Monday, October 4, 2021

Very interesting link showing the evolution of cases throughout the United states from the very first months of the pandemic using a heat map approach: https://bit.ly/3uE40dF I participated in a zoom Q&A regarding the Columbus Citizens Foundation scholarship that is given to an Italian-American medical student and that was given in my name as the Fauci scholarship. The recipient was Danielle Rinaldi who graduated from Boston College and who just entered the University of Virginia medical school. We had an interview with Danielle and I wished her luck in her career E-mail from Chris Whitty (UK) together with attachment bringing up important point about people in vaccine clinical trials counting as “vaccinated” for “vaccine passport” purposes. From: Whitty, Chris <Chris.Whitty@dhsc.gov.uk> Sent: Monday, October 4, 2021 3:59 AM To: Adomako, Melissa (NIH/NIAID) [E] <melissa.adomako@nih.gov> Cc: chelsea.dickson@fcdo.gov.uk; Collet-Fenson, Luke <Luke.Collet-Fenson@dhsc.gov.uk> Subject: Participants in vaccine trials and international travel Dear Melissa Would this be possible to pass on to Dr. Fauci? Many thanks Dear Tony I hope all is good. We have discussed very considerable concern we have about people who have taken part in properly regulated vaccine trials then not being able to travel because they are not counted as ‘vaccinated’ for some countries. This is a major public health own gaol, because it is now proving a substantial disincentive to people taking part in trials, or to withdrawing from them. We think this is an easily fixable problem, but getting the international system to fix it is proving slow and difficult. A group of senior scientific and medical advisers to government in Europe has drafted a letter on this. I attach it for your interest, and in case you were also interested in being a cosignatory. Best wishes Chris 20210929 - DRAFT open letter on immu On our usual weekly call with Secretary Becerra, we discussed the issue of getting many many more testing kits for home testing out into the community. We are talking about hundreds of millions of tests which the Brits and others are doing to follow people particularly those with asymptomatic infection who may be spreading infection. This has been a weak point in the US government approach for some time now. Although Carol Johnson has been the key person for testing for the US government, it appears now that Tom Ingelsby is going to be playing a major role. this is also somewhat connected with the fact that the CDC is not really doing a very good job of screening for asymptomatic breakthrough infections among vaccinated people. Francis Collins told me a few days ago that he is going to announce his retirement on October 6th. I was one of the only people he told and we were hoping that it would not leak. He gave an exclusive interview to the Washington Post to Lenny Bernstein and Carolyn Johnson. While I was on my walk tonight with Christine I got a call from Erin Banco from The Daily Beast. Ellen asked me if I knew that Francis was going to announce his retirement. I told her “no comment”; she asked again and I said “no comment”. I immediately called up Francis and alerted him that someone had leaked it. He now has to make up his mind whether he's going to abort his plan of announcing it to the IC directors tomorrow and then making the announcement on Thursday. The best laid plans ……. Interesting situation where Lindsey Graham mentioned to a group of Republicans that they should get vaccinated and they boot him out of the room. Goes to show you how crazy the world is gone we have one of the most conservative Republicans gets booed when he tells far right Republicans to get vaccinated PRESS: CNN “At This Hour” with Kate Bolduan; Washington Times: Dr. Fauci: Americans, especially those vaccinated against COVID-19, should enjoy Christmas