Saturday, August 22, 2020

Global – 22,800,000/795,000; USA – 5,600,000/175,000 • POTUS called my cell at around 7:37 PM while I was outside on back deck with Chris and Jenny. It was the White House Operator saying the POTUS wanted to speak with me. I could not speak sine Dr. Bielamowicz said to not utter a word until tomorrow (Sunday), Chris answered and gave message to WH operator. POTUS called back and said he hoped I was doing well. I was concerned that he might think I was disrespectful for not answering the phone and so I texted Katie Miller ad explained the situation and asked if she or Stephen Miller could get the message to the POTUS and explain why I could not speak. She teted back and said that VP Pence would take care of it and tell the POTUS. I could not figure out why he called. He could have read about my surgery and was checking on me. Or there is a lot of tension against Francis Collins ad me in the WH because we have questioned the data supporting an EUA for convalescent plasma. They re holding it up until further data are available tomorrow and POTUS is saying the scientists (particularly FDA) are “deep state”. He throws that around a lot. Katie thinks he was calling to thank me for saying in interviews that we can get things back without shutting down again. We may never know. PRESS: Australia “60 Minutes” TV interview to be shown tomorrow (Sunday in Australia);