Thursday, March 18, 2021

Global – 120,900,000/2,700,000; USA – 29,400,000/535,200 Testified before the Senate HELP Committee chaired by Sen. Patty Murray (D_WA) and ranking Minority Richard Burr (R-NC). I had my typical fight with Sen. Rand Paul who insisted that masks were pure theater. I blew him away. After the Hearing, I briefed the POTUS and VPOTUS on Building Vaccine Confidence. Present virtually – me, Andy Slavitt, Marcella Nunez-Smith, and Courtney Rowe. In the Oval – Jeff, Natalie Quillian, Anita Dunn. Had call with Jeff, David K. Natalie, Anne Schuchat regarding alarming increase in NYC of B.1.526. Anne will call Zucker to suggest strongly to shut down bars and restaurants. We are afraid of a surge that we had expected since NYC tends to follow Europe, which is surging now following a plateau. SA giving vaccine to Canada and Mexico. For Mexico it is a quid pro quo to control immigration at the border. Also, AstraZeneca continues to mess up on their examination of data with the DSMB. They have shown extreme incompetence throughout this entire affair with mixing up clinical trial data in the UK to not having equity demographically in their USA trial PRESS: NBC “Today” with Savannah Guthrie; Did short TV hots with local stations in Alabama, Louisiana; North Carolina; South Carolina; CNN with Chris Cuomo