Document text
their CEO has told us he’s ready to talk to
you) because you fear offending Moderna.
Jeff, David, Tony—let me be frank. You all need to grow a pair.
James will be sending an email soon suggesting we hash all of this out over good food and wine in DC
soon. I hope you’re all up for it.
Peter
Sent from my iPhone
From: Peter Staley <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, October 11, 2021 7:28 AM
To: Kessler, David (HHS/IOS); Tony Fauci ([email protected]); James Krellenstein
Subject: NYT: Moderna, Racing for Profits, Keeps Covid Vaccine Out of Reach of Poor
Moderna, Racing for Profits, Keeps Covid Vaccine Out of Reach of
Poor
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/09/business/moderna-covid-
vaccine.html
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
Sent from my iPhone
PRESS: CNN “The Situation Room” with Wolf Blitzer
Oct. 12, 2021 – Global - 237,400,000/4,800,000; USA – 44,400,000/714,000
Senator Rand Paul continues his assault on me. His latest rant is that I owe and apology to the
100 million people in this country who he believes had been infected. He claims that I am in
favor of mandating that they get vaccinated even though they are now protected and so given the
fact that recent data indicate that there is reasonably good protection following infection, now all
these people deserve an apology. I never said that they are not protected. I only said that they can
be more protected if they get vaccinated. Another example of his gross distortion of the truth.
Had a Nice fireside chat but the Council on Government Relations talking about COVID-19 in
general. The people with whom I spoke were David Norton and Wendy Streitz
PRESS: WJLA Locel TV “Corona Special” with Lindsey Mastis;
Oct. 13, 2021 - Global USA
Did a very enjoyable fireside chat with Rebecca Katz of Georgetown under the auspices of
the Smithsonian.
Broad observation. The medical team and I have been struggling with this issue that is out there
percolating. It relates to the fact that people who might not want to obey the mandate to get
vaccinated are saying that if they had previously been infected that this should count the same as
already being vaccinated and so they should not be mandated to get vaccinated and they should
not lose their jobs if they are in a situation where it is required that should be vaccinated to work
in a certain organization. Although there are much more data about vaccinated people people
who have post infection immunity comma it is in fact a legitimate question that they Are asking.
The idiots like Rand Paul as indicated above do nothing but aim their criticism at me as if I am
the person that's doing the mandates. However, despite that we still have to addressed this issue.
The medical team last night had a zoom meeting at 9:00 PM with some of the outside physician
community including Paul Offit, Peter Notez, Akiko Iwasaki, Mike Osterholm. We all agreed
that although those who were infected with post infection immunity have a point , we still must
get people vaccinated since vaccination following infection give the highest degree of protection
and we do not have a good handle on the durability and the breath of protection following natural
infection whereas we have much more information about those parameters following
vaccination.
Oct. 14, 2021 – Global USA
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
I briefed the POTUS in the Oval Office today. As usual he was a little bit late. We were
supposed to have a briefing at 11:30 and it was not until after 12 that we started the briefing. The
briefing was with the usual group including me, Jeff, Natalie, Vivek, Rochelle, and marcella. The
President was alone and not with the vice president . We briefed him on the status of the
outbreak , on the booster situation, and I briefed him on the recent data of the successful trial of
Molnupiravir as an antiviral agent . Recent data showed a 50% decrease in the likelihood of
hospitalization and death compared to placebo. However, during the discussion the president
began to philosophize a little bit about the stress that is on the country . He refers
specifically to a conversation that he had with Xi Jinping, President of China. Xi told him in a 45
minute conversation that he felt that democracies throughout the world are failing and given the
need to have rapid decisions about important items, a form of dictatorship works much more
efficiently the democracy. He referred to the dysfunction in the United states Congress as a
perfect example of this. President Biden and his discussion with us emphasized the importance
of preserving democratic principles but did bemoan the fact that we do really have a
dysfunctional situation in this country and trying to get things done in an expeditious manner.
Biden showed during the discussion his empathy, his kindness, that is deep feeling about the
importance of democracy. It was a very interesting discussion.
Oct. 15, 2021
Had a very nice zoom conversation with Raj Panjebi. He is the new director of the president's
malaria initiative (PMI). He set up a zoom call with me, Lee Hall, and several of his staff. He
wanted to strengthen the relationship between NIAID and PMI based on the historically great
interactions that we've had over the years. He went out of his way to recognize that I played an
important role in the creation of the PMI. I promised Raj that I would work closely with him and
the PMI to maximize the interaction and collaboration among us.
