Tony's Diary Package — page 936

a Rolland B.1.1.529 mutations.pp... , and this is a moving target that Glenda Gray and Tulio said they would keep us informed on as soon as they get real data. Multiple countries in Europe and elsewhere are blocking travel from RSA and neighboring countries. I briefed Jeff about this immediately after the 10:30 AM zoom with the South Africans. Jeff wants me to brief the POTUS immanently. The president is spending the Thanksgiving holiday with his family in Nantucket. Conference call with President Biden: Jeff arranged for me to brief the president on a conference call that included Jake Sullivan (NSC), Natalie Quillian, Ron Klain and Jeff. I described the medical and public health situation to the President and Natalie and Ron discussed the issue of blocking travel from RSA and neighboring countries. I explained to the President that this is all the more reason to get people vaccinated and boosted. The president will make a public announcement soon, likely this afternoon, that he has spoken with me and that the decision has been made about the travel restriction. Announcement about travel restrictions went out at 2:00 PM today. 212F is the authorization for restrictions Slides on mutations: Incredibly busy Thanksgiving Day. We had zoom calls with the Pfizer group led by Mikael Dolsten to scope out what their plan is regarding scaling up boosters against prototype as well as the advisability or not of developing Omicron-specific boosters. Also met with the Moderna people for similar discussions. Clearly, the virus is spreading widely with five cases in Israel all of which were picked up by screening at the airport. E-mail from Danny Douek: Dear Tony, I have been on the phone with the Israelis this morning. They have identified 3-5 cases of B.1.1.529 One case was AZ x2. Symptomatic. Another was Pfizer x3. Asymptomatic. All identified on screening on entry at the airport. 1 case from Malawi, 1 from Jordan, 1 from Egypt via Belgium. PRESS: CNN "New Day" with Brianna Keilar (she was rude and asked questions about Brett Giroir out of context); Interviews with Sheryl Stolberg - NY Times; Kaitlan Collins -