Monday, May 4, 2020

Global - 3,350,000/239,000; USA – 1,142,000/67,000 Continued tension in GOP states wanting to re-open in defiance of many of the recommended guidelines and Dem states the opposite. It is almost a political and ideological dichotomy CNN – Jake Tapper did a segment last night on the inadequate response of the Trump administration to the pandemic. I came out relatively well. VP Call with Governors from Sit Room. Again, it seemed like a lot of happy talk, particularly from GOP governors saying that they are doing well and 40 states have submitted their plans for re-opening. They seem to indicate that most have what they need regarding tests, etc. Yet, when you spek to the locals, that is not always the case. Real crazy-town today. VP wanted to come to VRC to thank people in the labs at VRC working on a COVID-19 vaccine. However, despite the problem he got into at Mayo, his staff (Olivia Troye) told me he would not wear a mask. This despite the fact that he did wear one at GM and admitted that it was a mistake not to wear one at Mayo. Turns out the reason is that Trump did not want him to wear a mask since it would be a bad signal in his quest to re-open the country (totally crazy!). Nonetheless, we worked out a compromise whereby he would come to VRC, not go upstairs and would have a Task Force meeting in the first floor conference room. No one would wear masks, but the yunger researchers would not present to him. This defeats the purpose of the visit, which was to thank the young researchers. We thought that we had it all worked out with Francis greeting the VP and I and John Mascola take over. Not so easy. Francis calls me in distress late that evening and says that he looked at his recent message to NIH community that says everyone should wear a mask on campus, every place and at all times. Therefore, we have to disinvite the VP. Much stress. Marc Short came to the rescue with a plan to do this without creating a shit-storm. We cancelled the visit to VRC, will bring John, Barney and Francis to White House and have the TF meeting concentrating on work at the VRC where John and I will explain our vaccine efforts for COVID. (WTF???). All this because the VP listened to the POTUS and would not wear a mask. That night I did CNN with Cuomo (see below). We spoke about the new models showing 3000 deaths pe day and about 134,000 total deaths if we back off on mitigation the way the POTUS is pushing. During the interview, Chris gave a wonderful explanation to viewers how close and good friends we are and how I checked in on him every night including weekends for weeks during his COVID illness. Never saw something like that on TV. He praised me such that Megan (who was watching live) said it almost brought her to tears. PRESS: CNN with Chris Cuomo