Saturday, December 12, 2020

Global – 69,500,000/1,600,000; USA – 15,700,000/295,000. FDA has approved an EUA for the Pfizer mRNA vaccine for people 16 years and older!! USG authorized an additional 100 million doses of Moderna mRNA (in addition to the original 100 million that we contracted for. Although some states that are mitigating are showing stabilization, several others are showing the impact of the Thanksgiving holiday. • Had Zoom call with Jeff Zientz and Natalie Quillian about what the Biden team should be doing as they hit the ground on January 21. I mentioned: 1) the importance of a clear and consistent message from above; 2) the importance of testing (diagnostics) for asymptomatic people for the purposes of surveillance and screening such as in schools (mentioned my conversation with Raj Shah and the Rockefeller Foundation people) about testing school teachers 2x per week and K-12 children 1x per week. Also early testing is key for early treatment; 3) Treatment – importance of early treatments with either direct anti-virals or perfect the mAb and hyper immune-Ig; 4) Make sure that vaccines are smoothly and equitably distributed. There has been much play in the media over the past few weeks about what they are calling the “Fauci effect” whereby the medical school admission have gone up about 50% over the past year due in large part to students realizing what I have been doing and able to accomplish as a physician and this is inspiring them to go to medical school. See story from NPR below: 'Fauci Effect' Drives Record Number Of Medical School Applications • Facebook • Twitter • Flipboard • Email