My staff wants me to lay low a little bit as we approach the Senate HELP hearing on November
4 since there certainly will be a lot of fireworks with Rand Paul and others. I am going to be on a
few of the Sunday shows again this weekend and then after that I think I will be very selective in
the TV shows that I go on . The reason for this is that no matter what I say the far right will
absolutely distort it and make it into something political. It is striking that literally every single
day I am criticized and attacked on social media, Fox News, and the tweeting of the far
right including by people like senator Paul. The latest that trump is doing is putting signs up
that fouchy stole Christmas. This is based on a question that Margaret Brennan asked me on Face
the Nation a couple of weeks ago about whether I could predict what the outbreak would be as
we get into the winter I merely said that we really can't predict it will depend on how many
people get vaccinated. That got translated by the far right in that I was stealing Christmas from
them. Truly unbelievable nonsense
PRESS: Interview with NBC Health (print);
Oct.17, 2021
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
Important couple of days over the last few days. the booster data from moderna and J & J
were presented to the FDA . In addition, the mix and match data from NIAID were evaluated. It
is going to be an interesting dilemma since the Moderna and Pfizer boosted J & J better than J&J
boosted itself. It should be interesting to see how the recommendations come out.
The same old crap is going on with the far right continuing to attack me . The latest is a book
written by an Australian person who says I'm the father of gain of function research with quotes
from the infamous Richard Ebright saying that I'm a liar and I have misled everybody about gain
of function. What a bunch of nonsense! The far right continues to try and discredit me. On a very
nice interview that I had with Chris Wallace (see below), Chris asked me what I thought was
going on concerning my being a very polarizing figure . I answered that it is not surprising that
I'm a polarizing figure since I speak the truth and people who are lying , who are propagating
conspiracy theories , and who don't admit the facts even when they're staring them right in the
face uh certainly people who will be polarized against me since I stand for something that makes
them very uncomfortable and that something is the truth.
Chris and I went to a wonderful brunch over Adrienne Arsh’s home. The brunch was in
honor of Christine LaGarde. the typical Washington a list was there. It was a fun brunch since
Adrienne is such a wonderful and generous person. I tend to shy away from these functions since
everyone gathers around me wanting to take photos and telling me what a wonderful job I'm
doing. Even though this is something that is not unpleasant, I still am uncomfortable when
people call attention to me when I'm in a crowd. However they are all well meaning and I should
feel gratified that they do pay attention to me.
PRESS: Fox “News Sunday” with Chris Wallace; ABC “This Week” with Martha
Raddetz; MSNBC with Alex Witt;
Oct. 18, 2021
Sad news today!! Colin Powell passed away due to complications of COVID-19. He had been
under treatment for multiple myeloma. He was vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2. He died at
Walter Reed Hospital. I got to know him through social events. He was always very kind,
generous and gave me advice about writing my memoir. Very likeable person.
I received a call this morning from Dr. Jason Blaylock of Walter Reed hospital. I got to
know Jason from when he came over to the office and gave me an Army medallion for giving a
lecture to Walter Reed. In addition, he was involved in the care of President Trump when he got
COVID. He wanted to speak to me to run by me exactly what he did in the treatment of Colin
Powell to determine if I would have done anything different and if he had made any mistakes in
the treatment. It was a very humble reaching out to me by a very sincere physician who cared
deeply about whether he gave optimal care to General Powell. I went over with him each and
every step in detail from the time Powell entered the hospital to the time he died this morning. At
every single point in his care I had no problems or issues with the way he was treated or handled.
I would not have done anything differently and I believe that General Powell received as good
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
care as he could have gotten anywhere in the country or the world. It was merely an example of
an 83 year old man with an underlying malignancy , in this case multiple myeloma, together with
Parkinson's disease, chemotherapy for his multiple myeloma , as well as underlying
cardiovascular disease and hypertension. He was given superb care and yet he still succumbed.
He had been vaccinated with the Pfizer product back in February but because of scheduling and
other problems, he never received a 3rd booster dose which he should have gotten given his
immune compromised state. Bottom line is that I do not think anything could have been done
differently. Doctor Blaylock indicated to me that they are already receiving a lot of negative
social media by anti-vaxxers who are now saying that General Powell was vaccinated but he still
died; therefore, people should not get vaccinated. Typical anti-vaccine nonsense.
