A single line often inverts meaning once you see what it
answers, so neighbouring messages are always shown.
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Mar. 16, 2020 - Came out with the guidelines that reflected my pushing for a more aggressive mitigation 15 day strategy → If you are elderly, self-isolate; do not congregate in groups >10 people; stay away from bars, restaurants, theaters, sporting events; if a community has community spread CLOSE the bars, restaurants and places of congregation; close schools where there is community spread; no visitors to nursing homes; if family member is sick, others in family should take extra percautions; only necessary travel, telework as much as possible. Press conference after was highly attended. Stock market dropped byu 3000 points, the biggest percentage drop in history. PRESS: ABC 20/20 coronavirus special with David Muir;
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Mar. 17, 2020 - 168,000/6700; 151 countries; USA 4529 cases (903 news); 84 deaths (16 new). At TF discussed supply chain issues; also testing still somewhat of an issue. Press conference with POTUS. He is now coming around (largely through my efforts) to say thatr this is really a serious problem, but he still always brags about how well we are doing as opposed to emohasizing the challenges ahead. I gave some support to Gov. Cuomo during a question of me. Issue arising of clains from France that hydroxychloroquine is effective in decreasing the duration of viral shedding and also is used as a prophylaxis in exposed people. All uncontrolled studies. PRESS: Press conference after TF. I was featured heavily in the presser; FOX with Laura Ingraham; Sean Hannity Radio; Barstool Sports Podcast
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Mar. 18, 2020 - WH wanted me to not wear myself out. Have had private car and driver since Mar. 13 (Friday). I will stay at NIH today and do some press tonight from truck at home. Very positive press with Laura Ingraham on FOX last night On WHO call, Dale Fisher (Australian working in Singapore) gave warning to other countries that after you lift the lock down, be prepared for a rebound and use the lockdown period to stock up on supplies, prepare alternative hospitals (gyms, schools, etc.) preserve PPE and not use them for unnecessary things. Also, from Italy, 12% of ICU patinets were 19-50 years od and ~30% were 50-70 yo; 50% of French patienets in ICU are under 60 yo. Bloomberg report on March 18 (Tommaso Ebhardt et al) said that in Italy 99% of thois who died had "othe illness". However, 75% of these had hypertension. These latter must have been on anti-hypertensive meds and so the issue of ACE inhibitors absolutely must be pursued. On TF call we discussed the Defense Production Act and a possible EO. Also, the VP said over the phone that he wanted me at the Pressor today and Katie (good for her) pushed back and said that I should stay at NIH. VP looked surprised. Probably will hear more about this. Also, at TF meeting they decided to fully embrace FEMA and make a big announcement about that with the POTUS today. New York City and State are facing a "Sophie's Choice" regarding PPE. They are very low and they have to make a decision of using PPE for testing versus giving to HCWs who are taking care of patients. Obviously, it goes to HCWs, but that will interfer with testing. This was related to me by phone call with Peter Staley, Mark Harrington, and James Krellerstein. rt, Also, had phone call with Major de Blasio who wants to go to "shelter in place for the entire city. He is asking my advice since Gov. Cuomo is pushing back. I advised DeBlasio to go ahead and do it. I will try to speak with Cuomo. POTUS called me up from Oval. He has Alex Azar, Steve Hahn, Bob Redfield Scott Gottlieb, and Deb Birx in the office with the usual WH crowd. They want me in on the discussion. A friend of POTUS (Tom Ellison of Ellison Foundation ?) said that he heards that someone gave Hydroxychloroquine (HC) to 51 people and 51 got better. POTUS has heard similar stories, including Remdesivir (R) about other drugs and wants to make these available. To my amazement and dismay, Azar said that he could approve HC and Remdesivir now with the powers that he has. Steve Hahn and to some extent Deb and Bob started to chime in that this would give people hope. I took a deep breath and said that this was wrong and should not be done. If you want expanded access (EA) of HC which is an approved drug, you can do it in an EA protocol and still get wide distribution and possibly learn something. I stated that with R it is different since this was not approved. In the chorus of eeveryone agreeing with the POTUS that we need to give hope to people, I insisted that we can do both, but in the context of a trial. To his credit, POTUS agreed with me as long as we get the drugs out there. They wanted to announce this today, but I convinced them to do so tomorrow when I am there. Below is an e-mail that I sent right after the conversation:
