A single line often inverts meaning once you see what it
answers, so neighbouring messages are always shown.
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Nov. 13, 2021- Global - 251,788,329/5,077,907; USA - 46,910,412/759,552 I had an important TV interview with Ted Koppel to be aired on CBS tomorrow (see below). The main gist of the interview was the attacks on me from the radical far-right. However, Ted did bring up an issue that Hugh Hewitt brought up in a different context (see above). Ted asked me (and he is a good friend) whether or not I realized that I was speaking to the converted and the 50% of people who love me are already doing what I want them to do and the 30% who hate me will never do what I say no matter what and so have I ever considered pulling out of being a public spokesperson and just focus on my job as the director of NIAID. He originally asked whether I should "step down" because I had to remind him that I do have a very important job that has nothing to do with speaking to the press. When he understood that, he corrected himself and said why not just pull back from interviews since I'm wasting my time. I pointed out to him that there are still people who are on the fence whom I can convince and since I am such a valued spokesperson and a good communicator that the President and the Administration want very much for me to be out there. He got that and agreed, but it is interesting that he even brought it up. I have been including Larry Corey in one of the three weekly division director meetings because in my opinion he is one of the most brilliant clinical trialists in the country if not the world. However there is some growing tension that the division directors, particularly Emily Erbelding and Carl Dieffenbach resent Larry being there since they feel he is giving himself an unfair advantage inventing his ideas in front of me and putting them in a position that they have to agree since everybody knows that he is a very close personal friend of mine. And so, at the last meeting they spoke to me about asking Larry not to take part in the division director meetings anymore since this in their mind is a conflict of interest. They do have a point but I believe that they do not fully appreciate how much value added he is. And so tonight I had to call Larry and tell him that he can continue to very frequently consult with me with his ideas but that he cannot attend the division director meetings by zoom anymore unless invited for a specific ad hoc issue. He was disappointed, and vented a bit about their lack of creativity , but he understood and will stand down on this. I will continue to use him frequently as an advisor. PRESS: Interview with Ted Koppel for CBS "Sunday Morning" to air tomorrow (Sunday)
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Nov. 14, 2021 The interview with Ted Koppel went extremely well and I got more emails and texts than ever saying how impressed people were with it. The tone of the interview was interesting in that he allowed me to talk about the divisiveness in the country and he even brought it up in a good context the fact that many people don't believe me anymore and even want me to resign. He asked my opinion about that and I was very firm in saying that I focus on my job and that I did not create the divisiveness in the country and certainly if people keep lying about me and distorting the truth in egregious ways, of course some people are going to believe that and some people are not going to like me but that's not what I'm all about. I'm all about doing my job and I'm not going anywhere until COVID-19 is in the rearview mirror. It is also interesting that with other things in the news including the contempt of Congress charges against Steve Bannon with other charges soon coming against mark meadows, the attention on me has lessened. Perhaps this is a temporary low but it certainly is noticeable.
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Nov. 15, 2021 - Global USA Went down to the White House today to participate with secretary Becerra - In a Health Summit for Indian Nation.I gave a brief overview of the outbreak and the importance of getting booster vaccinations and secretary Becerra and I answered a bunch of questions from different tribal leaders. Well down there I ran into Susan Rice who gave me a big hug as usual as well as Merrick Garland with whom I had a nice chat. He joked and said you've got to save us from this outbreak and I joked back and said you've got to save us from the crazies who are out there. He shook his head in affirmation and said he's trying. Over the weekend I had been back and forth on the phone with Larry Horowitz as well as Jeff Zientz. The issue at hand is that many of the states including Colorado, California, New Mexico, and soon Minnesota as well as a number of countries such as Canada Israel Germany France and others are all recommending that everyone 18 years of age and older get their third booster shot of an M RNA vaccine. The FDA is collecting the data from Pfizer to make the authorization through an EU A for that age group. We are hoping that the CDC does not hesitate no matter what the ACIP says and goes ahead and shows leadership to get everyone a booster shot. The reason why this is important , despite the fact that there was concern about myocarditis in younger men, is because the message of who should get boosted is ambiguous and even people who should be getting boosted are hesitant to do so because they are not sure whether they qualify for a boost. If you just say across the board that everybody who's received a primary vaccination should get boosted within six months, then there is clarity about the fact that everyone should get vaccinated. I have been respectful of the CDC and the process that they go through , but over the last couple of days I have been very explicit saying that in my professional opinion I feel that everyone should get vaccinated. Got a call from Ari Emanuel today - He told me that he will be coming to Washington DC in the next month and wants to come over the house for dinner to explain to me how naive I am and not fully appreciating just how much money I can get from book deals films and speeches. Ari has been calling me about once every several weeks to just check in on me and see how I am doing and to maintain the connection. He is very obviously hot to be my agent when I step down from the United States government. Business Insider PRESS: WTOP Radio with Gigi; Business Insider with Hillary Brueck (Print); CNBC with Shepherd Smith
