为切实具体的条款，并让左右两派都认可这是最佳的前进道路。”
加勒特还向伯克斯问及了福西的日记，以及福西似乎“沉醉于自己日益提升的国际知名度”的说法。
她告诉加勒特：“嗯，你要是去过他的办公室，就能看到他挂满了与各国高层政要和总统会面的照片。这对他来说意义非凡。”但她补充道，“我不认为这影响了他为美国民众做事的判断。我们都是凡人，我希望我们能放下偏见，体谅福西博士作为普通人的一面，同时也要求福西博士、我本人以及其他人承担责任，真正让下次疫情应对变得更好。”
黛博拉·伯克斯谈激烈的福西听证会
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/deborah-birx-combative-fauci-hearing-have-to-have-better-way-forward/
黛博拉·伯克斯谈激烈的福西听证会：“我们必须找到比现在更好的前进道路”
(时长05:29)
Dr. Deborah Birx says Fauci hearing shows there’s still “persistent anger” over government’s handling of COVID
July 29, 2026 / 7:46 PM EDT / CBS News
The former White House coordinator of the COVID Task Force says the contentious Senate hearing that put Dr. Anthony Fauci and his diary under scrutiny shows there is still “persistent anger” over the government’s handling of the pandemic.
In an interview on CBS News’ “The Takeout,” Dr. Deborah Birx said she thought Democratic Sen. John Fetterman, who was Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor during the pandemic, “got it the most right for all of us.” He wondered, she said, “Did I get the balance right between saving lives and preserving people’s livelihoods?”
“That is a very deep question, and I think what you heard today is still persistent anger over that question not being answered adequately for most Americans,” Birx told CBS News chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett.
“We’ve got to get to that answer, and we have to have a better way forward than this,” Birx said.
And Fauci, she said, is probably at the center of questions about this because he served during both the Trump and Biden administrations, and people on the left and right still harbor deep disagreements about how each side addressed COVID.
Six years after the pandemic, one of the enduring questions is whether the coronavirus originated in an animal in a wet market in Wuhan, China, or emerged from a lab there. Senators asked Fauci repeatedly about this Wednesday, but he invoked the Fifth Amendment in response to all questions during the hearing.
Republican Sen. Rand Paul, who heads the Senate Homeland Security Committee, subpoenaed Fauci to appear before the committee as part of the panel’s investigation into the origins of the coronavirus.
Paul backs the theory that the virus emerged from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, rather than spilling over from animals to humans naturally in a wet market in that city, and he has long accused Fauci and other top health officials of downplaying the possibility of a lab leak and misleading the public.
Fauci has denied that he rejected or downplayed the lab leak theory, insisting that he always kept an open mind about the origins of the coronavirus, though he has asserted at times that the evidence suggests a natural spillover was more likely.
Fauci said during his opening statement Wednesday that he planned to assert the Fifth Amendment, arguing that Paul has an “obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution” and has made “slanderous comments” about him. He then invoked the Fifth Amendment for several hours as Paul and other Republicans criticized him and Democrats defended him.
Birx didn’t express an opinion, but she did say that it’s an important question because “we do need additional guardrails” and “additional policy around these issues.”
“We all know that there have been lab accidents,” she said, adding, “I’m hoping that going forward, we really look at these and have good policies that protect the lab workers, that protect the American public, and really get us ready with trust with the American people.”
She also told Garrett, “All of us need to be quite honest with ourselves,” not only about how information about the coronavirus evolved, but also how countermeasures “should have also evolved.”
Birx pointed out that early in the pandemic, “We didn’t have enough testing out there. We couldn’t stop the spread in any way. Hospitals were being overrun. We didn’t have a supply chain that matched the need.” The first few months “were a crisis,” she said.
Then, additional therapies like monoclonal antibodies and remdesivir enabled the government to “pull back on some of the mitigation,” Birx said.
“But because it was an election year, there were states that persisted in their very tight mitigations, and others that showed us a way that you could open K-12 and higher ed,” Birx said. Tests “really prevented spread,” she said.
She called for a dialogue to figure out “how are we going to do this next time?” Birx said she wants to figure out, how will the U.S. prevent spread, keep schools open, keep businesses open?
“There’s a way to do it,” she said. “And then we have that roadmap, but we need to get that down in real concrete terms, and have both the right and the left agree that that’s the best way forward.”
Garrett also asked Birx about Fauci’s diaries and the idea that he appeared “captivated by his rising international fame.”
She told him, “Well, have you been to his office, you can see that he has a lot of photos of his dealing with high-level influencers and presidents. That is something that means something to him.” But she added, “I don’t think that that clouded his judgment on what he was trying to do for the American people. We all are human, and I hope we step back and allow Dr. Fauci that humanness, at the same time, holding Dr. Fauci, myself and others accountable to really make this a better response next time.”
Dr. Deborah Birx on combative Fauci hearing
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/deborah-birx-combative-fauci-hearing-have-to-have-better-way-forward/
Dr. Deborah Birx on combative Fauci hearing: “We have to have a better way forward than this”
(05:29)
发表回复