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Mar. 19, 2020 - >200,000/~10,000; USA - 9026/150; 2900 new. Italy >31,000 In the USA testing: ~70,000 tests with ~10% positive Met yet again with POTUS right before the press conference, which did not include me since it was predominantly an FDA issue with Steve Hahn. POTUS excited about making drugs (Chloroquine, Remdesivir, etc.) more accessible. Therapy was the theme of the day. They actually were going to go too far (see above) and make them all available on compassionate use. I convinced them not to. POTUS was hot to give out chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine since Jeff Ellison thinks that it is a great drug. Steve Hahn did a good job in stressing the need for safety and efficacy data. Katie Miller and Kelly Love are trying to not overload me and particularly Katie is sensitive to my time. Call with Gilead regarding remdesivir studies and supply PRESS: Marc Levin Radio; PBS NewsHour with Judy Woodruff; Facebook with Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan; CNN Town Hall with Anderson Cooper and Sanjay Gupta; NBC Evening News with Lester Holt
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2020-03-20 00:00
Anthony S. Fauci
Mar. 20, 2020 - Another day at the WH. Important TF meeting and press conference. During the day, Gov. Cuomo had a press conference that he wanted me on to join him, but I could not since I did not want to do a press conference outside of USG and the WGH would not let me do it anyway. Cuomo took a gigantic step forward. 90% of the new infections in the USA are now coming from NYC and Westchecter, but mostly NYC. Cuomo is essentially shutting down all non-essential activity in the city.. 100% of non-essential workers must stay at home and not intermingle. I strongly praised Cuomo for doing this at the Presser after the TF. We met with the POTUS (as usual) in the Oval. The theme of the presser will be the fact that we are now having only essential travel to Canada and Mexico, and IMPORTANTLY, no aliean/immigrants can enter the countrywithout proper papers from Canada or Mexico, although the order is clearly aimed at Mexico. The rationale is that we are shutting down entry to USA from China, South Korea, Iran, Europe and UK/Ireland and yet people from these same countries are crossing over from Mexico. If some are infected and we take them in, we put them in facilities including with unattended children, we could have another cruise ship situation. The decision relly was a public health decision. LAST NIGHT, Katie and Steve miller called me up and explained why the CDC order to do this was given (CDC was essentially told by state and DHS to do it). They wanted my support to emphasize that this was a pubic health decision and not an anti-immigrant decision. I believe that they have a good point. During the presser, the reporters continued to ask me about the free distribution of Hyrdoxycholorquine (HC) , which the POTUS wants, and my statements that the evidence to do this is purely anecdotal and there is no convincing evidence by an RCT that either HC ro remdesivir works. After the presser the press went wild saying how I again contradicted the POTUS and I received hundreds of e-ails of people thanking me, even though I did not intend to or like the idea of contradicting POTUS, but I need to stick with the science. They also had a tweet that went viral of me holding me head seemingly in disgust as the POTUS was talking. That wa not my intention. Most important part of the day and disturbing was my conversation with Mark Meadows and Marc Short together with Deb Birx Meadows praised me for a while and then got to the point. He wants me to consider the tone that I say that HC has no evidence of efficacy. I told him that I cannot compromise my scientific principles. Tough conversation. He wa being a gentleman, but he wanted me to go to a place that I would not go. 200; deaths 9800 Even more disturbing was the conversation where he wanted me to support the idea of lifting the mitigation restrictions after the 125 dya periods since if we do not do this, Mark fees thatwe will trigger a depression (not just a recession). Mark Short agreed with him, but seemed much more sensitive to the fact that I did not want to get into that kind of situation that would use my credibility to sell an economic and a political issue. After I left the office, Mark Meadows called my cell and said that afterhe looks at some modelling, he would like to sit down with me and figure out how we can resolve this issue. He did ask me directy, if I thought we needed to extend the mitigation program beyond 15 days and I said yes. He seemed to accept that. There certainly is more ahead. I called a meeting at my house with Cliff lane, Chrsitine and me to discuss how to handle this as we go forward. I cannot and will not compromise acting on my good judgment. However, I can understand Marks dilemma with the economy. There will be more discuss. Also, had conversation by phone with Governor John Bell Edwards of Louisiana who has ~400 cases in NOLA and wants my advice about how aggressive he should be and maybe copy NYC. He has