Had a very productive conversation with my UK colleague Chris Whitty. There has been
some recent reports a mini-surge in cases in the UK. The UK is considerably under vaccinating
children compared to the United States. In addition, they do not require that children wear masks
in school. Chris mentioned that the surge is among children and that for the first time we are
seeing transmission from the children who are infected in school to their parents and relatives
within the household. This is very different from prior assumptions that children do not transmit
infection to adults. Chris thinks that this was true with the alpha variant which was not
particularly transmissible. However, he feels that with the delta variant and its high degree of
transmissibility that this is what we are now seeing. He gave us a heads up because the UK is
usually about a month ahead of us in the dynamics of the outbreak. We may not be seeing this
type of a surge since we are pushing very hard to vaccinate children. In fact, next week the FDA
will look at the data from Pfizer on vaccinating children from 5 to 11 years old. One other point
with the UK is that they are not enthusiastic about mandating vaccination even though they are
doing well with having vaccinated about 85% of their population with at least one dose.
Oct. 19, 2021 – Global – 241.000,000/4,900,000; USA – 45,000,000/726,000
Interesting zoom with White House protocol staff today arranged by Jeff. The purpose of
the meeting was to get my input about how to restrict or not events and visitors to the White
House moving forward . This is particularly relevant as we approach the holiday season and the
protocol people have to make decisions regarding holiday receptions, state dinners and tours of
the White House. It was an interesting discussion in which they relied on my judgment as to how
restrictive they should be regarding the size of the crowd, the requirement of testing, and the
requirement of vaccination.
I have received a lot of honors over the last year and a half from a number of prestigious
organizations . Unfortunately there are so many of these that it is very difficult to fully appreciate
them as they all seemed to pile up in a very intense time frame. However, last night I received
one that was particularly nice . It was the History Maker Medal from the New York
Historical Society which was associated with the fireside chat between me and my good
friend David Rubenstein. As a special treat they had the Regis High School jazz ensemble
play music in the background in my honor
Oct. 20, 2021 – Global - 241,000,000/4,900,000; USA – 45,000,000/728,000
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
PRESS: NBC “Nightly News” with Lester Holt; CNN with Chris Cuomo
An example of the insanity out there making me the boogeyman for the extreme right.
This is just one example of many:
'You're crazy': CNN reporter tells off doctor to
his face after he says vaccines will result in
'genocide'
Brad Reed
October 19, 2021
Screen cap / CNN
CNN's Drew Griffin on Tuesday conducted an interview with anti-vaccine Dr. Rashid Buttar in which the
doctor claimed that COVID-19 vaccines would result in a "genocide" worse than anything Nazi dictator
Adolf Hitler did during World War II.
During the interview, Griffin confronted Buttar for his past comparisons between Hitler and Dr. Anthony
Fauci, the nation's leading expert in infectious diseases.
"You think Dr. Fauci is involved in some kind of plot to kill millions of people?" Griffin asked. "I just want
to make sure I understand this."
"Again, Drew, I'm a reasonable person," Buttar replied. "I said it could be this, but I can tell you that Dr.
Fauci is not an innocent bystander. He is very well aware of what he is doing."
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
Later in the interview, Buttar claimed that the majority of deaths from the delta variant of the novel
coronavirus were caused by "vaccine injury," despite the fact that the vast majority of deaths came from
the unvaccinated.
"I don't want to be part of this mass genocide that I see happening," Buttar told him. "And I think that
what's going on right now will be remembered as a worst time in history compared to... World War II."
"I just want to be straight with you," said Griffin. "I think you're crazy."
Oct. 21, 2021
Larry Tabak, representing the NIH, released some progress reports from the EcoHealth
grant which were late in their submission. It indicated thatn mice became sicker than the
controls and could be interpreted by some as “gain of function” even though it does not
qualify for P3CO. As expected, this led to an avalanche of extremists calling Larry,
Frances, and I liars. This was all lead by the infamous Richard Ebright who made a tweet
as shown below. I must write something about this complete idiot In my book since he
really is a horrible person:
The NIH received the relevant documents in 2018 and
reviewed the documents in 2020 and again in 2021. The
NIH--specifically, Collins, Fauci, and Tabak--lied to Congress,
lied to the press, and lied to the public. Knowingly. Willfully.
