Wednesday, May 5, 2021

Global – 154,000,000/3,200,000; USA – 32,300,000/575,500 • Daily cases today at 41,000 In discussions with the medical team and with the White House comms group, I made it clear but I really do have a problem defending the ultra-conservative approach of the CDC regarding the wearing of masks outdoors. In particular, I was on an interview on the Today show with Savannah Guthrie and she pushed me on how inflexible the guidelines were for children in camp, where we have kids wearing masks all the time in 90 degree weather playing outside. I admitted that the CDC guidelines were “conservative”. Savannah try to get me to say that they were excessive but I stuck with my original characterization. We really do need to get the CDC to loosen up on some of their guidelines because our credibility is going to be attacked if we do not do that. I had a very interesting conversation with Nancy Messonnier last night. I called her up to ask her advice about how we can get some clear metrics from the CDC regarding when cities in states could start relaxing their restrictions. She surprised me by telling me that she was no longer part of the COVID response group and that she has essentially been fired by Rochelle Walensky. Something strange is going on here since it is very difficult to fire anybody in government even when they do something awful , and certainly Nancy has not done anything awful. In fact, she even thought that maybe I was involved in her removal but was very pleased to see that I did not know anything about it. POTUS announced that the USA would waive the TRIPS and lift patent restrictions!!! PRESS: NBC “Today” with Savannah Guthrie; Israeli TV; MSNBC with Stephanie Ruhle; Met with the Politico Editorial Board (on the record); Interview with The Hill with Steve Clemons; Israeli Public broadcasting Corporation; Sky News Australian TV;