In "Preventable," his new book detailing the federal government's failures on mitigating the pandemic, Andy Slavitt writes that he met with Birx last August in Minnesota after she briefed local officials. Once a close adviser to Trump, she had been cast out of his inner circle by that time and replaced by Dr. Scott Atlas, a radiologist with no epidemiological experience whom Trump hired after watching him on Fox News. Sidelined from her once prominent role, Birx spent her days traveling the country and providing detailed data to government officials. It was one of those briefings in Minnesota that she invited Slavitt to attend. "I wanted to get a sense for whether, in the event of a strained transition of government, she would help give Biden and his team the best chance to be effective," Slavitt writes in his new book, even though the outcome of the election was not yet known. "At one point, after a brief pause, she looked me in the eye and said, 'I hope the election turns out a certain way,'" Slavitt writes. "I had the most important information I needed."