A single line often inverts meaning once you see what it
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July 14, 2022 Global - 5546,897,312/6,356,812; USA - 88,932,987/1,018,035 Cases, hospitalizations, and deaths now going up: Rochelle called me up tonight and arranged to have a zoom with me to get my advice about pressure she is getting from the White House who is responding to New York pressuring them to get more monkey pox vaccines (see above on July 12). This relates to the meeting we had a couple of days ago with Ron Klain where he was very concerned that we are being Primary Series Completion, Booster Dose Eligibility, and Booster Dose Receipt by Age, United State: 5-11 Years 28,744,500 12-17 Years 25,304,508 18-49 Years 139,763972 50-64 Years US 63,659, 65+ Years 54,792,626 Fully Vaccinated 30.0% (8.63M) ---------- E18 LLL LLLLLILIIIIINL) 25% 0236 Received 'ia 2.5% (721k) Fully Vaccinated 60.1% (15.2M) Ens LLL LLLLLLLIIIIITILILILILILILILLLLL TILL LI TILL, 57.7% 45% ae Received 16.5% (4.18M) Fully Vaccinated 68.9% (96.3M) aes //// LLL rece rr 27.1% (37.9M) 1st Booster 1st Booster ist Booster Fully Vaccinated 82.0% (52.2M) Se tx Boone Ene © LLL LLL LL LILI TILL LILI LLL LI LLL LILI TILL LLL LI LLL LLL LIL Li 204% 51.26) Received 45.2% (28.7M) ene MMMM LLU LL fos i 9.1% (5.79M) 2nd Booster Fully Vaccinated 91.7% (50.2 _------------------------------e| ist Boose LLL LLL Received 64.5% (35.4M) Sorel eed LLL races 22.7% (12.5M) --- ® » x» a © » #0 » Percent perceived as being unresponsive with regard to vaccines and the POTUS is getting a lot of pressure from NYC for more vaccines. The White House wants her to distribute the vaccine according to the number of cases and she feels correctly that that is not a totally fair way since there is a consideration for the at-risk population in certain locations that don't yet have a lot of cases. Also, southern states with black MSM are not really tresting since they are stigmatized and cases are not being recognized. I counseled her that it is a battle she will lose if she insists on distribution other than just by case numbers. She will lose the fight with the WH. In 1 to 1 and 1/2 weeks there will be hundreds of thousands of vaccines shipped from Denmark. At that point we can do what I would strongly suggest is to blanket the at risk community with vaccines for everyone who is at risk particularly those who are on prep for HIV or who are infected with HIV and are suppressed with their viral load due to antiviral drugs. Those are the ones that are out there having sex and not feeling vulnerable because they are on antiviral therapy. I told her to hang tight for week or so and the problem will solve itself. PRESS: Rickey Smiley Radio Show; KAMR TV Amarillo, TX; NBC Livestream News with Phil Lepof; CNN with Erin Burnett;
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July 15, 2022 Global USA After talking with Ashish this morning, Rochelle decided to allocate vaccines for monkeypox at 75% according to the number of cases and 25% for the level of risk and a given community. That seems like a reasonable compromise which I agree with and will back Rochelle on. As mentioned above, in two weeks this will be a moot point since there will be hundreds of thousands of doses of vaccines arriving from the outside. We are not keeping up very well on booster shots: PRESS: Univision Digital with Borja Voces; Skimm TV ONLINE with Maria Corpus; Bloomberg TV "Balance of Power" with Joe Mathieu
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July 16, 2022 PRESS: CNN with Laura Coates
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July 17, 2022 (Sunday) Important conversation with Ashish Jha. But she's called me up and wanted my opinion and backing on what he wants to bring up to Ron Klain. He wants to propose putting billions of dollars into a program that would mimic operation warp speed in which he has been calling "hyperdrive". The purpose is to put a full court press on getting you closely administered vaccines to prevent infection and transmission as well as next generation platform and imagine designs for greater breadth and durability of response. These latter concepts word described by me to him. The reason Ashish wanted my help was that he heard from Ron that unless we're proposing something that is more than just incremental and that would actually be transformative and play a major role in turning around how Americans think about COVID, then he doubts that Ron will take the step to go to the president to have the president use a chit with the Congress to get the money. The trick about all of this is that Ron will want a product to go into the arms of Americans within 18 months to coincide with approaching the end of the administration and the election for the presidency. I told Ron that I would back him on the transformative nature of the two pillars that I mentioned above, but I have considerable skepticism as to whether or not we can do this in 18 months. I suggested to Ashish that week altogether a group comprised of him, me, Peter Marks and Rob Califf from the FDA as well as some knowledgeable people from biotech and pharma. Unless we have corporate sponsors we are not going to go anywhere with this and we will never be able to do it in 18 months. Ashish will set-up the meeting and hopefully we can make a determination and get back to the president. Ashish feels that if we cannot convince Ron about this then there is no way that we can get the money.
