A single line often inverts meaning once you see what it
answers, so neighbouring messages are always shown.
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April 22, 2020 -- Interesting day - Rick Bright has gone rogue. Due to his poor performance as head of BARDA, Alex (+/-) Kadlec removed him from his post. We (Francis and I) thought that he would stay at BARDA and spend 50% of time at NIH in order to coordinate BARDA with NIH vaccine activities, We all had always felt that he was making bad decisions in his giving hundreds of inillions of dollars to Phartma companies without any requirements to coordinate with NIH and his choices were poor to begin with. HOWEVER, in what turned out to be the most incompetent and botched HR move, they fired him by just taking his name and picture off the HHS/BARDA website without even telling him. They then assigned him to be an NIH employee under Francis taking with him from BARDA $1 Billion to work on diagnostics with Bruce Trumberg of NBIB. Rick reacted by going public, hiring a lawyer, claiming whistleblower status and saying he was fired because he was pushing back against HHS and political pressure to fund bad science and certain companies and that he objected to pushing HC. In fact, there are e-mails and memos showing that he himself was pushing HC and giving millions to get it out there. He is an abject LIAR! Georgia Governor Kemp is actually ignoring the guidelines for "Opening Ameica Again" by skipping to phase 2 and opening beaches, massage parlors, tatoo shops. Crazy!. A couple of days ago Deb waffled about condemning it, but today she convinced the POTUS to back off in supporting Gov. Kemp (R-GA). During the presser, I came out unambiguously saying that Kemp was wrong and if I were his advisor, I would tell him not to do that since it risks a rebound. It seems that the WH is putting me out to the press much less than usual over the past week to week and %. We shall see. The relationship between me and Katie and Hogan and Devin seems really good and so I do not know what is going on. Could be just a coincidence. My PMR is under control -- starting to slowly taper the 15 mg prednisone. Have been on pred. for 36 days PRESS: White House Presser - 827,000/47,000; - 860,000/49,000.
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April 23, 2020 - Global - 2,500,000/170,000; USA - 827,000/47,000; Interesting day. Was asked to come to Pentagon (with Deb Birx) by Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley. He had Deb and I brief him and his immediate staff on how the Armed Forces could best prepare for the future wave (in the Fall and beyond) of COVID-19. All about "force protection". We did this in the famous "Tank". Howver, before we did that he wanted to take a bunch of photos with him, his wife, and Vice Chair Gen. John Hyten and Gen.Paul Friedrichs. Also, he had me sign his surgical masks and a basketball that was originally signed by Coach K of Duke. I had a wondeful time!! TF was uneventful. I was not at presser..... HOWEVER, the presser was a disaster for the POTUS. All he did was fight with the press Someone from DHS presented data showing that sunlight, heat and humidity "kills' the virus. Actually, they presented this at the TF meeting and the POTUS did not even know about it. When the DHS guy presented it, the press tore it apart as a gimmick from the POTUS. Also, the POTUS incredibily made the comment that one should consider injecting or swallowing these disinfectants (including chlorax-like substances) as a "cure". Deb almost fainted on stage, Thank God I was not there, After the presser, CNN with Erin Burnett presented a segment of the clash between the scientists (almost exclusively me) and the POTUS. They showed a point-by-point contrast of me versus the POTUS. Let us see what the reaction is tomorrow at the TF meeting. After the presser (about 1 hour) Deb Birx texted and then called me saying it was good that I was not there since after the presser, the POTUS called her into the Oval and started yelling at her saying "You and Fauci have destroyed the country and the economy. I should never have listened to you. You have completely destroyed us." He kept saying this over and over again and was yelling at her. I encouraged her that we are OK and at the end of the day she and I will be loved by the people we care about. She was relieved and after wrote me a text sincerely thanking me. PRESS: None
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April 24, 2020 - Global - 2,600,000/177,000; USA - 860,000/49,000. TF at the WH today. No press Press having a field day trashing the POTUS for his statement about "drinking bleach". Consuming the press. Will brief Governors today with the POTUS. Governor talk went well. Cuomo stated what I had been saying all along that we need a "partnership" between USG and States. Note the POTUS goes back and forth and has often said that the States are on their own and when I say "partnership" there was some concern that I was contradicting POTUS. Fir first time the POTUS had a presser and walked out without answering any questions. Axios wrote that he may greatly diminish pressers. He used to love them due to the "ratings" of viewers. However, his people are now telling him that it is greatly hurting his approval ratings.
