A single line often inverts meaning once you see what it
answers, so neighbouring messages are always shown.
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August 27, 2021 - Global - 214,500,000/4,470,000; USA - 38,500,000/632,800 Just as a follow up over the last days to weeks - I continue to get attacked viciously by the far right social media including FOX News. they are still dancing around the inappropriate conflating of gain of function research (See Willmann article above) and the origin of the virus. I am starting to get so annoyed by this that for the first time ever I'm seriously discussing with Christine the timeline not my stepping down from this ridiculously thankless situation that I'm in . I say that still knowing that it is very unlikely that I will do that. (Axios) POTUS slight mis-speak - Interesting situation arose today. We were in our pre brief for the White House presser that would take place in 1/2 an hour. In the middle of the pre brief , president Biden called me up on my cell phone. He said he was in with the Prime Minister of Israel and the Prime Minister was telling him that Israel will be giving their booster shot at five months. The president wanted to know what we were doing about that and were we following the lead of Israel. I told him that we were sticking with eight months but since the ultimate decision will be with the acip that they would likely give us the possibility of a range from six to nine months and so depending on the data, we would have the option of giving it earlier . However, for now we were sticking with eight months beginning on September the 20th. Very shortly after I said that the president got up and said that we might start boosting earlier perhaps at five months because the Israelis are doing that and he spoke to me about it. As one might imagine this created a flurry among the press and White House comms . The good news is that everybody in White House comms knew exactly what I said to the President and so it was just one of those things that the President will say what the president will say (see below). And has been wanting to get more closely involved in the data flow and information flow . In this regard, he has asked me to see if I could get him more involved in the various meetings that we have among the White House medical team . I have arranged that and we will have him join the weekly meeting that Vivek organizers among the White House docs. In addition I have arranged for him to visit NIH and sit down for a roundtable chat mostly but the people from the VRC. We did that today and it was interesting as usual since Eric is a very smart guy. PRESS: TV and Radio for local stations: Black Information Network (Radio); Rolling Out (TV); The Root (Radio); Instagram Live with Geoff Edgers (Washington Post); White House plans to clarify Biden boosters statement Caitlin Owens (Axios)
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August 28, 2021 (Saturday) - Zoom meetings with Jeff - There is concern about sticking with the eight month projection for the beginning of boosting. Jeff is adamant not to waver on the 8 month projection even though it is clear from the data in Israel as well as from the general knowledge that in Israel there is waning of protection as early as five months. I will be on all the Sunday shows tomorrow and I will have to walk a tightrope to stick with eight months on the one hand and leave the flexibility for earlier than eight months on the other. 1.29% + 80-95 ° © ca = a « I! Ajasanas Hulusny sased % 2. The intelligence community report on the origins came out and in some respects it was good news in that they felt fairly confident that it was not a bioweapon nor that it was bioengineered. They still left open the possibility that it could be a lab leak ; However, more elements of the intelligence community felt that it was a natural occurrence compared to the single component (FBI) who seemed to feel strongly that it was a lab leak , although this is based on no data at all. The reaction to the report was rather typical with Bob Garry saying that he was pleased that it ruled out bio engineering and David Relman making the incredible statement in a Nature news article that he would like to see all of the records of the NIH in their dealing with Chinese scientists. Truly amazing! There is no doubt that he has an agenda here and that is unfortunate.
