FAUCI DIARY ARCHIVE — Sunday, November 28, 2021 https://faucisdiary.com/diary/2021-11-28 Text below is verbatim from the released PDFs, with the original line breaks. ============================================================================== DIARY ENTRY — Sunday, November 28, 2021 (Sunday) Source: Tony's Diary Package, pp. 937–939 of 2026.07.24_Tonys-Diary-Package.pdf Words: 762 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Global USA Very Important Day!! - An extraordinary amount has been going on over the last 24 to 48 hours. It is very clear that with the Omicorn variant is rapidly spreading from the epicenter in South Africa with mostly travel-related cases to a number of countries at this point including Botswana, the Netherlands, England, Hong Kong, Australia, Italy, Israel, Belgium, Czech Republic, and several other countries. This is unquestionably a highly transmissible virus. We had a very productive zoom call at 12 noon Washington DC time with our South African colleagues once again. The main players among the South Africans were Tulio de Oliveira, Glenda Gray, and Carolyn Williamson. The have been extraordinarily transparent and helpfu giving us data in real time. It is a shame that we had to block travel from RSA. However, we would have gotten killed by the press if we did not as we are now getting killed for having done it. I expressed my deep gratitude to them for their help. The South Africans gave us a really good feel about the fact that there are things that we know and things that we don't know at this point. The combination of the many mutations in the spike protein together with the fact that they are seeing spikes in infection among people who have recovered from delta as well as those who have been vaccinated. The critical question is how severe is this disease that likely will result from this new infection. Immediately after the briefing with the South Africans, Jeff wanted me to come to the White House to help prepare the speech that the President will be making tomorrow about Omicorn. I spent a considerable amount of time in Jeff's office together with Natalie working on the presentation that I would be giving to the President this evening as well as the content of his upcoming speech tomorrow. After we worked on the presentation and his speech, we went to the Oval Office at around 3:30 PM and sat around the Resolute Desk. Briefing the President were Ron Klain, Jon Fine, Natalie, and Jeff. I gave a full briefing to the President about what the situation was with the new variant. In addition, we all sat around and edited with him the speech that he will deliver tomorrow at a White House press conference. At the end of the briefing, Ron and Jeff strongly suggested and the President agreed that I should be at the press conference with him tomorrow morning at 11:00 AM to answer any of the scientifically related questions. The President was very much in favor of this. I was a little bit concerned because I did not want it to appear that we were pushing out the surgeon general (Vivek) and the CDC director (Rochelle). BTW, both of them were not in DC (Miami and Atlanta). However, Jeff and Ron were very adamant that it be me alone since they did not want there to be any confusion about who would answer which question. One of the things that I noticed that was very clear is that the President appeared extremely tired and very muted and low key. I'm beginning to see that this is his style . However, when we got to the question and answer. He asked all the right questions. And so I can understand why his critics can often refer to him as “Sleepy Joe” when in fact he really is paying attention and is very measured in his responses. In addition, he speaks in a very low monotone which makes it appear almost that he is frail when he is not. After the briefing I rushed home and joined the Sunday night call with the COVID medical team led by Jeff. Tomorrow will be a big day. We are hearing a lot of pushback from people who are saying we should not have blocked travel from southern African countries. They fail to understand that we are not trying to completely prevent the influx of infection. Rather, we want to buy ourselves a little bit time usually measured in a couple of weeks to better prepared, understand better what is going on, and to get people vaccinated and boosted. However, as usual no matter what you do people are going to try and punch holes in it and give a reason why they think it is a mistake. I have gotten extremely used to this and understand that very well. See Below: Readout of President Biden’s Meeting with COVID-⁠19 Response Team on the Omicron Variant DIARY ENTRY — Sunday, November 28, 2021 Source: Tony's Diary Package, p. 939 of 2026.07.24_Tonys-Diary-Package.pdf Words: 271 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ • Statements and Releases Following up on the regular briefings he had on COVID while traveling, the President met in person today with his Chief Medical Advisor, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and members of his White House COVID Response Team. Dr. Fauci and members of the COVID Response Team updated the President on the latest developments related to the Omicron variant. Dr. Fauci informed the President that while it will take approximately two more weeks to have more definitive information on the transmissibility, severity, and other characteristics of the variant, he continues to believe that existing vaccines are likely to provide a degree of protection against severe cases of COVID. Dr. Fauci also reiterated that boosters for fully vaccinated individuals provide the strongest available protection from COVID. The COVID Response Team’s immediate recommendation to all vaccinated adults is to get a booster shot as soon as possible; all adults are eligible for a booster if they were vaccinated six months ago or more with Pfizer or Moderna, or two months ago or more with Johnson & Johnson. Importantly, those adults and children who are not yet fully vaccinated should get vaccinated immediately. The President will provide an update about the new variant and the U.S. response on Monday. PRESS: ABC “This Week” with George Stephanopoulos; NBC “Meet the Press” with Chuck Todd; CBS “Face the Nation” with Margaret Brennan – she played an extensive taped interview with me that is worth viewing since I pushed back on some of the nonsense that is going on. I called out Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and the far right Republicans that have been slamming me.