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2022-07-18 00:00
Anthony S. Fauci
July 18, 2022 Sarah Ohermohle wrote an article in Politico where I mentioned that I would be leaving the NIH sometime before the end of President Biden's first term to which is January 2025. This is being interpreted by many in the press that I'm announcing my retirement. This is obviously not the case because I have given no date for stepping down and I am not retiring when I leave government service. However given the interest in me it is not surprising that this is now gone viral: Anthony Fauci wants to put Covid's politicization behind him The disease fighter says he's plotting his departure and reflecting on how he wants to be remembered. Financial Times: Kiran Stacey ion sheryl Stolberg): ur and Betsy McKay US chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci to step down in Joe Biden's first term Kiran Stacey 4-5 minutes Washington Post:
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July 18, 2022 at 11:45 a.m. EDT New York Times (Sheryl Stolberg): Fauci Says He Will 'Almost Certainly' Retire by January 2025 Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, 81, said he expected to see out President Biden's current term. Wall Street Journal - Stephanie Armour and Betsy McKay Anthony Fauci Plans to Retire by End of Biden's Term One of the leading public faces of the U.S. public-health response to Covid-19 says he hasn't decided on exact date ---------------------------------- I had a very good talk today with Sam Bankman-Fried and his brother Gabriel Bankman who runs a foundation called "Guarding Against Pandemics". Also on the call were their associates Jacob Swett and Annabel Snidow. (see above) . We spoke about how Sam with his billions of dollars could partner with the NIH and pushing the scientific agenda for the prototype pathogen approach of pandemic preparedness. Sam is a good friend of senator Joe Manchin and Joe is the one who originally pointed Sam in my direction to see if somehow we can all work together to having some sort of a partnership where the Congress puts in a certain amount for pandemic preparedness using the prototype pathogen model and Sam puts in an equal amount to support the effort through NI AID. We left it that they put together a proposal and that I serve as the scientific advisor for the amount of money that Sam wants to put into this even though I must be careful and will be careful about not getting involved in writing any legislation since Manchin has been talking about writing this into a reconciliation bill. PRESS: CNN with Kate Bolduan; Reuters interview with Julie Steenhuysen; NBC Online Web; NPR with Rob Stein (talking about the Politico article (see above)
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July 19, 2022 I had an important conversation this morning with Peter Staley in which I asked his advice about messaging to the gay community regarding monkey pox. There seems to be a debate in New York City among public health officials versus some gay leaders. The tension is whether or not to tell gay men to hold off on multiple sexual partners until they get a PrEP version of the vaccine. Some people are saying that that would increase the stigma against gay men. However, Peter agrees with me that there is nothing wrong with and probably a good idea to tell gay men to just hold off and cool it for the next couple of weeks until we get enough vaccine to vaccinate all people who are at risk namely those who've had multiple sexual partners within the last 14 days. I will be out in the press talking about this and I just wanted to check with Peter as to whether he agreed with me and in fact he does. BA.5 dominating isolates: https: 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% % Viral Lineages Among Infections 30% 20% 10% 0% covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#variant-proportions Q F = 4/23/22 4/30/22 5/7/22 5/14/22 N q ~~ NOWCAST 7/9/22 7/16/22 USA WHO label Lineage # USClass %Total 95%PI Omicron BA5 VOC 77.9% 75.8-79.9% BA.4 VOC 12.8% 11.3-14.4% BA.2.12.1 VOC 86% 7.8-9.5% BA.2 VOC 06% 0.6-0.7% B.1.1.529 voc 0.0% 0.0-0.0% BA.1.1 voc 0.0% 0.0-0.0% Delta B.1.617.2 VBM 0.0% 0.0-0.0% Other Other* 0.0% 0.0-0.0% * Enumerated lineages are US VOC and lineages circulating above 1% nationally in at least one week period. "Other" repr the agg lineages which are