FAUCI DIARY ARCHIVE — Monday, May 4, 2020
https://faucisdiary.com/diary/2020-05-04

Text below is verbatim from the released PDFs, with the original line breaks.
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DIARY ENTRY — Monday, May 4, 2020
Source: Tony's Diary Package, pp. 161–162 of 2026.07.24_Tonys-Diary-Package.pdf
Words: 512
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Global - 3,350,000/239,000; USA – 1,142,000/67,000

Continued tension in GOP states wanting to re-open in defiance of many of the
recommended guidelines and Dem states the opposite. It is almost a political
and ideological dichotomy

CNN – Jake Tapper did a segment last night on the inadequate response of the
Trump administration to the pandemic. I came out relatively well.

VP Call with Governors from Sit Room. Again, it seemed like a lot of happy
talk, particularly from GOP governors saying that they are doing well and 40
states have submitted their plans for re-opening. They seem to indicate that
most have what they need regarding tests, etc. Yet, when you spek to the
locals, that is not always the case.

Real crazy-town today. VP wanted to come to VRC to thank people in the
labs at VRC working on a COVID-19 vaccine. However, despite the problem
he got into at Mayo, his staff (Olivia Troye) told me he would not wear a mask.
This despite the fact that he did wear one at GM and admitted that it was a
mistake not to wear one at Mayo. Turns out the reason is that Trump did not
want him to wear a mask since it would be a bad signal in his quest to re-open
the country (totally crazy!). Nonetheless, we worked out a compromise
whereby he would come to VRC, not go upstairs and would have a Task Force
meeting in the first floor conference room. No one would wear masks, but the

yunger researchers would not present to him. This defeats the purpose of the
visit, which was to thank the young researchers. We thought that we had it all
worked out with Francis greeting the VP and I and John Mascola take over.
Not so easy. Francis calls me in distress late that evening and says that he
looked at his recent message to NIH community that says everyone should
wear a mask on campus, every place and at all times. Therefore, we have to
disinvite the VP. Much stress. Marc Short came to the rescue with a plan to
do this without creating a shit-storm. We cancelled the visit to VRC, will
bring John, Barney and Francis to White House and have the TF meeting
concentrating on work at the VRC where John and I will explain our vaccine
efforts for COVID. (WTF???). All this because the VP listened to the POTUS
and would not wear a mask.

That night I did CNN with Cuomo (see below). We spoke about the new
models showing 3000 deaths pe day and about 134,000 total deaths if we back
off on mitigation the way the POTUS is pushing. During the interview, Chris
gave a wonderful explanation to viewers how close and good friends we are
and how I checked in on him every night including weekends for weeks during
his COVID illness. Never saw something like that on TV. He praised me such
that Megan (who was watching live) said it almost brought her to tears.

PRESS: CNN with Chris Cuomo