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August 29, 2021 (Sunday) - Cases continue to surge with increases in hospitalizations as well as deaths. The cases have been between 100,000 and 150,000 for several days in a row now. Thus far the piece by David Willman has not received much attention. It has only appeared online and I expected it to be on the front page of the Sunday Washington Post and in fact it was not there it is possible that the situation in Afghanistan as well as the horror of the upcoming hurricane Ida has pushed this out of the news. I will have to navigate all of the difficult questions today since the White House is putting me out on all the Sunday shows. The boosts that the Israelis are giving or having a profoundly positive effect on deminishing the number of cases that are severe . See below: Israel: Two weeks after the third dose campaign, and for the past two weeks, there is a decrease in the fraction of cases who become seriously ill https://bit.ly/3gKS7fY 39,100,000/637,400 PRESS: CNN "State of the Union" with Jake Tapper; ABC "This Week" with Martha Raddatz; NBC "Meet the Press" with Chuck Todd;
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August 30, 2021 >150,000 cases today Did podcast with American Muslim Health Professionals Jeff continues to be frustrated with Rochelle. she does not seem to have the control over her agency that Jeff would like to have her execute. He is frustrated that she doesn't tell anybody what's coming out in MMWR as if it were a private journal as opposed to what it really is - the journal of the CDC. In addition, Jeff is very concerned that she is out of touch with what goes on in the acip and in other various components that interact with the CDC. The other night I had to talk him down from feeling like he had to let her go. I continue to have faith in her and that she is a very good person but she is dealing with a rigid and secretive organization that has been that way decades before she arrived. PRESS: Sinclair TV; TikTok with influencers including Grammy Award-winner (4X) Jason Isbell;
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2021-08-31 00:00
Anthony S. Fauci
August 31, 2021 - Global -216,900,000/4,500,000; USA - 39,100,000/637,400 Trouble at the FDA. Today it was announced that Marion Gruber and Phil Krause will leave CBER at the FDA. The reason being given is that they are upset that decisions have been made by acip and by the White House that should have been made first at the level of the FDA. This has been superimposed upon the fact that the administration is having a hard time making a decision about who the next FDA commissioner will be. There is pushback from some senators particularly Joe Manchin (D-WV) against Janet Woodcock even though she should be the top candidate. The loss of Marion and Phil is a big blow to the FDA. More drama with the FDA CDC relationship. Another late night call from Larry Horowitz telling me that the CDC with Rochelle want the ACIP to discuss publicly data that might confuse the issue since the FDA has confidential data that might change the direction of the discussion. Somehow or other the CDC does not fully appreciate that traditionally their ACIP working group was allowed to discuss in private data related to a particular study, but they would not publicly discuss it until the FDA weighed in on it. As it currently is rolling out, Rochelle seems somehow influenced perhaps by Amanda Fine who is a CDC employee but who is the executive secretary of the ACIP. They want to publicly discuss data before the FDA weighs in with data that they have that is confidential. Bottom line is that if the ACIP publicly discusses incomplete data, when the FDA weighs in with the confidential data it would cause a lot of confusion. This is Confirmed Cases (Thousands) fe) Li S wu a a he Li (a I eB =] oa = in oS me =) oa ini oS ais ae ayfiz 5/10 Sha Global - Hr AE) USA - New Daily Confirmed COVID-19 Cases in the U.S. a Dial La a aI " i= Lil S$ 6&5 8S 8 & FB RRR E ice: eee Ace Fog + a oe 2020/2021 aes ayfii a8 Sie 6s Tis) 171.1 ae driving Jeff crazy and again he is on the verge of firing Rochelle. Again, Jeff is asking me to help solve the problem by speaking to Rochelle and explaining to her why it is so important to do things in the traditional format of giving the FDA the chance to make decisions about data before the ACIP ways in with recommendations concerning those data to the CDC. I called up Peter Marks last night and Peter feels that the CDC and the ACIP are breaking tradition here and Peter feels strongly that it is OK for the working groups acip to discuss data so long as they do not do so publicly before the FDA opines from a regulatory standpoint. PRESS:
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September 1, 2021 Global - 217,600,000/4,500,000; USA - 39,300,000/638,700 I spoke to Rochelle this AM. I tried to explain to her the dilemma that we are in with this disagreement between CDC /ACIP and the FDA where Jeff agrees that the acip should not opine before the FDA rules. Clearly, Jeff is expecting me to be the arbitrator here and fix this. Jeff is very concerned that the acip will come out with recommendations contrary to what we had already planned and what the FDA will allow and that this will make it look like we are "the gang that could not shoot straight ". Rochelle feels that we are all going to be in the same place anyway but Jeff is concerned to the contrary. Jeff asked me to broker a meeting between senior CDC and senior FDA officials to see if we can settle this dispute regarding the role of acip. PRESS: CNN "The Situation Room" with Wolf Blitzer