circulating <1% nationally during all weeks 'meciead: ** These data include Nowcast estimates, which are modeled projections that may differ from weighted estimates generated at later dates # AY.1-AY.133 and their sublineages are aggregated with B.1.617.2. BA.1, BA.3 and their sublineages (except BA.1.1 and its sublineages) are aggregated with B.1.1.529. For regional data, BA.1.1 and its sublineages are also aggregated with B.1.1.529, as they currently cannot be reliably called in each region. Except BA.2.12.1, BA.2 sublineages are aggregated with BA.2. Sublineages of BA.4 are aggregated to BA.4. Sublineages of BA.5 are aggregated to BA.5. PRESS: The Hill Health Summit Interview and streaming with Steve Clemons; Good Housekeeping with Zee Krstic; WHUR 96.3 FM DMV/ HBCU Network with Harold Fisher;WJLB 97.9 Detroit with Bushman; WNYM (FOX-NYC) TV with Lori Stokes;
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July 20, 2022 I just had an important conversation with Rochelle in which I related to her the conversation that I had last night with Carlos Del Rio in which Carlos articulated that there's a great deal of concern and agitation in the gay community, which I already am aware of, regarding the difficulty in getting TPOXX for the treatment of monkey pox. I decided to call Rachel and give her a heads up that the community is really starting to get very agitated to the point that they may be attacking the administration and her and the FDA and all of us in the press if we don't do something soon to cut down the difficulty in getting TPOXX to those in need. I suggested to her that she and the FDA think in terms of doing something akin to the parallel track approach that I initiated decades ago during the HIV pandemic. She will look into this with her people. I had a great meeting today in building 31 with Dr. Karl Lauterbach, the Minister of Health of Germany. He relied heavily very heavily on my advice about how to handle the decision about and distribution of booster shots for COVID in Germany. He is having some of nice laudation of me today: the same problems as we are having here in trying to decide what the correct booster should be in the fall. He has already ordered millions of doses of Moderna bivalent which is an omicron plus ancestral as well as Pfizer which is a BA.4/5 bivalent plus ancestral. Moderna is obviously pushing their product, but Karl was very interested in what my opinion was. I told him that on the advice of me and others, the FDA has already authorized the bivalent of BA.4/5 and ancestral for the full dose. It is now up to the CDC and teir ACIp to make a recommendation f who "should" versus "may" receive the dose. We also spoke about the tension regarding vaccinating people now who are at risk of severe complications given that there is a wave of infections in Germany as well as in the United States versus waiting until a more variant-specific boost is available in the fall. Germany is facing the same dilemma as we are in that some people in Germany are arguing in a very similar way to Paul Offit who is saying that we should not be vaccinating people now. Paul is smart and a good friend but he is a victim of what I consider making the perfect the enemy of the good. From a purely immunological standpoint it is obviously not optimal to have a boost now (ancestral) and require an even better boost (bivalend BA.4/5 + ancestral) just a couple of months down the pike. However, you have to balance the public health benefit of getting some form of vaccine to people who are at risk for infection and severe disease now compared to the relatively minor negative effects of giving a vaccine shot now followed in 2 to 3 months by a vaccine shot with a better boost. I was surprised that bloggers such as Paul Offit have a major impact globally. Karl mentioned to me that he and his colleagues listen very carefully to what I say and it would be very helpful to them to hear what I am telling him today and that I agree completely with him since he is absolutely in the same lane as I as well as many of my NIH colleagues including Rick Koup and others. It was a very stimulating conversation and I was on my A game. We then went on to discuss the issue of monkeypox. According to Karl monkey pox is out of control in Germany and similar to what we are seeing in the United States the gay community is very frustrated with the lack of as