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April 25, 2020 - (Saturday) - Very brief TF at the WH today. No press conference. Much discussion about the plasn of the states to open. A lot of buzz in the media about Azar very likely getting fired. Reuters wrote a smear piece on him and attacked Brian Harrison (his COS) for be a dog breeder since he raised labradoodles at some ime in his life. Very unfair. Also, it is clear that theyare gradually keeping me off the press conferences with the POTUS and not allowing me on TV/radio nearly as much. NBC reported that of the last 7 press confercens, I was at 1 and I usually get 2-3 media hiots per day and I have only done 2 last week - FOX with Laura Ingraham and GMA with Stephanopoulos. Katie Miller no longe doing press assignments. Now it is Kayleigh McEnany and Alyssa FarahAlexa. See below from April 24: Fauci's absence from recent coronavirus briefings draws notice The national health expert was in attendance for just one of this week's seven briefings. sing President Donald Trump reacts as Dr. Anthony Fauci steps away from the podium after speaking and answering questions at the daily coronavirus task force briefing at the White House on April 22, 2020.Jonathan Ernst / Reuters
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2020-04-25 00:00
Anthony S. Fauci
April 25, 2020, 3:22 PM EDT / Updated April 25, 2020, 4:14 PM EDT
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April 26, 2020 - (Sunday) - Global - 2,750,000/190,000; USA - 930,000/53,000 I was not on Sunday shows. Deb was on CNN with Jake Tapper and did not answer the question of whether it was a mistake for the POTUS to talk about injecting or swallowing bleach. Jake wrote me a text afterwards and said: "Birx has lost her way I fear. She has chosen to focus on defending the president and attacking the press. Odd." Had very important teleconference that I called for , but was chaired by Francis Collins and Bob Kadlec. The entire call was to align BARDA with the mission of NIH. Up to now, BARDA did what they wanted as a "parallel" component to NIH in HHS without any real consultation or coordination. They are OK for taking a hand-off from us on a product that we do early concept and development and then give to them to fund a company to make a product and oput inot SNS. However, when it comes to the emergency of making a vaccine and they (without even consulting with us) give hundreds of millions of dollars each to several PHARMA companies to go their own way with no stipulations or requirements for coordination with us, then that is unacceptable. We discussed the need to re-boot -- 955,000/54,000 1,000,000/56,000 with regard to BARDA and NIH and have them fund companies with the condition that they coordinate (protocol design, lab data, DSMBs, etc.) with NIH. Peter Marks (FDA) will help lead this new approach. Francis and Bob Kadlec are totally on board. Now the devil is in the details.
