Wednesday, December 30, 2020

Global USA General Gus Perna asked to speak with me this Am (7:30 AM) for advice and “comfort”. There has been criticism about the roll-out of vaccines. @0 million doses were promised by the end of December and we only have 11 million. Also, only 2-3 million have been administered (the latter is not his responsibility). He realizes that there is disappointment and wants advice. I told him that above all he needs to be transparent and honest and not try to coverup any deficiency. This is a big operation and he should expect bumps in the road. He bemoaned that on the battlefield when he was on the radio he could tell from the background sounds and the “vibes’ on the radio how the battle was going. With vaccines, even on conference calls, he really cannot get a good feel for what all the players are doing and how honest they are being. He does not trust Pfizer; he thinks that they keep moving the goal posts. He likes Moderna. He was very grateful for the call. Senator Marco Rubio is acting like a real asshole. He is publicly calling me a liar about my statement in the NY Times about my assessments for the percent vaccinations needed for herd immunity. I had said that I modified my assessment of 70 to 75% to be 70 to 85% because we really did not know the precise number and I wanted to encourage people to get vaccinated to achieve herd immunity. Actually, I made that change by extrapolating the measles situation where measles vaccine is 98% effective whereas SARS-CoV-2 is 94-95% effective. Measles begins to lose herd immunity at around 89-90% of population vaccinated and so I brought up the SARS-CoV-2 to 85% with the range being 70 to 85%. For that he called me a “liar” Big hypocrite as he continues to kiss Trump’s ass – the world’s biggest liar. “Sen. Marco Rubio: Dr. Fauci lied about coronavirus — I am appalled by his arrogance” Placing blind faith in unelected celebrity scientists has its limits, and we must not be afraid to call them out By Sen. Marco Rubio | Fox News Had 2nd conversation with Rochelle Walensky where I am advising her on her new position as CDC Director. I briefed her on the fact that as good as some of the CDC people are, as an institution they have hubris and are often incorrect. She needs to follow her good instincts and question what they are doing in a friendly, non-threatening manner. PRESS: WTOP Special Radio with J.J. Green; UK TimesRadio interview; C-SPAN TV interview with Gov. Newsom of California; MSNBC “The Last Word” with Lawrence O’Donnell