Tuesday, December 1, 2020

Global – 62,700,000/1,500,000; USA – 13,400,000/267,300 Many GOP (such as Roy Blount) still supporting Trump who is becoming more and more unhinged. He is losing every court case that he appeals to overthrow the vote in a number of states. He rales that it is all a stolen election and that he won by a landslide. Very embarrassing. Blount refuses to call Biden the President -Elect. Scott Atlas resigns! I imagine that is because everything that is happening now with the surges has finally proven him to be incorrect on virtually everything that he has said. The one area where he was correct was in saying that school children are not the drivers of the outbreak. However, he was dead wrong in saying that mitigation does nothing and that when states peak and come down, it is because they have reached herd immunity. Yet, now we are seeing states and cities that peaked high months ago and now are peaking even higher. So much for heard immunity. Rand Paul still coming after me saying that I should shut everything down. The press is contradicting him by showing quotes from me to the contrary. What a jerk! I am staying above the fray. Alex Azar is becoming more sycophantic towards Trump as we get to the end of the administration. See below: Azar Touts Swift Progress On COVID-19 Vaccine Development. Fox News (11/30, Nelson, 27.59M) reports that on Monday, HHS Secretary Alex Azar said progress on the COVID-19 has been unprecedented. He told Fox News, “Think about this: 10 months into this pandemic hitting our shores, thanks to what President Trump has done, we believe we’re going to have people getting vaccinated, millions of people, before Christmas this year. It’s just unheard of in the history of public health, this accomplishment.” He added that “the vaccine will be ‘shipped’ within 24 hours of FDA approval and then it would be up to ‘nursing homes, hospitals, and pharmacies to get that dispensed.’” California Governor: State At “Tipping Point” Of Pandemic. Reuters (11/30, Whitcomb, Caspani) reports California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) “said on Monday the state was at a ‘tipping point’ in the COVID-19 pandemic that would soon overwhelm hospitals as political leaders nationwide turn to increasingly aggressive measures to hold back the latest • Had important call with Gov Cuomo who called me up. He was explaining to me why he had an independent panel look at the COVID-19 vaccines. He said that the skepticism about the FDA already existed (i.e. their doing an EUA for Hydroxychloroquine) and he was trying to ameliorate it. He also was concerned about managing expectations about how quickly the vaccines will make a big and broad difference. He and I agree that the difference will not be until mid to late summer. He told me about his conversations with Trump and how Trump wants to mend the fences with Cuomo despite the fact that he has been trashing him. He wants to change his residence back to NYC saying that it would be good for NYC. Cuomo pushed back and told him that he did not agree that it would be good for NYC. Also, Trump apologized for calling Chris Cuomo “Fredo”. Cuomo believes that Trump is a psychopath and an evil man who just wants to manipulate for his future, which he knows is bleak. Cuomo also expressed disdain for Azar saying that he is a sycophant to Trump and does not understand that black and brown people will not get fair access to vaccines with the paltry amount of money that the USG is giving to the states for the implementation of the vaccine distribution. USG gave $200 million to NY, when they really need $1 billion. Cuomo told me the best thing that could happen for my legacy would be for Trump to fire me and then have Biden re-hire me. • Had call with Rob Manfred, Commissioner of MLB – He needed advice about the timing of Spring Training (February for pitchers) vis-à-vis the roll out of vaccines and when there would be enough people vaccinated so that he can both get his players vaccinated and have a degree of herd immunity present so that he can have spectators in the stands. I told him that by April there could be massive vaccinations IF people uptake the vaccine. We could have most people vaccinated by early summer which means they can start with half full stadiums and then by the World Series they could conceivably have packed stadiums. He might delay start of Spring Training from February to March. Also, he wants to offer stadiums and parking lots for massive vaccination programs. I told him that would be a CDC/local public health department issue. • Had Miami Mayors call. – The mayor of Miami-Dade County – Daniella Levine Cava now has COVID-19. Former Mayor Jimenez has COVID-19. Still remaining issue that Governor DeSantis is blocking the mayors attempts to mitigate. For example, he will not allow closing the bars and indoor restaurants. • Had call with Gary Bettman (NHL) about the coming hockey season • Task Force call – The VP still extracts “happy talk” out of a very sober report from Birx about the surge and the fact that we are perilously close to having our health care system over-run by the surge upon the surge. He and the Greek Chorus of the TF just cannot accept that we are in serious trouble. Very frustrating Some states starting to plateau while others continue to surge. See below: Danger of hospitals being overrun and lack of adequate staffing (see graphs below): • Received Lifetime Achievement Award together with Henrietta Fore (Director of UNICEF) and David Beasley at elegant “virtual” gala. Praised by Barbara Bush in an interview and several celebrities • Heated discussion at TF meeting regarding the NIH Guidelines not being specific enough in its recommendations for mAb and CP. Typical Deb Birx wanting to push therapies more than the data justify. In the discussion, Pence was convinced by Deb and others (with no medical background) chimed in that saying “no evidence for or against the use of …….” Had long conversations with Cliff tonight and he is very reluctant to change the wording. VP was insistent that we indicate more strongly that the drugs work since Deb says that the clinicians are not using the drugs since they do not see a strong indication in the guidelines that the drugs work. Trying to work with Cliff who is adamant PRESS: Did Press Conference with Gov. Jared Polis (D-CO); WNBC NY TV;