Monday, November 30, 2020

Global – 62,400,000/1,500,000; USA – 13,300,000/266,100 We will see in the next few weeks whether the travel associated with Thanksgiving leads to a surge upon a surge. 95,000 people are currently hospitalized with COVID-19 – new record for this outbreak. Biden putting together his team. Very diversified with women and people of color. Trump still flailing about challenging without any hint of evidence that various states were won by him. He still has his Greek Chorus of people backing him although little by little they are being less vocal and explicit about backing him. The GOP is in a crisis in that many have lost credibility by not explicitly condemning Trump. They are all afraid since he does have almost ½ the country with him. He will definitely run in 2024 and they are afraid that they will lose his support if they come out against him. Terrible situation for democracy. Got call from Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL) praising me for what I have been doing and asking for my backing for him to keep stringent public health measures (short of lock down). He is getting pushback from bars and restaurants and even from hard core people who do not want to wear masks. He said that I am so credible and respected that he would like to quote what I have said as backup for himself. He liked my statement on Sunday shows of “Close the bars; open the schools”. He is very frustrated with people not wearing masks and told me he would like to just say: “Wear a fucking mask!” Sen. Rand Paul continues to act like an idiot: Rand Paul says Fauci owes parents and students an apology over pandemic measures BY DOMINICK MASTRANGELO - 11/30/20 12:01 PM EST 488 Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) scolded Dr. Anthony Fauci in a tweet on Sunday, suggesting the nation's leading infectious disease expert apologize for his warnings about the danger coronavirus poses to school-aged children. "Dr. Fauci owes [Rand Paul] an apology," one of Paul's Twitter followers said. Paul responded: "No, he owes one to every single parent and school-age child in America. I told him this multiple times this summer." Fauci and Paul have clashed several times since the pandemic began, with the Kentucky Republican accusing Fauci of fear-mongering rhetoric and what he says is incorrect praise of so-called lockdown measures implemented to stem the spread of the virus. “Dr. Fauci, every day we seem to hear from you things we can’t do. But when you’re asked, ‘Can we go back to school?’ I don’t hear much certitude at all. ‘Well, maybe.’ ‘It depends.’ Guess what? It’s rare for kids to transmit this. I don’t hear that coming from you. All I hear is, ‘We can’t do this, we can’t do that, we can’t play baseball,’” Paul said while demanding schools reopen during a Senate hearing in late June. “It’s important to realize that if society meekly submits to an expert and that expert is wrong, a great deal of harm may occur when we allow one man’s policy or one group of small men and women to be foisted on an entire nation." Fauci responded to Paul at the hearing, saying he feels "very strongly we need to do whatever we can to get the children back to school." During the early days of the pandemic, Fauci and other public health officials urged local school districts to consider all factors before deciding if it was safe to have children and teachers return to classrooms. On Sunday, Fauci clarified his position on school closures amid a nationwide spike in coronavirus cases this fall. "The default position should be to try as best as possible, within reason, to keep the children in school, to get them back to school," Fauci said on ABC's "This Week." "If you look at the data, the spread among children and from children is not very big at all, not like one would have suspected. So let's try to get the kids back. But let's try to mitigate the things that maintain and push the kind of community spread we are trying to avoid. And those are the things you know well. The bars, the restaurants ... those are the things that drive the community spread. Not the schools." • Did weekly Governor’s call today led by VP Pence. • Moderna applied to FDA for an EUA for their mRNA vaccine. Their final data were very impressive. 94% efficacy and 30 severe outcomes, all in placebo, none in vaccine. Pfizer did this submission last week (Nov. 20) • Fireside chat with American Society of Hematology • Did a nice 60 minute Facebook Live with Mark Zuckerberg PRESS: WUSA TV interview (Gabe Cohen); WTOP Radio; Yahoo News and Sports; iheart Radio; Cheddar TV; WedMD Magazine interview (I will be one of their public health “heroes”; Facebook Live with Mark Zuckerberg; BBC World News Radio;