Sunday, August 15, 2021

Heat wave throughout the country. I had a very intensive day with the medical team trying to fashion to coherent message to justify the announcement that we plan to make this week that we will be giving a booster shot to everyone who wants one regardless of age or underlying condition. This has been a very difficult situation since the data for diminution of efficacy regarding hospitalization and death are unclear because of the confounding variables of some studies dominated by delta , some studies dominated by alpha , and some studies with a combination of both. In addition, when we talk about hospitalizations , it is unclear from several of the studies whether those who were hospitalized were almost exclusively the elderly and /or people with underlying conditions. Jeff is bent on having a coherent sharp message about this when in fact that is very difficult to do given the paucity of data. If we are too precise we will be called out because we cannot back it with data. If we are general, Jeff feels that the public will be confused. I am trying to convince him that it is OK to say that we do not know nor do we have all of the data to make a decision and sometimes you have to make a clinical or public health decision just based on clinical judgment. In this case the judgment is that delta is a very bad virus and even though we don't have firm data yet that younger people are getting seriously ill, we don't want to be late to the game. I used the metaphor of Wayne Gretzky who always said it is important to skate where the puck will be rather than where the puck is. We do not wait until younger people start requiring hospitalizations before we decide that we want to give them a boost. My job in all of this is to give the immunological basis for providing a boost. Bottom line is that the controversy will be not that we need to give a boost, but do we really need to give it to everyone instead of just to the elderly and those who have underlying conditions. One of the most important aspects about all of this is that when you boost someone with a third dose at about six months or so after the original prime boost the level of antibody goes dramatically high and I believe that this would provide durable protection against delta and any other variants that come along. My concern is that the Medical Group will not articulate this concept well enough and I will have to be out there trying to pick up the pieces as is usually the case. Summary of what has been going on hat I might not have had he time to document. I am more and more astounded by the fact that our society is so dystopic in that untruth and out and out lies seemed to win the day . In addition, I am concerned that even good scientists playing a game of using their longstanding concern with gain of function to call attention to this by what is going on regarding the argument about the origin of the virus. There is no question in my mind based on so many factors including history, molecular makeup with the virus, among others that this virus naturally emerged from an animal reservoir. Yet , people like David Relman and others are not realizing that by their focusing on the gain of function which they believe is what we funded at Wuhan could possibly be the cause of SARS Co V2 when in fact they know that this is molecularly impossible. I have evolved into something that would have been unimaginable to me just a few years ago. There are some positive aspects to it ; However, for the most part I feel like it is no longer me. I am now probably one of the most recognizable faces in the world. Millions of people idolize me and the far right radical group absolutely hate me. I cannot go out in public to a restaurant or even walk through a crowd since someone immediately recognizes me and wants to take a picture or congratulate me or just say that they said hi to me. This is driving my security group crazy as they are afraid fair among these legions of admirers will be someone who wants to kill me. All of this together with the stress associated with the fact that the president and others in the administration rely heavily on me four major decisions and I have very little staff relatively speaking who could help me. PRESS: CBS “Face the Nation” with Nancy Cordes AUGUST 16, 2021 Pediatric hospitalizations surging: Someone leaked our plan for boosters. The press are texting me all evening. I am not answering. PRESS: