Tony's Diary Package — page 794

As a bit of background, Mayor Bill Di Blasio of New York City had invited me to be the Grand Marshal of the parade of heroes for the 4th of July weekend in New York City . It would be similar to the ticket tape parades that honored returning war generals. The purpose of the parade was to honor health care workers and first responders to the outbreak in New York City period, and since I am a well-known New Yorker, he wanted to make me the Grand Marshall of the parade. I did not think that this would be appropriate since we have not yet controlled the outbreak and since those people (far right radical GOP) who have been attacking me viciously over the last several weeks would probably have a field day if I did that , I decided that I would express my gratitude for the invitation but would decline. On my way in the motorcade between airports in Florida yesterday (Friday) Bill called me up on my cell phone to see what my decision was about the invitation. I explained to him my reason for declining, and thankfully he was extremely gracious and understood . He promised me that he would get another chance to honor me for what I have done for New York City and for the country. Had meeting in my office with Dr. Jeff Lehman, former president of Cornell University and now current American President and Vice Chancellor of NYU in Shanghai. Jeff has been in Shanghai for the last nine years and has considerable insight into the Chinese culture. He asked to visit me to explain to me what his take is on the tension between the United States and China around the Wuhan laboratory and COVID-19. I believe that he got everything about right in that it is extremely unlikely at the Chinese are truly hiding anything substantive. Because of their suspicious and somewhat paranoid nature it is likely that they were in denial about the outbreak in the early months and we're not really trying to hide anything but we're trying with almost wishful thinking that it would go away without anybody knowing about it. However, they did quickly come around identify the virus and make the sequence publicly known. This argues against any attempt to truly hide anything. All of the other stuff is a reflection of their suspicious nature. He also feels that there was no way that they would allow an outside investigative group into their labs anymore then we would allow a Chinese-led international group to come to the Fredrick lab. Jeff believes as I do that the only way to make any headway in all of this is to have a good faith collaboration between Chinese and other international scientists including United States scientists in order to cooperatively try to find the source of the origin of SARS Cov-2. Also, as a result of his in depth understanding of Chinese culture , he feels strongly that the Wuhan lab would not have been used for any deleterious research such as bio warfare. He confirmed the doctor Shi is a highly respected scientist and her reputation would argue against her being involved in anything outside of the realm of science. I expressed to Jeff that I agree with much of what he says , but the environment in the United states is so toxic with regard to China and the delusions of the far right radicals, that it is unlikely that we could come to a collaborative approach with the Chinese to come to a better understanding of the origin of COVID-19. Just got an email now from Ian Lipkin asking if he could arrange a phone call between him, me ,and Nancy Messonnier. I wonder what this is going to be all about ?