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Nov. 15, 2021 6 AM PT On the Shelf
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2021-11-16 00:00
Anthony S. Fauci
Nov. 16, 2021 - Global - 253,163,330/5,098,174; USA - 47,145,861/761,426 Michael Hiltzik of the LA Times - Has written another insightful review of the profound weaknesses of the lab leak theory. He exposes Alina Chan of the Broad Institute as someone leaning towards the conspiracy theory who has written a book providing no evidence whatsoever other than conjecture about the lab leak theory (see below). Discussion with Jeff and the medical team today. - Although the cases are starting to surge up in more than 30 states, we have to start preparing for what level of acceptance of infection in the community we are willing to live with. I have been explaining on TV/Radio shows the multiple phases of outbreaks from pandemic phase, to deceleration phase, to control, to elimination , to eradication. We have only eradicated one infection and that is smallpox. We have eliminated infections from the United states such as polio, malaria, and measles. What we have looking forward is "control ". However, there are multiple levels within the bracket of control and we should not accept control at a level of 70 to 80,000 cases per day. We must get it down much, much lower . In my mind that is considerably lower than 10,000 cases per day. Importantly, the number of hospitalizations should also figure into that calculation since as I have been discussing with David Morens and Jeff Taubenberger, systemic vaccination (subcut). Subcutaneous vaccination does not give mucosal immunity very well except when you have very high levels of antibody. When anybody levels fall below certain level one is acceptable to infection . However , B cell memory and T cell memory very often protect against pulmonary infection. And so we can expect that there will be a time as we boost people that we continue to get mild infections such as with the common cold but very few people wind up getting very sick requiring hospitalization. Jeff and David also pointed out that for those vaccines that are required from the respiratory move and do not result in viraemia we do not have good vaccinations to prevent infection although we do have vaccinations that prevent the progression two serious disease. I refer to influenza, parainfluenza , respiratory syncytial virus, and metapneumovirus. However, viruses such as measles, smallpox, and other viruses that result in viraemia and systemic involvement with virus give lifelong immunity after infection as well as after vaccination. These are important considerations that very few people fully appreciate. PRESS: Reuters TV with Julie Steenhuysen; NBC News Medical Unit - TV with Ashkay Syal; These authors wanted to push the COVID-19 lab-leak theory. Instead they exposed its weaknesses siness Columnist
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Nov. 17, 2021 - Global -253,640,693/5,104,899; USA - 47,244,379/762,994 I went to a book party last night for Jonathan Karl's new book about Trump. It took place at the Cafe Milano. The place was incredibly crowded and I was almost forced to take my mask off for 2/3 of the time I was there since they were serving drinks and people were talking and taking selfies. I was totally swamped all night by people wanting to say hello, shake my hands, and take pictures with me. I could not get away from it . Although some people may think that this is great to have people treat you like Elvis Presley , but it was really very unnerving. Jon was very gracious to me being very excited about my meeting his family . We took hundreds of pictures with each member of his family, as well as one big family photo. It turns out that his father-in-law grew up in Bensonhurst and knew about my father's pharmacy on 13th Ave. The book party event was punctuated by doctor Bill Hughes whom I know for years and who is married to Ann Compton getting a vaso-vagal attack and I tended to him at the bar. We called an ambulance, but Ann took him home after we documented that he was stable. When I went home that night I was nervous all night looking at the ceiling concerned about having gotten infected in that very crowded restaurant despite the fact that vaccination proof was required to get in. I'm well aware that many people who are vaccinated are still getting infected and that worried me a lot. I'm supposed to go to an even bigger black tie affair at the home of the French ambassador tomorrow. I think I am going to cancel out since I don't want to go through the nerve-wracking experience that I did last night worrying about having gotten infected. Of note, there are more than one congressional bills that have been proposed with my name on it . One is the "Fires Fauci Act" which was written by Marjorie Taylor Greene. Another bill floating in the Senate (proposed by Senator Joni Ernst) is forbidding gain of function research and that bill is called the "Fauci Act" PRESS: NBC Now TV with Hallie Jackson; Did an interview with Margaret Brennan today to be shown two weeks from now on Face the Nation. Curiously she spent most of the time asking me to justify the many "mistakes "that have been made by the CDC during this outbreak both during the trump administration and the Biden administration. I was we did not know that masks trying to defend the CDC to the best of my ability, but this was not easy since in many respects she was right. I try to steer the conversation so with discussion of what I am responsible for namely the development of vaccines and therapeutics. She responded by saying I am "America's doctor "and so I should have to answer these things . She was not being mean since Margaret is tough but she's a very fair and good person.
