Tony's Diary Package — page 598

-23,800,000/397,000 1S have declined from last week's high - but testing for asymptomatic cases must increase to sustain the gains. Finding the containing the silent spread will be key to holding the current gains. 3. Cases are declining or stable across the country (down 8.8%) • John Mascola and I presented to JZ and the Biden medical team the results from David Ho's work on the UK and RSA mutants. (see above). We explained that this requires careful messaging since people would interpret incorrectly that this nullifies the vaccine which it does not. JZ has tasked me to write a 2-paragraph description to send to Biden tonight. I did so and now we have a meeting tomorrow AM to discuss possibility of travel restrictions from RSA and Brazil. PRESS: Meet the Press (NBC) with Chuck Todd; Che Tempo Che Fa Italian Sunday TV Show; MSNBC Lawrence O'Donnell January 18, 2021 - Global - 94,000,000/2,000,000; USA - 23,800,000/397,000 Zoom meeting at 7:30 AM with JZ and the team + Jake Sullivan - discussed the restrictions on travel to RSA, Brazil and perhaps other countries. Leaning towards requiring PCR 72 hrs before board to USA followed by Ag test upon boarding followed by Ag test within 3 days of landing + quarantine. Will present to Ron Klain and POTUS after inauguration. Deb Birx's next to last TF note: This is the last metro case analysis. We are seeing mostly significant improvements or major metros holding at a high plateau. I am worried about the 12 metros that are still increasing and one of them is DC. I walked some of the areas downtown on Sat while I was moving out of my State Dept office and there are major feeding tents set up around downtown for the workers and National Guard - these can be super spreading locations and the National Guard is from around the country including hotspots. National Guard troops must be tested and must be tested when returning but I worry we are creating a massive viral spreading event as troops deploy to DC and then return home and the co-mixing of local metro police with National Guard. That said by all indicators we are stabilizing as a country and improvements should continue. New hospital admissions are down across the country and is super spreading events can be managed we should continue to see improvements as more states will be able to utilize health personnel to support massive vaccination. On the personal level getting the elderly - the highest risk group over 75 - immunized is incredibly difficult. We have the entire family working to secure sites for my parents but you need to be tech savvy and able to constantly refresh sites and search multiple county and state websites. Then you have to be able to transport and move them to the vaccine sites. We think we may have secured a PG county option for this week but if elderly do not have tech support or outreach and transportation support this will be incredibly difficult for them. Deb