Tuesday, November 9, 2021

Global – 249,743,428/5,047,652; USA – 46,541,113/753,564 Pfizer announced yesterday that they were going to ask the FDA to approve on an EUA boosters for everyone 18 years old and older. There is still concern on the part of Rochelle that the ACIP will not recommend boosters for everyone but would hold back on younger individuals particularly young men because of the risk of myocarditis. I have been pushing hard within the Medical Group as well as publicly saying that given the fact that we have plateaued on cases at around 70,000 per day and that we have already lost 750,000 Americans we should clearly boost everyone. Germany has already decided to boost every adult as has Israel. This is a situation where I am clearly at odds with the conservative approach of the ACIP Just a reminder of ongoing events - I have not been indicating this in my daily notes since they are ongoing activities but we are still are having anywhere from two to three White House press conferences per week as well as a weekly governors call inwhich I participate as well as a weekly briefing of the principles (cabinet members). For example, we had a very good conversation today with the governors about the recent approval of the Pfizer vaccine for children 5 to 11 years old and what this might ultimately mean both for the children as well As for the dynamics of the outbreak in this country. Larry Horowitz (Former staffer to Ted Kennedy) and confidante of Nancy Pelosi - Just to catch up on the note keeping , Larry has been very bullish about getting the Pfizer product to be used as a booster for all age groups. I agree with him strongly, but it is very clear that he has very close ties with Pfizer , in addition to his obvious strong relationship with Nancy Pelosi. Larry keeps texting me with all information about how other countries including Germany, Israel, uh and now Canada have decided to boost with Pfizer at all age groups. Of course the CDC and their ACIP may not be as enthusiastic given what I believe is an overly concerned attitude about myocarditis in the younger male age group. Today Pfizer has submitted their application to the FDA for an EUA for boosters for people 18 and over. Let us see how this turns out. Did another zoom call with Pastor Connie Miller of Maryland where I spoke to her with her parishioner children listening. I explained why it was important to get vaccinated and I told him that I would be going to the North Pole to vaccinate Santa Claus’s young elves. Call from Larry Jameson, Executive Dean and Senior Vice-President of Penn Medicine - Larry called me today with a very interesting proposal of what I can do when I step down as director of NIAID. He would like me to consider assuming a named professorship at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He said I could have offices in Washington DC in the Joe Biden center which is located in downtown DC and is part of the University of Pennsylvania. I could spend most of my time in Washington and intermittently visit Penn. This is likely the first of several offers at this type that I will get; however, this seems like exactly the kind of thing I would want to allow me to write my books , give lectures, and have a home base in a highly reputable institution. Town Hall with Congresswoman Anna Eshoo (D-CA) - I have been doing a number of town hall appearances with various Congress men and women over the last several months , almost all Democrats. I have not mentioned them in my notes for the most part however the one I did tonight with Anna who is special since she is such an avid fan of mine and effusively praised me throughout the town hall meeting. Her district is the San Mateo and Palo Alto area. Interestingly, that is where Joan Baez lives. We spoke about boosters, vaccinations in general, vaccine hesitancy, and what the end game is of getting back to normal in this pandemic. PRESS: Bloomberg TV with David Westin; NPR Radio interview with Joe Palca;