Tony's Diary Package — page 600

Zar. temporary and related to need for continuity related to COVID-19 efforts. He is trying to get momentum to have this reversed. Harold has always felt that change is important PRESS: TNT "The Arena" with Cari Champion; January 19, 2021 - Received booster dose of Moderna vaccine today together with Francis Collins and Alex Azar. Said goodbyes to Alex and Brian Harrison (his COS). Alex described how terrible it was dealing with the White House people. He specifically mentioned Marc Short. He feels that Marc, Joe Grogan, and Deb. Birx undermined HHS. Deb Last e-mail: 1. The country is in a better place than we have been since before Thanksgiving. All indicators except fatalities are improving and are either flat at a high plateau or declining over 8 days. Monday represents weekend reporting but last night was the lowest case number since the beginning of Nov. Full data triangulation that we have reached the post Holiday peak in most of the country and declines should continue with continued mitigation. These gains can be sustained and can accelerate if behavior change holds and testing increases to find the asymptomatic cases to prevent community spread - we must find those asymptomatic cases to ensure new aggressive variants rapidly spread undetected Last coronavirus Task Force meeting. VP asked Ben Carson to start with a prayer. VP Pence saying goodbye and how proud he is of what the group has accomplished. He read a letter that he is sending to all of us thanking us. He also has chronicled the "accomplishments" of the TF and the government's efforts. He will send such a letter and the list of accomplishments to Biden. He thanked all of us sincerely and expressed multiple times how much of a privilege it was to work for us. He asked that we help the incoming Biden people in the transition (a little late!!!) Alex Azar warned that their work would be denigrated by the incoming group and their press people, but that is "natural". Alex delineated everything that he felt we did right. He spoke of our accomplishments in testing, PPE, etc. One would argue about that. Deb Birx spoke about how great it was in working with everyone. She spoke of trust and belief in your colleagues. Wow, this is interesting given how often she threw CDC under the bus and how she