already closed all the bars and restuarants. I told him to look at the inflection of the curve over the next day or so and contact his Commissione of Health. It the curve is steep, he should consider mandating only essential work and everyone else stays homw, but not quite yet. Also, Petrer Staley, Mark Harrington, James Krellenstein and others called late at night and told me that they had a bad situation in NYC where the desire to do many tests was eating up PPEs that were needed by HCWs who were taking care of COVID-19 patients. The implored me to speak out that ony necessary testing should be done, i.e. on hospitalized patient and those with sxs not in hospital, and not just anyone who wants a test. They sounded desparate that NYC would un out of PPEs within the next 7 days. I will bring this up to TF tomorrow. PRESS: CBS Evening News with Norah O'Donnell; FOX with Bill Hemmer; WH Press Conference; Major Washington Post Profile on me
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Mar. 22, 2020 (Sunday)- Cases continue to soar. 30,000 in USA with 400 deaths; Italy still escalating. My please to the TF regarding needing desparately to get PPEs and other supplies to NYC seems to be working since FEMA in pusing stuff to them. 250,000 tests now done not counting those from hospitals and medical centers Press is going wild with me. Front page in Washintgton Post yesterday and Op Ed by Maureen Dowd in NY Times today about me and my relationship with the POTUS. Profile by Peter Nicholas on me in The Atlantic. I am trying in several articles and on TV to clarify that the POTUS is tsalking about hope for therapies although there are no good data, while I must stick to the science and so fundamentally we are approaching this from different, but not conflicting standpoints. The press are crucifying the POTUS for "not listening to me and making crazy statements about "game-changing" therapies and praising me fot stivking to my guns. ORACLE (Larry Ellison - a bit of a loose cannon) . Mark Meadows wants CDC, FDA and me to help put together by 5:00 PM tomorrow an on line site for tracking availability of drugs like Hyroxychloroquine and Remdesivir and making these drugs available via a physician. Bad idea, but it will happen. I will go with this as long as it does not interfere with the conduct of RCTs. Cliff Lane helping out but employing NLM and NCATS people. I am giving him full authority since I have absolutely no extra time given what I am doing already. Also, Jared and Mark are very skeptical about the CDC modesl about the trajectory of the outbreak and what can be predicted regarding timing of modification of the mitigation. They want to see the data before they believe the models and get CDC out of the business of doing this alone and making policy - good for them - it is about time. I am getting Cliff to get MIDAS people in on this. Press conference (I did not attend) after the virtual TF meeting. POTUS went into detail with very granular numbers of all the things USG (mostly FEMA) is doing regarding sending masks, PPE, other equipment to high risk locations (Washingto State, CA, NYC, etc.) On TV programs, FEMA Pete Gaynor did not look good since he did not have any idea how many ventilators and other equipment was available. POTUS went on and on 3,300/391; new about all the things that we are doing. Very rambling and disorganized as he ad libs his speech I would have advised against this, since we are still getting calls that many locations do not have enough of anything. Also, they are talking about the now hundreds of thousands of tests that are out there and being done. However,as I have always said, testing for the sake of testing without reason only consumes PPEs of the people administering the tests. Looking at the presser from home on computer has made it clear how self-congratulatory the POTUS, VP and others appear on the stage. Title 42 enacted - use of National Guard to help. Role out of telemedicine without reguations so that people do not have to leave the house to interact with their physician. A lot of promises - I hope we can back them up. PRESS: CBS Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan; Multiple print features
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Mar. 24, 2020 - 392,000/17,000; 45,000/550 in USA. Cases still soaring in NYC. COVID Cases 3.24.20 powerpoint Incredible intrigue going on with people (likely WH staff) feeding total lies to media about the frayed relstionship between me and the POTUS. This is really bad stuff. I am getting calls from media (Reuters) saying that a source told them that the POTUS was screaming at me and being abusive about the issue of HC treatments. Total nonsense. See below. Typical of many aryicles over the past few days: In order to save Dr. Fauci, we must destroy him Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is a study of calm and competence in the middle of a pandemic. Which makes him an endangered species, working as he does for a )20, 5:25 p.m. boss who is notoriously insecure and made his name shouting "You're fired!" on a reality TV show.
