Saturday, August 8, 2020

Global – 19,200,000/716,000; USA – 4,900,000/160,200. POTUS acting even more erratically. Keeps insisting that increased case numbers are due only to increased testing, ignoring the increases in percent positive, hospitalizations and deaths (>1000/day). Inconsistent message to me whether they want me on TV. David Muir (ABC World News Tonight) requested me and we accepted and thought that it was cleared and then silence. Same for NBC Morning News with Savannah Guthrie. And so, I decided to call Alyssa Farah and straighten things out. She was her usual wonderful self when I explained that I needed to know where I stood with the WH and being on TV. She said that she would want me on every day and every night. However, the POTUS keeps saying that the Doctors are contradicting him and he is very impulsive and so when he sees or hears about a contradiction he blows up and says either Birx should not be on TV or Fauci should not be on TV. Comms people obey and then after a couple of days, they know that he calms down and even forgets and they then get me and Deb back on the air. Alyssa also said that Kayleigh McEnany reminds him that I have an 80% approval rating and it is not a good idea to keep me off TV. They want me on TV, but they have to play to POTUS and Mark Meadows impulsive and mercurial behavior. Interesting call. PRESS: Appeared in Washington Post: As Fauci battles the pandemic and politics, his grateful neighbors celebrate him as a hero Ida Bergstrom and her sons Lars, 11, left, and Nils, 14, are selling yard signs to show support for Anthony S. Fauci, who is the nation's top infectious-disease expert and one of their neighbors. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post) By Marisa Iati Spoke with Dr. Patrizia Cavazzoni (Deputy Director and Acting Director of CDER/FDA. She is Acting for Janet Woodcock who is now at OWS. Larry Horowitz (see above) who warned me about Meadows pressuring Hahn and ultimately Marks to give EUA or even BLA prematurely to vaccines (likely AZ), also said that Patrizia needed some support because Henry Ford hospital has put in for a re-issue of the EUA for Hydroxychloroquine (previously removed by the FDA), being pushed by Peter Navarro to do so. Patrizia had just reviewed all the data (including the Henry Ford data – observational study with many confounders) and feels strongly that no EUA is justified. She wrote it up and will officially submit it and make it oubic. HOWEVER, she was told by Steve Hahn to wait until Monday (today) so that he can “speak with Meadows”. Question is whether Steve merely wants to inform Meadows out of courtesy, or he might cave to meadows. We shall see. Patrizia is OK. She will stay strong.