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September 2, 2021 - Global - USA - Weekly average 149,000 cases/day Global USA Important reflection about "controlling the message" - I thought I would make this comment now since it is something that has been ongoing for some time. It relates to the fact that this administration particularly in the form of Jeff does not at all want to interfere with the science or dictate what the science should be saying. This is completely different from the interference with science and the actual contradiction of science that was so rampant during the Trump administration. However, in the situation where we came out with the statements that we should begin boosters on the week of the 20th of September and at 8 months from the time individuals finish their original immunization regimen, it is clear that the timing was not totally science driven . It was logistically driven. In other words, we found out in late July that it was clear based on the hint of what we were seeing here in the United States and what the Israelis were seeing that we would need to boost. From a logistics standpoint we could not begin to do that until September which would put it eight months following the time that the first people got their vaccination in January. And so the eight month timeframe was not based on any biological or clinical science. It was based purely on logistics. And yet whenever we have a discussion Jeff insists that we stay with eight months because the science dictates that it is 8 months. That is just not true. It very well may be and in fact it looks like it should be earlier, such as six months. The reason Jeff did not want to change or veer away from 8 months is that he did not want it to seem that we were saying one thing on one day, and a week or so later we would change it, for example changing from eight months to six months. I consider this a fixation on messaging which is really unnecessary. I would have said we chose eight months because it was already eight months from the time that people got their first vaccination. Jeff was afraid that we would get criticized that we should have been doing it earlier if we switch from eight to six months. I would have said what the truth was that we picked eight months at first because that was the logistic reason and as soon as we found out that it was better to do it at six months we would then change to six months. It is the truth and there's nothing wrong with that. Important principals meeting today in the SCIF. the meeting was led by Jake Sullivan of NSC . The subject matter was how the United states could take a leadership role in the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, the question arose about how we can get foreign countries including China and India to participate in the process of getting doses to low and middle-income countries. A number of the principals weighed in including Samantha Powers, Tony Blinken, and others. Although I have a keen interest in this concept and I have been discussing it in detail with Jeff and with Peter Staley and David Kessler, I did not preemptively make any comments since they did not ask me to. However, in the future I will give my opinion as how we can best accomplish this goal.
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Sept. 3, 2021 - Global USA Continued tension between CDC /Rochelle and Jeff concerning the rollout of the booster program. The consistent problem is the concern that Jeff has that the ACIP might come out with significant variance from what we had planned. Jeff does not want to control the science , but he clearly wants to make sure that we do not have a garbled message. Going back over this in time, Jeff wanted to get out a crisp message of what we will do with boosters because he felt that if we omo (virtually) -- 39,800,000/644,800 Global USA did not, the country would say that we were behind the curve and that we allowed people to die without getting boosted. For that reason we put out the statement that we have a plan to boost. Now among some it appears that the White House and the medical team haver gotten ahead of the science and the usual process , which actually is not the case. The National Geographic documentary "FAUCI" came out yesterday at Telluride Film Festival. I am understandably concerned that the radical right and others who hate me will consider the film self-aggrandizing. However, it is very clear that I did not solicit this film. it started off as a film about HIV driven by Janet Tobias. At the onset Glenda Gray and I were featured people in the film centered around HIV vaccines. When the producers that Janet met with saw some of the filmed material they felt that it would be better to do a film about me focusing on the concept of "The Public Servant". When National Geographic took over, they made it a very polished documentary which was not at all a hero worship of me but was a realistic portrayal of the stress and strain and ups and downs of what I have been through with multiple outbreaks, particularly HIV and COVID. Having said that the film will likely be praised by many but also used by some to continue to attack me. Such as life. Participated in "The European House" Ambrosetti Conference in Lake Como (virtually) with panelists Kai-fu Lee, Stephane Bancel and moderated by Mariya Gabriel Difficulties setting in with the booster rollout. As I suspected it is not going to be a smooth rollout of all three companies being able to provide boosters by September the 20th. One of the key obstacles has been Moderna who is insisting on making their booster dose 50 micrograms. Given the fact that everything else has been done with 100 micrograms this will cause a delay by at least a few weeks for the rollout of the Moderna product. Therefore, this will lead to a disjointed program. Jeff is not happy, but it is what it is. PRESS: Podcast with Andy Slavitt; Canadian Broadcast TV; MSNBC with Chris Hayes
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September 4, 2021 - Global - USA - 39,800,000/644,800 Still a fair amount of confusion and concern about the rollout of the booster program. David Kessler comes down hard on the fact that the ACIP cannot be out of sync with the FDA. If the FDA says that boosters are OK for people 18 and older, David feels it is not appropriate for the ACIP to restrict it to 65 years of age and older. Obviously, Jeff is upset by what has gone on since this is what he has tried to avoid.