Tony's Diary Package — page 709

,900,000/569,300 I understand -- and personally feel -- any American's frustrations with the continued caveats regarding masks and gatherings and such. But it's Fauci's mandate to urge the safest possible behavior. I understand how maddening it can be to get different answers at different times. But uncertainty is the nature of this beast. I don't understand the rage at a remarkable public servant, and I'll let Gerson have the last words on that. "Fauci is practicing epidemiology," he wrote. "His critics are practicing idiocy. Both are very good at their chosen work." April 26, 2021 - Global - 146,800,000/3,100,000; USA - 31,900,000/569,300 I had an interesting conversation with Vivek late last night. He called me up after we had a meeting with Jeff and the medical team concerning the guidelines that the CDC was about to put out regarding the wearing of masks outdoors as well as indoors in vaccinated versus unvaccinated people. Vivek was concerned about something that I had been concerned about for a long period of time. That is the CDC often puts things out that none of us can really adequately defend because it is either unclear or just does not make any sense. This is exactly what happened last night when Rochelle presented a color-coded guideline that no one could really understand . Yet, the CDC was about to put it out. To her credit, Rochelle ran it by the medical team. Rochelle is in a difficult position since she is new in the job and is reluctant the contradict her team which has been in place for decades. That is really the fundamental problem of the CDC. For as long as anyone can remember they are isolated in Atlanta, are extremely arrogant, and are offended if anyone on the outside asks to see their material before they actually put it out. They are very close-to-the-vest. I have known this for some time as have my colleagues here at NIH. However, it is interesting and in some respects gratifying that Vivek has now picked that up on his own and fully realizes the problem. • Did Town Hall with the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health led by Sam Baker of Axios and included Mary Bassett, Karen DeSalvo, Garth Graham, and Michael Mina • Did Principal's meeting with Cabinet. Had a wonderful zoom session with President Obama - I was on a zoom one on one discussion with President Obama for the purpose of encouraging people to get vaccinated. He was his typical engaging and highly intelligent self. Similar to what my experience was when he was in the White House, he had a perfect grasp of all of the details surrounding vaccines. It just reminded me of what an incredible person he is and what an amazing president he was. We joked around a lot about what I had gone through over the last year. I even mentioned to him that during an interview with some of the sports reporters I had mentioned that if I went one on one with him in basketball even though he is very tall and has a great jump shot, I still would be able to dribble around him since I'm so fast. He started to laugh and said that I better stop talking