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Mar. 25, 2020 - 435,000/20,000; USA - 54,622/749. On WHO weekly call. China removing restrictions - critical to watch this closely to determine what happens in light of what POTUS is trying to do in reducing restrictions by Easter . Giuseppe Ippolitto reporting from Italy - major restrictions of non-essential industries. Good control in Central and Southern Italy. Lombardy still very bad. People moving from North to South bringing cases to South. Contact tracing impossible in major outbreak areas. Deaths mostly in older (>60 yo) people. From Italy - no evidence of bad effects of ACE inhibitors on COVID-19, hence no need to change meds. CHINA - in regions where they have gone doen to no cases, they are seeing reintroductions from imported travel cases. Big problem. Also, need to get infected people out of the homes since they are secondarily infected the rest of the family → family clusters. Discussed the issue of loss of sense of smell as an early sign of COVID-19. At TF meeting, Jared still throwing barbs at CDCbecause they did not nail down the recommendations for returning critical infrastructure (CI) people to work after an exposure where they did not kno if they were infected, but were asymptomatic. Metagain with POTUS in Oval. He really acting like he is very fond of me, always deferring to me. His staff definitiely notices this (Hope Hicks, Kellyanne Conway). I believe that the mole who does not like me is Alexa, the Comms person. Hogan is OK. Devin is getting better and Katie Miller is great (tough, smart,but great). Interesdting couple with Steve Miller. At press conference, it went well as I fashion a new slant for each presser. I apologized to reporter Philip Wegmann for answering him sharply when he asked what I thought about Tedros favoring the Chinese. He wrote me a nice note afterwards. Big issue from the appearance on CNN Cuomo Prime Time was when I answered the question about the timeline to re-open the USG, I said "we do not determine the timeline, the virus determines the timeline". That will not play well among some of the POTUS staff. PRESS: Bob Rose Radio (Gainesville, FL); WABC Radio (NYC) Bernie and Sid Show; CNN Cuomo Prime Time
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Mar. 26, 2020 - Global - 414,000/18,400; USA - 68,600/1000; NYC 20,000/280. Continued pressure regrding POTUS aspitational goal of wanting to open up on Easter Sunday. Cases now coming into NIH with several staff infected. Admissions to the SCSU Received another of now several calls from Gov. Andrew Cuomo wanting guidance on interpreting the trend of new cases/day and what this means to predictions of where the outbreak is going in NYC. Had the usual good and warm/friendly conversation. He and Chris Cuomo are becoming friends. Also, we discussed his and my relationship with Trump. CRAZY, CRAZY - donuts are being named after me; T shirts have my picture on them and are being sold; San Francisco radio is dedicating a song to me - Curtis Mayfield singing "Keep on Pushing"; coloring pictures with crayons for my picture, face time with Trevor Noah; Instagram with Steph Curry Color me Fauci.docx 'Feed News Reporter Steph Curry Had An Instagram Live Chat With Dr. Fauci About Coronavirus That Was Super Informative Barack Obama and Justin Bieber posted some emojis. Tasneem NashrullaBuzzFeed News Reporter Posted on March 26, 2020, at 3:04 p.m. ET • Tweet COVID-19 Os. WITH DR. FAUC #SCASKSFAUCI QsA elie I THURSDAY, MARCH 26 _ 10AM PT / 1PM ET ra) FOLLOW @STEPHENCURRY30 ON INSTAGRAM 10 TUNE IN • Share • Copy The journalists at BuzzFeed News are proud to bring you trustworthy and relevant reporting about the coronavirus. To help keep this news free, become a member and sign up for our newsletter, Outbreak Today. can s stephencurry30 - Watch my LIVE story w Dr.Fauci (the GOAT) @niaid He's answering all of our questions. So grateful. intry in the world Instagram: @https://www.instagram.com/stephencurry30/?hl=en Thousands of people tuned in to NBA star Stephen Curry's Instagram live Q&A with Dr. Anthony Fauci about the coronavirus on Thursday because 2020 continues to be surreal.