Friday, March 20, 2020

Another day at the WH. Important TF meeting and press conference. During the day, Gov. Cuomo had a press conference that he wanted me on to join him, but I could not since I did not want to do a press conference outside of USG and the WGH would not let me do it anyway. Cuomo took a gigantic step forward. 90% of the new infections in the USA are now coming from NYC and Westchecter, but mostly NYC. Cuomo is essentially shutting down all non-essential activity in the city.. 100% of non-essential workers must stay at home and not intermingle. I strongly praised Cuomo for doing this at the Presser after the TF. We met with the POTUS (as usual) in the Oval. The theme of the presser will be the fact that we are now having only essential travel to Canada and Mexico, and IMPORTANTLY, no aliean/immigrants can enter the countrywithout proper papers from Canada or Mexico, although the order is clearly aimed at Mexico. The rationale is that we are shutting down entry to USA from China, South Korea, Iran, Europe and UK/Ireland and yet people from these same countries are crossing over from Mexico. If some are infected and we take them in, we put them in facilities including with unattended children, we could have another cruise ship situation. The decision relly was a public health decision. LAST NIGHT, Katie and Steve miller called me up and explained why the CDC order to do this was given (CDC was essentially told by state and DHS to do it). They wanted my support to emphasize that this was a pubic health decision and not an anti-immigrant decision. I believe that they have a good point. During the presser, the reporters continued to ask me about the free distribution of Hyrdoxycholorquine (HC) , which the POTUS wants, and my statements that the evidence to do this is purely anecdotal and there is no convincing evidence by an RCT that either HC ro remdesivir works. After the presser the press went wild saying how I again contradicted the POTUS and I received hundreds of e-ails of people thanking me, even though I did not intend to or like the idea of contradicting POTUS, but I need to stick with the science. They also had a tweet that went viral of me holding me head seemingly in disgust as the POTUS was talking. That wa not my intention. Most important part of the day and disturbing was my conversation with Mark Meadows and Marc Short together with Deb Birx Meadows praised me for a while and then got to the point. He wants me to consider the tone that I say that HC has no evidence of efficacy. I told him that I cannot compromise my scientific principles. Tough conversation. He wa being a gentleman, but he wanted me to go to a place that I would not go. Even more disturbing was the conversation where he wanted me to support the idea of lifting the mitigation restrictions after the 125 dya periods since if we do not do this, Mark fees thatwe will trigger a depression (not just a recession). Mark Short agreed with him, but seemed much more sensitive to the fact that I did not want to get into that kind of situation that would use my credibility to sell an economic and a political issue. After I left the office, Mark Meadows called my cell and said that afterhe looks at some modelling, he would like to sit down with me and figure out how we can resolve this issue. He did ask me directy, if I thought we needed to extend the mitigation program beyond 15 days and I said yes. He seemed to accept that. There certainly is more ahead. I called a meeting at my house with Cliff lane, Chrsitine and me to discuss how to handle this as we go forward. I cannot and will not compromise acting on my good judgment. However, I can understand Marks dilemma with the economy. There will be more discuss. Also, had conversation by phone with Governor John Bell Edwards of Louisiana who has ~400 cases in NOLA and wants my advice about how aggressive he should be and maybe copy NYC. He has already closed all the bars and restuarants. I told him to look at the inflection of the curve over the next day or so and contact his Commissione of Health. It the curve is steep, he should consider mandating only essential work and everyone else stays homw, but not quite yet. Also, Petrer Staley, Mark Harrington, James Krellenstein and others called late at night and told me that they had a bad situation in NYC where the desire to do many tests was eating up PPEs that were needed by HCWs who were taking care of COVID-19 patients. The implored me to speak out that ony necessary testing should be done, i.e. on hospitalized patient and those with sxs not in hospital, and not just anyone who wants a test. They sounded desparate that NYC would un out of PPEs within the next 7 days. I will bring this up to TF tomorrow. PRESS: CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell; FOX with Bill Hemmer; WH Press Conference; Major Washington Post Profile on me