Saturday, June 27, 2020

Global – 9,700,000/494,000; USA – 2,500,000/125,000; 45,000 cases today – highest amount ever. Florida is having increased hospitalizations as is Arizona and California. Clear, there is a SERIOUS PROBLEM. Deb, Bob Redfield, Steve Hahn and I had a Zoom call that Deb and I arranged. It is clear that we need to change strategies and rely (see above) on massive community testing and effective tracing in person and on foot at the community level. Our efforts have failed for a number of reasons. Bob still insisting that there were likely these many infections all along, but we were missing them since many were asymptomatic and now we are picking them up. That is crazy since there are more hospitalizations and the percent positives of testing are increased in several states. The VP saying yesterday that we are doing really well becomes more ludicrous. There will likely be 100,000 cases per day by August. Cliff and I will try to help out Deb by getting NIH-funded elements to help in the community testing. PRESS: Stories from yesterday’s disastrous press conference. June 28. 2020 – Global – 9,66,000/492,000; USA – 2,500,000/126,000; 5th day in a row of new record set for number of daily cases. Pence (inexplicably) continues on TV to say we have done very well and ours is a success story. He is getting blasted. I have been completely blocked from TV by the Comms team at the White House. Next couple of weeks will be critical as hospitalizations increase. VP is finally wearing a mask. Believe that Deb likely convinced him PRESS: Interview with Apoorva Mandavilli of New York Times on “pooled testing”; Wolf Blitzer showed an interview of me by Elizabeth Cohen as part of the Aspen Ideas Festival in a Special Sunday Night Edition of the Situation Room.