Tony's Diary Package — page 166

200,000/7 1,000 ause of the shutdown. yw says that he will continue the TF yut the misinformation regarding the May 6, 2020 - Global - 3,53,000/245,000; USA - 1,200,000/71,000 Begin day with uncertainty about the fate of the TF as well as the fact that there is great discord in the country regarding opening abruptly versus continued careful mitigation. It is clear thsat Trump and advisors are concentrating only on opening and saving the economy for the election in November. To be fair, we should consider that there are unintended consequences in my area of health. Had conversation with Bob Redfield lastr night about the fact that >1 million children world-wide have missed their measles vaccinations because of the shutdown. This is terrible and needs to be addressed since on that basis alone, there would be far, far more excess deaths from measles among children than coronavirus deaths among children. I need to bring this up at TF meeting. Trump does complete turnaround and now says that he will continue the TF indefinitely since he has gotten so many call from "good people" who tell him that the TF has do a "great job" and he should not dissolve it. Katie Miller and I laugh at each other in the Sit Room (see above). At TF meeting VP apologizes to me about the misinformation regarding the dissolution of the Tf and how that oput me in an awkward position with the media (see above). He admikts that he was "blindsided" since someone (likely Jared) leaked the story without telling Pence (Yikes!). I also took the opportunity together with Deb Birx who was there for the conversation that it is clear that Deb and I are being blocked from appearing the press (specifically national TV). I explained to Pence that I was formerly doing 2 TV hits per day and now I am doing 1 and at the most 2 per week with nothing on Sundays. He was surprised and said he would speak with Kayleigh about it. Also, they want to beef up the TF with both economists and some additional medical people. Marc Short and Pence sked me to ask Francis Collins to join. I spoke with Francis tonight and , as expected, Francis would do it even though it would be an added burden of work piled on an already packed schedule. A bit unusual that they would have 2 NIH people on TF.