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Nov. 18, 2021 Global USA Call from Jeff Zients today with a message from Ron Klain - It is noteworthy that in prior demonstrations it was always a concern when you give a message about a public health issue that the administration is always afraid get the public to concern we're not concerned enough to be incompatible with the message that they're trying to get. This was brought to the far extreme trump administration in fact the message was completely garbled and riddled with allies from the president , which I had to rectify. However, I was a bit surprised when I got a phone call from Jeff saying that Ron thought I was doing a terrific job with the messaging but he was a little concerned that I might be saying that we might have a tough time this winter pressing message. However I was being perfectly truthful since in fact we are seeing the beginning of a surge and when you look at what I said I was actually quite certain spectrum said that we can do something about preventing surge and you just pull up to us if we want to blunt but could be an inevitable surge of people continue to not getting vaccinate just the thought that there is some contact commonality among all the ministrations but messages even the terrific ones like we're dealing with now. Phone call with Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) - Roger wanted information regarding global COVID since he is going to a conference in Halifax about global response to COVID. He asked good questions and then he asked about GOF and I explained the entire situation to him. He seemed not hostile and understanding. Clearly, not all GOPs are jerks. Interesting article in Axios that goes along with my saying that we did not know that masks work until later on. This article came out today!!! - Mask-wearing reduces COVID incidence by 53%, study shows PRESS: Interview with Carl Zimmer of New York Times an the antiviral program for COVID and other viral families; NPR "Morning Edition"/All Things Considered" with ere and Noah Weiland Alison Aubrey; Russ Parr Morning Show (Radio); The Laura Coates Show (Radio); The Ryan Cameron Show (Radio Atlanta); MSNBC Peacock - Mehdi Hassan;
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Nov. 19, 2021 - Global - 255,324,963/5,127,696; USA - 47,587,441/770,461 PRESS: Fantastic article in the Washington Post online today by Yasmeen Abutaleb the bunking in an incredibly efficient manner the false claims against me by the right wing motivated White Coat Waste project regarding the Beagle experiments : https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2021/11/19/fauci-beagle-white-coat-waste/ Investigations Fauci's office flooded with attacks over beagle experiments Covid chief's phone line rings 3,600 times in 36 hours after campaign by little-known animal rights group New York Times article about my advocating boosters:
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Nov. 19, 2021, 8:31 a.m. ET WASHINGTON -- The Food and Drug Administration on Friday authorized booster shots of both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines for everyone 18 and older, opening up eligibility to tens of millions more fully vaccinated adults. Moderna and Pfizer both announced that regulators had broadened the authorization for their booster shots. The move simplifies eligibility, fulfills a pledge by President Biden to offer the shots to every American adult and formally allows a practice already in place in at least 10 states. Fearful that waning protection . "We know what and the onset of winter will set off a wave of breakthrough infections, a growing number of governors had already offered boosters to everyone 18 and older ahead of the holidays. Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the federal government's top infectious disease expert, has argued relentlessly over the past month for booster shots for all adults, a position shared by most of Mr. Biden's other health advisers. Dr. Fauci has said that a dip in antibody levels in fully vaccinated people was a clear sign that booster shots were needed. Public health experts who argue that healthy younger adults do not need them, he has said, are ignoring the risks of symptomatic Covid-19. "Enough is enough. Let's get moving on here," he said at an event Wednesday night. "We know what the data are." Politico "Playbook: • Mask on, mask off. That as the name of the game for ANTHONY FAUCI at JONATHAN KARL's book party Tuesday night at Café Milano. As gawkers tried to snap pictures of him indoors not wearing a mask, America's doc would put it on and take it off depending on whom he was around. SALLY QUINN -- who's known Fauci since his days as a young NIH doctor, when he inspired a love interest in one of her erotic novels -- asked him why he was at a party with a mask in hand, not on face. "I said, 'You seem pretty ambivalent about your mask' because no one else was wearing one," Quinn told Playbook. "He said, 'I just decided that if anyone came up that I didn't know, I would put my mask on.'" Quinn added that "paparazzi" were surrounding Fauci trying to get that "gotcha moment" of the Covid czar without a mask on. Guests had to show proof of vaccination to enter the party. "He was being safe," Quinn said in his defense. "He knew everyone was vaccinated. If it was someone we knew, he would trust them, and if it was somebody else, he didn't." Another guest observed Fauci's mask on/mask off dance, but said that the mask was firmly on when he came to the rescue of a guest who had collapsed. We reached out to Fauci via NIH but didn't hear back Thursday night. NY Times: Dr. Anthony Fauci has become "a very, very relentless advocate" for boosters, The Times's Sharon LaFraniere, who covers the federal government's response to the pandemic, told us. "He keeps pointing out that the data is getting stronger."