Brazenly.
In addition, a number of people: Mark Meadows, Sen. Tom Cotton and others are tweeting that I
lied under oath
PRESS: CBS :Mornings” with Gayle King;
Oct. 22, 2021 - Global - 242,000,000/4,900,000; USA - 45,100,000/730,000;
Larry Tabak was treated very poorly by several Republican congressmen and senators that
he briefed yesterday. They continue to distort the truth insisting that I and to some extent doctor
Collins have lied about whether or not the NIH funded “gain of function” research. They do not
understand nor do they seem to want to understand that we were operating under the framework
of P3CO which clearly indicates that the experiments that were funded by the NIH in Wuhan fell
under that auspices and were properly conducted according to the existing guidelines at the time.
They want to hear none of that and continue to insist that we are denying that gain of function
research was done and they put forth the preposterous suggestion if not the strong indication that
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
the research that we funded created SARS-CoV-2. It looks like I'm going to have a tough time at
the hearing on November the 4th since they are clearly politically motivated and are doing
anything to discredit me and the NIH.
I had an enjoyable and productive discussion with the Minister of Health and Social
Services of Quebec (Christian Dube and his chief medical advisor Horacio Arruda). The
minister was very interested in my advice about where I think we are going with the outbreak
looking forward. He asked the question that many ask as to when I believe we may return to
some form of normality including when we can get along without wearing masks. I gave him the
advice I usually give to people emphasizing how importance the implementation a vaccine
program will be in determining when a given country can get back tomorrow.
PRESS: MSNBC “Morning Joe”; CNN “New Day” with John Berman;
Oct. 23, 2021 Global – 242,300,000/4,900,000; USA – 45,300,000/733,834
There was the typical but not unexpected backlash on the part of the far-right media
concerning the letter that Larry Tabak sent out concerning the progress report from
EcoHealth that was late. In order to be totally transparent, Larry sent out a note to
Congressman Comer saying that Ecohealth was late in submitting a progress report of their grant
and mentioned in the letter that some of the mice in the study had an increase in viral growth and
got sicker. This was immediately taken up by the far right as proving that Fauci and Collins were
lying when they said we did not fund gain of function research at Wuhan. They failed to mention
that in that same letter Larry made it very clear that the research did not rise to the scrutiny of
P3CO. In other words by our definition, it was not gain of function. This set off a firestorm of far
right media craze saying that Francis and I lied. Therefore, I spent the greater part of today,
tonight and tomorrow morning putting together a statement for the NIH website to correct the
misrepresentation on the part of the far right media.
Oct. 24, 2021
We are finally getting the statement in shape to put on the NIH website (see above).
Fortunately, I was on the Sunday TV Show this morning (see below) with George
Stephanopoulos where George gave me the opportunity to refute Rand Paul who will be saying
tonight on HBO that I lied and that the President should fire me. I pushed back firmly on this
during the TV hit with George and in today's press including Rolling Stone and the Washington
Examiner they accurately picked up my push back. This is turning into a continual conflict
between me and the far-right Congressman and the far-right media. I will not back down to these
ridiculous accusations.
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
PRESS: ABC “This Week” with George Stephanopoulos
Oct. 25, 2021
There seems to be no end to the nonsense. No doubt there was a concerted effort led by a
group that I'm not sure what it is but it likely is the Republican National Committee which
literally has squads of people looking out for anything and everything that I'm involved with and
finding some way to attack me. The latest that came out last night and today is the fact that there
is apparently an NIAID grant that is testing a vaccine for leishmaniasis in dogs. It vaccinates the
dogs and allows sand flies infected with leishmania to bite the dogs. It is now being billed as
horrific cruelty to animals directed personally by me. I have no idea what the grant is nor what
they are doing in the grants and I'm asking the staff to investigate that now but it has triggered a
new hashtag called #Arrest Fauci.
We know now that apparently the grant was not an NIAID grant that supported the controversial
research on the dogs. They listed us as the grantee when in fact that was a mistake. We are trying
to correct this now with a statement to the press. And the crap goes on and on ……..
