The diplomatic doctor was missing from the weekend coronavirus task force briefings. Deborah Birx, the task force coordinator, was not in her usual position, behind the lectern and to President Trump’s left. She was not there with her calm expression and her talk of the need to get granular and her explanation that the seeds for everything happening now were planted fourteen days ago and we won’t see any fruits of social distancing for another week or so. She was not there with her soothing directness, reassuring competence and a style of dress that distinguishes her from all the suits and the bureaucrats who usually stand alongside her.