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April 27, 2020 - Global - 2,800,000/195,000; USA - 955,000/54,000 Stay heads up to a marked decrease in WH Comms allowing me to go on national media compared to 2 weeks ago. Let us see what happens. Big topics this week is the opening plans of various states and how they align with the "Opening America Again" Guidelines Briefed the Governors on the "Blueprint for Testing to Open Ameica Again". They all sounded like everything was fine with testing and praised the POTUS (at least the GOPs did), and Brett gave his usual overly optimistic report on how many tests we will have out there. However, when the press asked the Governors about their ability to test, many (mostly DEMS) still complained. Bobbleheads of me being made in massive quantities in China: Video: Bobblehead dolls of US disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci being made by Chinese factory https://bit.ly/3eRnRh0 Great news from Emily Erbelding: The randomized placebo controlled trial of Remdesivir in hospitalized patients with COVID-19 disease has fully enrolled 1063 patients throughout the world (ACTT-1 Study). The DSMB met and indicated that remdesivir had a 31% higher rate of recovery compared to the placebo group (p < 0.001). The death rate approached significance (P=0.059). Data sets not complete and will likely require a few mored days to tidy up. However, the site invrestigators will be notified tomorrow night at 7:00 PM for ethical reasons - to make sure that those who might be on the placebo limb would have the opportunity to get Remdesivir and all other placebo-controlled trials need to consider Remdesivir as now SOC. This information will almost certainly leak and so I have decided to ask Mark Meadows if I could announce these preliminary data at a presser at the WH tomorrow (Wednesday). PRESS: Telemundo Un Nuevo Dia (TV);
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April 28, 2020 - Global - 3,000,000/200,000; USA - 1,000,000/56,000 .,100,000/58,000; Meeting with Joe Grogan group in Roosevelt Room. Joe is pissed that the individual guidances for special situations, i.e. restaurants, Child care centers, etc, do not align with the various phases of re-opening. Also, CDC again were late and off on their own regarding guidelines for surveillance. CDC is tone deaf to how everyone feels that they are not up to the task. Briefed Kayleigh McEnany and Mark Meadows about the Remdesivir trial. Mark and Kaylee agree that I should announce this at a presser tomorrow. I warn Mark that we cannot allow the POTUS to ad lib and over-promise since I will be very conservative. Called up Mersad Parsey at Gilead out of courtesy to infrom him that I will be announcing this at the Presser. Amazingly, (or not) he asked me to hold off until Thursday informing the PIs at the sites tonight so that they can formulate a statement and policy to not allow an unfavorable or too favorable response of the Stock Market. I immediately told him that no way do I want to discuss the stock market with him and this was inappropriate. He backed off. PRESS: Bloomberg News (John Lauerman, print); Economics Club Podcast with David Rubenstein; Ryan Zimmerman Podcast; New York Times Sports Editor print interview; CNN "The Lead" with Jake Tapper.
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April 29, 2020 - Global - 3,000,000/203,000 USA - 1,100,000/58,000; Eventful day. Was supposed to present the Remdesivir findings at the usual 5:00 PM press conference at the WH. Marc Short called me when I was at NIH office and said to rush down to Wh since the POTUS was going to have a press availability with John Bell Edwards (Democratic Governor of Lousiana). George Adams drove me down to Wh with lights flashing and we got there in 17.5 minutes (Yikes). I present the data to multiple cameras in the Oval Office with POTUS sitting there. POTUS took me aside and said"Be enthusiastic, Tony. Be Optimistic, we need to open up the economy. It is very important". I told him that I would tell it like it is. He nodded OK. I gave ameasure, accurate presentation. Great success. In afternoon, HHS (with Paul Mango, Alex Azar, Bob Kadlec, Peter Marks, Bob Johnson, Francis Collins, Bruce Tromberg) presented our new vaccine strategic plan to the TF led by Deb Birx. Deb immediately tore everything apart (somewhat overly done). Poor Peter Marks took the brunt of it. She said we should have brought in all the companies that have a track record with their platforms and guided them and funded them to go after COVID-19 instead of .,030,000/6 1,000; waiting for companies to come in themselves and ask for money. She does not like "newer technology" such as mRNA, DNA, and even some virasl vectors. She likes antigens, whole killed, etc. A bit overdetermined in her prejudice. However, she did have a point that btu did not fully realize that this is the problem that I have had with BARDA for years. They just give out money without coordinating anything. Very tense meeting!! The rest of the world still pushing that we are not doing enough testing. Clerarly a trend towards the Comms folks (Kayleaigh and Alyssa) focusing on economic re-entry and trying to hold back to POTUS from his disastrous press confererences and so the pressers are being cut back. None today; only the above Oval with Gov. Edwrads Becoming rather friendly with Jared. Clearly, he respects me PRESS: Made presentation at presser in Oval Office on the ACTT-1 trial. Got picked up by multiple networks/cable.