Saturday, October 17, 2020

Got call at 5:53 AM from Deb Birx who reported to me about yesterday’s activities at the WH. Atlas did not come to White House. However, at the “huddle” in the AM he tried to undermine everything that Deb and I have been saying about how to contain the surges. He explicitly wants to never do contact tracing and never isolate any person who is infected. He feels that this constitutes a “lockdown’ and feels that the POTUS does not want to lock down. We (Deb and I) have repetitively said that we do not want to lock down. Atlas has convinced the entire White House. My conversation with Jared a couple of days ago obviously did not convince him since he told Deb yesterday that the POTUS likes differences of opinion and so we should just work it out. THIS IS VERY REMINISCENT OF AIDS DENIALISM WITH THABO MBEKI when it went beyond differences of opinion and >300,000 South Africans died without ART because he believed from Duesberg et al that HIV did not cause AIDS Cases continue to surge (see graph below). Could possibly start to overwhelm hospitals in some more rural areas.