Thursday, April 29, 2021

Global -149,200,000/3,100,000; USA – 32,000,000/571,300 MMWR: Linked Clusters of SARS-CoV-2 Variant B.1.351 — Maryland, January–February 2021 Back up again to 53,000/day: • Did a zoom podcast interview with Quinn Bradlee (son of Sally Quinn and the late Ben Bradlee). He is disabled and Sally asked me to do this. I could not refuse since I admired Ben so much and he was always so gracious and kind to Chris and me. He was so excited to have the opportunity to interview me. Important Issue: Francis Collins forwarded an email to me (see below )which triggered a concern about whether the Indian variant – B.1.617 was resistant two antibodies induced by vaccines. I forwarded this email to the medical team including Jeff Zients and Rochelle Walensky. Rochelle called me up and mentioned that her colleagues in Boston including those at the Broad Institute as well as Dan Barouch were finding that the Indian variant could be very problematic with regard to its resistance to vaccine induced antibodies. In addition, I spoke with Bob Seder and the work that he has been doing with monkeys also indicates that B.1.617 could be very problematic. Then, Jeff Zients called me up together with Natalie Quillian and feels that we should call a temporary halt on travel from India until we sought this out and based on the information that I sent him. This is a critical decision since if we don't block travel from India and things look bad later on we will be sharply criticized for not doing so. However , if we do block travel, there will be those who criticize us for doing so. This is very similar to the deliberations that we had during the Trump administration regarding China, the Eu and the UK. SEE E-MAILS BELOW starting with the e-mail that I sent to the medical team of Walensky, Vivek, Bechara, Slavitt, Zients, Nunez-Smith. (Rochelle subsequently forwarded it to Dawn O’Connell at HHS) Team: Please see e-mail below from Dr. Venkatachalam to Francis Collins. Although this is still at the level of anecdote, I am hearing from people who are doing studies in vitro that the B.1.617 variant is at least as concerning as the B.1.351. We should discuss this at our next meeting. Best, Tony Anthony S. Fauci, MD Director National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Building 31, Room 7A-03 31 Center Drive, MSC 2520 National Institutes of Health Bethesda, MD 20892-2520 Phone: (301) 496-2263 FAX: (301) 496-4409 E-mail: afauci@niaid.nih.gov The information in this e-mail and any of its attachments is confidential and may contain sensitive information. It should not be used by anyone who is not the original intended recipient. If you have received this e-mail in error please inform the sender and delete it from your mailbox or any other storage devices. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) shall not accept liability for any statements made that are the sender's own and not expressly made on behalf of the NIAID by one of its representatives. From: Collins, Francis (NIH/OD) [E] <collinsf@od.nih.gov> Sent: Thursday, April 29, 2021 5:56 AM To: Fauci, Anthony (NIH/NIAID) [E] <afauci@niaid.nih.gov>; Lane, Cliff (NIH/NIAID) [E] <clane@niaid.nih.gov>; Mascola, John (NIH/VRC) [E] <jmascola@mail.nih.gov>; Erbelding, Emily (NIH/NIAID) [E] <emily.erbelding@nih.gov>; Wholley, David (FNIH) [T] <dwholley@fnih.org>; Menetski, Joseph (FNIH) [T] <jmenetski@fnih.org> Subject: FW: Concerning news about the B.1.617 variant from India and your view More concerns about B.1.617 and the effectiveness of vaccines. From: Venkatachalam, Sundar (NIH/NCI) [E] <sundar.venkatachalam@nih.gov> Sent: Thursday, April 29, 2021 4:53 AM To: Collins, Francis (NIH/OD) [E] <collinsf@od.nih.gov> Subject: Concerning news about the B.1.617 variant from India and your view Dear Dr. Collins, I hope this message finds you and your family well. I wanted to bring to your attention about a public health like message circulating among the Indian diaspora in the New Jersey area. Apparently, parents visiting from India who tested negative before their flight in India have come down with Covid (the message claims it is the B.1.617 variant from India) after 10 days. They have also visited a variety of get togethers, temples before the symptoms arose. This variant was detected in the Bay Area earlier this month and the CNBC article quotes Dr. Pinsky from Stanford saying that the variant may be a challenge. More concerning is the news from a friend of mine from Texas who says that two IT professionals who had both their shots in the US were visiting India to take care of their parents (infected with Covid). Unfortunately, the vaccinated IT professionals have died of Covid. He has promised to provide details as I have been skeptic of social media posts without backing. NPR also had a story yesterday that said 37 vaccinated doctors in Delhi have come down with Covid in New Delhi but did not say anything about their condition. As you already know that the daily caseload reported in India during the past 4-5 days has been ~200 to 300K and is probably closer to half a million or a million given the infrastructure and access to health. Even as early as last year I have suspected the numbers from India were being manipulated (see attached PDF) while looking at the Worldometer Covid update site. Sadly, I am speaking of the country I was born in and grew up- but cannot relate to or understand her values anymore. I was wondering if we are running the risk of another wave of infection in the US as hundreds (if not thousands) are flying between the US and India daily. I see that ~30% of the US population is fully vaccinated as of today and 43% have received a single shot -an enormous success by any rate in this short period. However, is it a risk, as we relax the guidelines in the US while allowing new variants enter and circulate in the community with more than half the population yet to be vaccinated? We have come this far and I really hope this sad episode does not repeat again. Sadly, there are folks within and outside our country who are waiting to use any opportunity to blame NIH/science and our president. I have lost sleep thinking of it since I saw the news circulating and thought that you or Dr. Fauci could provide an answer. I apologize for this long email. Sincerely, Sundar Sundar Venkatachalam, Ph.D. Chief, Preclinical Therapeutics Grants Branch Developmental Therapeutics Program Division of Cancer Treatment & Diagnosis National Cancer Institute sundarv@nih.gov BioNTech chief confident Covid jab will work on variant found in India VISIT TO BALTIMORE WITH VP HARRIS - Today I went to Baltimore at the invitation of Vice President Harris to accompany her to the M&T Bank stadium where the Baltimore Ravens football team plays. The stadium has served as a mega hub and mass vaccination site for the administration of vaccines in the city of Baltimore. It was a delightful trip strengthening my relationship with the vice president. She was her usual delightful self and as we walked through multiple sections of the indoor component of the stadium, we passed hundreds of people: people waiting to be vaccinated by the hundreds; people already vaccinated being observed; national guard who are helping with the vaccinations; and a wide array of sections of people vaccinating , entering information into a computer, and a pharmacy dispensing the vaccine. As we walked through the different sections people equally screamed out “we love you Doctor Fauci” and “we love you Vice President Harris. We stopped dozens of times to take selfies with a whole variety of people. The vice president was genuinely pleased to see the attention paid to me as well as to her. She is a real winner. PRESS: NBC interview with Heid Przybyla on the role of the VP in outreach to promote the uptake of vaccines; Italian TV La7 News; much press related to the visit to the VP to Baltimore. Joe Rogan walks back anti-vaccination Axios - comments