Now they have begun harassing campaign where I am getting does is in dozens of calls on my
cell phone using FaceTime from numbers that I do not recognize which are clearly people who
now have my cell phone number for harassing me about the Beagle study
Wonderful article by Dana Milbank in the Washington Post blasting the right wing for
harassing me: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/10/25/fauci-puppy-experiments-
conspiracy-republicans/
Another great article by Pavlovitz (blog) again attacking those right wing elements for
harrassung me: https://johnpavlovitz.com/2021/10/25/the-mortal-sin-of-anthony-
fauci/?fbclid=IwAR3WZ4c5uvgNMye_1LH6JKD86rUReE37IJxJN1dbU5W3uE_crpYt-9RYyg8
Jeff called me up tonight in a very nice phone call. He said that he felt very badly that I was being
attacked viciously by the far right and he said that he would do anything that he could if I needed any
help from him . But he totally empathized with the fact that I'm being egregiously attacked by the far
right.
In addition I had a very nice phone call with Chris Wallace of FOX News who called me asking some
medical advice about a trip that he wants to take to Oxford to lecture at the Oxford Union . I went over
the pros and cons and risk benefit of making such a trip . In the course of the conversation he
empathized greatly with me about the attacks that I'm under by the far right and he fully understands
what is going on.
PRESS: See above link;
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
CNN’s Reiner: NIH Funded Research That
Caused Virus to ‘Gain Function’ But Fauci’s
Testimony Is True Because That Wasn’t the
‘Intent’
Oct. 26, 2021 - GLOBAL – 243,600,000/4,900,000; USA – 45,468,434/736,048
. It is so very clear now that this is a concerted effort to discredit me and assassinate my
character. We have counted the attacks regarding the Beagle dog experiments , but still the
attacks continue falsely claiming that NIAID funded the studies.
FDA VRBPAC met to discuss the data from the Pfizer trial in 5 to 11 yo children.
VRBPAC recommended approval and on Oct. 29, FDA issued an EUA for age group. They
received 10 micrograms instead of the full dose of 30 micrograms
PRESS: Fauci had no involvement in study on
monkey threat responses
By ALI SWENSON 2 hours ago
AP
Oct. 27, 2021 – Global USA
Andy Slavitt is out there tweeting in my defense. Yasmeen Abutaleb (Washington Post) Has
agreed to write a story trying to uncover the source of this organized effort to discredit me period
up to this point I have told her to hold back on doing any big story. However, I think the time is
coming very soon uh to do something about this unprecedented attack that I am experiencing.
We are getting bombarded by letters from Republican congressmen and senators (Ranking
Minorities) on the various committees asking pages and pages of ridiculous questions that really
have no answers concerning our oversight of the Wuhan Ecohealth grant and demanding
explanation for things that really in many respects are trivial. All of it is underscored by a strong
accusatory tone in all the questions. One letter in question was 14 pages long from Cathy
McMorris Rogers addressed to Francis Collins. it contained the most miniscule details about
technicalities of grants that was getting to the point that we did not have good oversight of the
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
ecohealth grants and hence the strong implication that we may have supported research that led
to SARS-Cov-2. Absolutely preposterous !!!
PRESS: NPR “Morning Edition” with Noel King; Spectrum News1 TV “Inside the Issues”
with Alex Cohen; CNN with Don Lemon
How Trump’s allies are still trying to insulate
him from blame for the coronavirus pandemic
President Donald Trump waves to members of the media as he leaves
the White House to go to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center after he tested positive for the
coronavirus on Oct. 2, 2020, in Washington. (Alex Brandon/AP)
By Philip Bump
National correspondent
Today at 10:30 a.m. EDT
On Tuesday, freshman Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) gave a speech from the floor of the
House that was as furious as it was terse, as inscrutable as it was accusatory. Over the span of 64
words, he called for the creation of a commission aimed at exploring the origins of
the coronavirus at the heart of the pandemic, called the country’s top infectious-disease expert
Anthony S. Fauci a “demon doctor,” accused Fauci of lying to Congress, accused Fauci of having
a hand in creating the virus and suggested that Fauci was linked to “funding the torture of
puppies in Africa.” It took 65 words just to summarize the claims, which should tell you
something about Cawthorn’s succinctness.
