Former White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx is joining Dallas-based air purification company ActivePure Technologies as chief medical and scientific advisor.
Birx is regarded as one of the highest-ranking infectious disease experts in the world. Her 30-year career has focused on HIV/AIDS immunology, vaccine research, and global health. She’s served under the George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump administrations.
“I am pleased to be joining ActivePure Technologies, a company that provides a critical layer of protection against this virus and other pathogens,” Birx said in a statement. “ActivePure is a company rooted in science, and I will be doing my best to continue to save lives and ensure Americans are safe at school, with their families, at work and in recreation.”
ActivePure’s technology was originally designed for NASA, meant to minimize the number of contaminants inside a space craft. It can now destroy more than 99.9 percent of airborne COVID-19 viruses in commercial and residential spaces in three minutes, according to a recent story in Dallas Innovates.
Birx began her career in 1985 with the Department of Defense, studying HIV/AIDS and serving as the assistant chief of the Hospital Immunology Service at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. During this time, she also served as an active-duty reserves officer for the army. Eleven years later, she was promoted to director of the U.S. Military HIV Research Program at Walter Reed, where she continued her service and her research, eventually coming to serve as colonel.
She shifted to serve as the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Global HIV/AIDS in the CDC Center for Global Health in 2005, where she has remained for the past 16 years. Her tenure with the U.S. Department of State began in 2014, when she accepted a role as ambassador at large and U.S. Global Aids Coordinator. Over six years, Birx drove the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and oversaw all government interaction with the Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. During her last year, 2020, she was appointed White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator.
Birx’s appointment coincides with the news that she is joining the George W. Bush Institute in Dallas as a fellow in global health.
