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Trump & Dr. Deborah Birx power dynamics
In the exchange between Trump and Dr. Deborah Birx all the news focused on Trump cooking up dangerous "cures" for Covid-19.
Unluckily, that's Trump being Trump.
What's even more interesting for us are the power dynamics between the powerful man, and the experts who work for him.
Since Trump can fire them -and he has been known for removing those who don't show loyalty to him-, the relationship is the equivalent of a boss / direct report relationship.
Deborah Birx was in the tough spot of having to tell the truth, and thus denying Trump, while also saving the boss' face.
A tall order.
So let's analyze how did that go:
Pressed with the hard question and the spotlight on her, this is what Birx replies:
Deborah Birx: not as a treatment (and looks around)
(...)
But not as, I have not seen... (looks to the side and points to someone else)
(Trump interrupts and she nods submissively)
There are two issues there:
- She doesn't deny Trump's nonsense strongly enough: that makes her lose status in the medical community
- Her body language communicates she's not confident and strong enough to act as a scientific authority: but her knowledge allows her to be the scientific authority in that exchange, and her role requires her to be the scientific authority
Caught between a rock (telling the truth) and a hard place (saving the boss face), Birx vacillated.
And lost her own personal power.
When she points to someone else, it's as if she was saying “help me out here”.
And it's mostly the powerless and unconfident who look for group support.
Birx does not want to contradict the president, and that’s understandable. On the other hand, she is also losing lots of status, authority, and respect from the medical community for not defending the truth strongly enough.
She does a passable job at denying heat and ultraviolet while saving the president's face, but she does a poorer job at defending both her own power and authority, and the sanctity of science.
With her body language, she communicates that she is not the ultimate authority, and that the scientific buck doesn't stop with her. If she’s not the medical expert in the room, then who is?
What Birx Could Have Done
Birx tried to deny the usefulness of heat and ultraviolet while saving Trump's face.
First she says "not as a treatment".
And then says that "heat in the form of fever is a good thing", that was her trying to save Trump's face.
Birx was in a tough spot, that's for sure, so no blaming her here, just learning from this exchange.
She probably could have done better at defending her status, preserving scientific accuracy, while still throwing a bone at Trump.
Something like this would have worked more in her favor:
Deborah Birx Optimal Answer: Not as a treatment for coronavirus (flatly denying the nonsense which should be first priority)
Ultraviolet and heat do kill some microorganisms, and there have been previous testing, so the rumors you're talking about probably refer to those tests (saves Trump's face). Unluckily they don't work with coronavirus (preserves scientific facts).
Disinfectatns kills the virus, yes (saves Trump's face), but it's harmful inside the body so unluckily any direct injection is a no-go (preserves scientific facts).
Now the priority for treatment is in looking for a vaccine, and there are a number of encouraging efforts in that direction (ends on a positive tone which is both true, and exactly what Trump wanted to have)
Trump's Leadership Failure: Misunderstanding of His Role
Trump is showing very poor leadership.
But, as a president, I think that he sounds far worse than he actually is. Put anyone else at his position, and things would have probably been pretty much the same across the country.
Which is funny, because all of Trump's efforts are promotional efforts to make him look better than he actually is.
I think that he misunderstands what his job is.
He thinks that his job is to show that the country has no problems at all, and that all problems will be fixed ASAP.
He is like that boyfriend whose girlfriend is unhappy and thinks that her unhappiness reflects badly on him.
So there he is, taking full responsibility for her moods and trying to "cheer her up" in all ways that he can. But she does not need anyone to pressure her into changing moods on a dime. She just needs a strong figure that will help her weather the storm while remaining calm and factual.