many vaccines as they need as well as the lack of easy access to antivirals. They seem to be having no trouble with diagnostics which are plentiful. I explain to him that our situation is very similar here in the United States. The conversation ended with him wanting to take a picture with me since his daughter who is 15 years old apparently is a great fan of mine. We exchanged cell phone numbers and he promised me that he would be calling me frequently. John Laureman (Bloomberg) wrote a very nice laudation of me today: An Early Farewell to America's Top Pandemic Expert July 21, 222 Harassment from the far right continues: ¥ Fauci: If Rand Paul Sends Message To Fauci: You'll Have To Testify Under Oath If GOP Wins. Fox News (7/20, 23.99M) reports, "Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., issued a warning to Dr. Anthony Fauci: If the GOP takes back Congress in the midterms, be prepared to testify under oath regarding the coronavirus pandemic." On Wednesday, he argued on "America Reports" that "the American people deserve the truth and answers on whether there was a cover-up for a lab leak in China." President Biden tested positive today (Thursday)! Tested negative on Tuesday, went to Boston on Wednesday; had mild sxs this AM and tested positive. https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Letter-7.21.pdf Obvious media storm. He has mild sxs. I mentioned this to a sheesh during a briefing called this evening since we are all going on television tomorrow. Couple of interesting things related to the infection of the president. 1) I called up Kevin O'Connor who is the physician to the president and got a briefing from him for the simple reason then when I go out on TV and I'm asked whether or not I have been consulted with it would be rather embarrassing to say that they did not call the so-called most famous infectious diseases expert in the world, who happens to also be the chief medical advisor to the president. I explained to Kevin my concern about the anticoagulation. He understood my concern and said that he has started the president on low dose aspirin which is a good thing. Kevin explained that the president was negative for an antigen test on Tuesday, did not sleep well on Wednesday evening, and woke up on Thursday predominantly with fatigue. Tested himself on a routine basis which for him is 2 to three times per week. The test came back positive, confirmed by a PCR. Throughout the day he then began to get sniffles, at first a dry cough and then a loose cough. His temperature rose to 99.4 F, which came back to normal with tylenol. His oxygen saturation was 97 to 98%. He was resting reasonably comfortably when Kevin left him tonight. 2) We had a meeting with the comms people and Ashish Jha this late afternoon in preparation for media requests tomorrow. I was under the impression that they were going to spread out the request for morning shows between Ashish and me. I found out later in the evening that all the morning shows will go to Ashish and they will give me regional meeting in the afternoon. As mentioned several times above it is very clear that Ashish is trying to dominate the media scene with regard to COVID-19 and is telling his staff to lead me out of the major media hits. Again, he does a good job but it is a bit of Bush league to do that. I have asked Courtney to in Post article: communicate with the White House calms people and two in a very nice way ask them just what is going on here. Monkeypox continues to spread throughout the world. 15,000 cases worldwide in 70 countries; >2000 in USA: Monkeypox Virus Infection in Humans across 16 Countries -- April-June 2022 J.P. Thornhill, S. Barkati, S. Walmsley, J. Rockstroh, A. Antinori, L.B. Harrison, R. Palich, A. Nori, I. Reeves, M.S. Habibi, V. Apea, C. Boesecke, L. Vandekerckhove, M. Yakubovsky, E. Sendagorta, J.L. Blanco, E. Florence, D. Moschese, F.M. Maltez, A. Goorhuis, V. Pourcher, P. Migaud, S. Noe, C. Pintado, F. Maggi, A.-B.E. Hansen, C. Hoffmann, J.I. Lezama, C. Mussini, A.M. Cattelan, K. Makofane, D. Tan, S. Nozza, J. Nemeth, M.B. Klein, and C.M. Orkin, for the SHARE-net Clinical Group* The activist community is very angry. See Washington Post article:
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July 21, 2022 at 3:56 p.m. EDT PRESS: FOX "Good Day" NYC TV with Rosanna Scotto; WGN Chicago Radio with Peter McMurray and Rob Martier;