Tony's Diary Package — page 980

¥ Fauci: If Rand Paul Sends Message To Fauci: You'll Have To Testify Under Oath If GOP Wins. Fox News (7/20, 23.99M) reports, "Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., issued a warning to Dr. Anthony Fauci: If the GOP takes back Congress in the midterms, be prepared to testify under oath regarding the coronavirus pandemic." On Wednesday, he argued on "America Reports" that "the American people deserve the truth and answers on whether there was a cover-up for a lab leak in China." President Biden tested positive today (Thursday)! Tested negative on Tuesday, went to Boston on Wednesday; had mild sxs this AM and tested positive. https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Letter-7.21.pdf Obvious media storm. He has mild sxs. I mentioned this to a sheesh during a briefing called this evening since we are all going on television tomorrow. Couple of interesting things related to the infection of the president. 1) I called up Kevin O'Connor who is the physician to the president and got a briefing from him for the simple reason then when I go out on TV and I'm asked whether or not I have been consulted with it would be rather embarrassing to say that they did not call the so-called most famous infectious diseases expert in the world, who happens to also be the chief medical advisor to the president. I explained to Kevin my concern about the anticoagulation. He understood my concern and said that he has started the president on low dose aspirin which is a good thing. Kevin explained that the president was negative for an antigen test on Tuesday, did not sleep well on Wednesday evening, and woke up on Thursday predominantly with fatigue. Tested himself on a routine basis which for him is 2 to three times per week. The test came back positive, confirmed by a PCR. Throughout the day he then began to get sniffles, at first a dry cough and then a loose cough. His temperature rose to 99.4 F, which came back to normal with tylenol. His oxygen saturation was 97 to 98%. He was resting reasonably comfortably when Kevin left him tonight. 2) We had a meeting with the comms people and Ashish Jha this late afternoon in preparation for media requests tomorrow. I was under the impression that they were going to spread out the request for morning shows between Ashish and me. I found out later in the evening that all the morning shows will go to Ashish and they will give me regional meeting in the afternoon. As mentioned several times above it is very clear that Ashish is trying to dominate the media scene with regard to COVID-19 and is telling his staff to lead me out of the major media hits. Again, he does a good job but it is a bit of Bush league to do that. I have asked Courtney to