President Trump further disparaged his senior health advisers on Monday even as the pandemic deepened its hold on the nation, as the White House’s top coronavirus coordinator, Deborah Birx, joined Anthony S.

Birx — who built a career leading public health efforts against HIV/AIDS — quickly garnered Trump’s favor earlier this year for publicly championing the administration’s coronavirus response, becoming a prominent figure both inside and outside the White House.

This past weekend, Birx lost the backing of the nation’s top Democrat, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), who privately called Birx “the worst” and publicly said she had no confidence in her.

Deborah Birx, going after her because she was too positive on the very good job we are doing on combatting the China Virus, including Vaccines & Therapeutics,” Trump wrote in a tweet.

Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, said that as a scientist, Birx has most damaged her credibility by seeming to dismiss some of the publicly available evidence.

The duo formed a reassuring team of medical elders — Birx sometimes talked about her children and young granddaughter — who sought to assuage public fears while also offering public health expertise in an administration frequently dismissive of science.

But more than five months into the pandemic, Trump has grown exhausted by the dismal coronavirus news and just wants the issue to be behind him, the two former officials said, adding he now associates Birx with the failures.

In recent weeks, her time in the Oval Office has dropped, officials said, and she is not always part of decision-making meetings led by Trump son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.

White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement that Birx’s “incredible leadership in the HIV/AIDS field and her honest, thoughtful approach as the White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator have helped to save millions of lives.”.

In a news conference Monday evening, Trump said he has “a lot of respect” for Birx and that he thinks Pelosi has treated her “very, very badly.” A senior Trump aide said Trump had a “positive” meeting with Birx later Monday afternoon.

Public health officials were also dismayed at reports that Birx was questioning the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s official coronavirus death count as too high, when nearly all experts believe it is probably too low?

Within the administration, several current and former senior officials described Birx as a politically shrewd power player who keeps close tabs on developments in the president’s orbit?

But some of these same officials also noted that Birx has made enemies within the White House, in part because a growing number of aides believe she takes different positions with different people and because of sharp attacks on some colleagues.

One White House official argued that Birx is in a difficult situation generally, and also probably the recipient of sexism; this person noted that Birx — who sends around a morning email complete with slides outlining her latest models — provides much of the data upon which the rest of the largely male team relies.

Birx was at a vacation house in Delaware this weekend when White House officials specifically asked her to appear on the Sunday shows.