Tony's Diary Package — page 68

really is far from "Presidential". At the press conference, the reporters were glad that I was there and "not fired or dead". Twitter fed still exploding about me. I explained at the presser that we need flexibility in the date about when to "open up". Easter is "aspirational for the POTUS, but he is flexible in looking at all the data. Good conference. No conflicts. Keep getting calls from people wanting me to steer the POTUS in one direction or another. Gov. JB Pritzker (Illinois); Ken Langone of NYU, Lindsey Graham, etc. PRESS: WMAL Radio; Chris Stigali Radio (Philly); FOX Laura Ingraham Mar. 25, 2020 - 435,000/20,000; USA - 54,622/749. On WHO weekly call. China removing restrictions - critical to watch this closely to determine what happens in light of what POTUS is trying to do in reducing restrictions by Easter . Giuseppe Ippolitto reporting from Italy - major restrictions of non-essential industries. Good control in Central and Southern Italy. Lombardy still very bad. People moving from North to South bringing cases to South. Contact tracing impossible in major outbreak areas. Deaths mostly in older (>60 yo) people. From Italy - no evidence of bad effects of ACE inhibitors on COVID-19, hence no need to change meds. CHINA - in regions where they have gone doen to no cases, they are seeing reintroductions from imported travel cases. Big problem. Also, need to get infected people out of the homes since they are secondarily infected the rest of the family → family clusters. Discussed the issue of loss of sense of smell as an early sign of COVID-19. At TF meeting, Jared still throwing barbs at CDCbecause they did not nail down the recommendations for returning critical infrastructure (CI) people to work after an exposure where they did not kno if they were infected, but were asymptomatic. Metagain with POTUS in Oval. He really acting like he is very fond of me, always deferring to me. His staff definitiely notices this (Hope Hicks, Kellyanne Conway). I believe that the mole who does not like me is Alexa, the Comms person. Hogan is OK. Devin is getting better and Katie Miller is great (tough, smart,but great). Interesdting couple with Steve Miller. At press conference, it went well as I fashion a new slant for each presser. I apologized to reporter Philip Wegmann for answering him sharply when he asked what I thought about Tedros favoring the Chinese. He wrote me a nice note afterwards. Big issue from the appearance on CNN Cuomo Prime Time was when I answered the question about the timeline to re-open the USG, I said "we do not determine the timeline, the virus determines the timeline". That will not play well among some of the POTUS staff. PRESS: Bob Rose Radio (Gainesville, FL); WABC Radio (NYC) Bernie and Sid Show; CNN Cuomo Prime Time