Oct. 28, 2021 – GLOBAL – 244,385,444/4,961,489; USA – 45,655,635/740,348
I had a long conversation with Yasmeen Abutaleb of the Washington Post yesterday . She is
getting very worked up about the fact that she realizes now that there is an organized effort to
discredit me and she wants to use the investigative reporter capabilities of the Washington Post
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
to try and find out if they can track funding for this effort to the Republican Party or to any other
organization that is trying to discredit me. Let us see how this turns out.
And Paul continues to look for trouble and this recently asked that the witnesses at the
upcoming HELP hearing testify on the oath . He is obviously referring to me because he
wants to be able to say that I lied under oath. Please see the letter that he wrote to me
below :
21.10.28 Letter to
NIAID Director Fauci
Politifact is trying to debunk the lies about me that are swirling around fast and furious about killing
dogs, starting the AIDS epidemic and killing orphaned children. This is a massive campaign to attack
me and discredit me.
Unpacking the noise around Dr. Anthony Fauci
and beagle experiments
By Bill McCarthy October 28, 2021
Had a terrific evening last night at the Kennedy Center. Barney Graham and Kizzmekia
Corbet received the Sammie Awards and I and Jeff Zients presented them with the awards. A;sp,
Eliseo Perez Stable and Gary Gibbons received special awards. Good night.
PRESS: Telemundo “Produccion Hoy Dia” with Arantxa Loizaga; regional TV – Houston,
Detroit, DesMoines;
Oct. 29, 2021 – Global – 244,879,472/4,970,435; USA – 45,759,230/741,566
FDA issues EUA for Pfizer 5 to 11 yo. vaccine
Yasmeen Abutaleb Is continuing to gather data on the conspiracy of the far right against
me. She is working with Courtney Billet on gathering information connecting this activity with
the far-right Republicans. Most recently they discovered that Donald Trump Jr. in his campaign
running for office is selling shirts that say “Fauci kills dog”. Hopefully, Yasmeen we'll have a
story out of this.
PRESS: Washington Post “fact checker” Glenn Kessler gives Rand Paul 2 Pinocchios in
saying that I lied about funding GOF research:
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
Fact Checker
Analysis
The repeated claim that Fauci lied to
Congress about ‘gain-of-function’ research
Oct. 30, 2021
Had a meeting in my home today with Hugo Crosthwaite who will be doing one of his
extraordinary artistic renditions of me which is a sketched portrait in motion. He was
accompanied by Dr. Taina Caragol who is the curator of painting and sculpture and LatinX art
and history at the National Portrait Gallery. He wanted to explain to me what he will be doing
over the next couple of months in putting together his portrait of me.
Last night we had a delightful time visiting the on Massachusetts Ave where we were given a
tour of the beautiful library end of the world clock.
Oct. 31, 2021 – Uneventful Sunday
PRESS: Italian TV – Che Tempo Che Fa – with Fabio Fazio
Nov. 1, 2021
Continued attacks from far right.. “National Pulse” talking about a book soon to come out by
Peter Navarro that attacks me.
Just found out that Nicholas Erickson of the Republican National Committee has been
FOIA-ing my emails as well as “copies of Anthony Fauci’s scheduled meetings, appointments,
scheduled events, outlook calender events, and aily briefing books between the dates 6/1/21 to
present” (Sept 2, 2021)
Preparing for the Nov. 4 Senate HELP Hearing. Rand Paul has sent letter to me, Rochelle,
Dawn O’Connell and Janet Woodcock asking if we would be willing to testify under oath. This
is completely unusual for a minority who is not even the ranking minority to make such a request
. It is very clear where he is going with this. He wants to be able to tweet after the hearing that
whatever I said was lying underoath similar to what he had said before. I doubt very seriously
whether the chair of the committee, Patty Murray, will allow this. However, we shall see.
Did the Stubing Lecture of the Greenwall Foundation this evening. It was a fireside chat
moderated by Sanjay Gupta who interviewed Christine and I in front of a virtual audience of a
noteworthy because of the extraordinarily polished performance that Christine gave in the
fireside chat interview. It is very clear that she is highly respected by her colleagues in the field
of ethics. Her performance was flawless.
PRESS: CBS “The Late Late Show” with James Corden;
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
Nov. 2, 2021 – Global – 246,594,191/4,998,784; USA – 46,024,349/745,274
The decline in cases in the United states is unfortunately beginning to plateau. We have
started to see the inklings of this as the steepness of the deflection has diminished and we are
getting stuck for several days now at around 70,000 cases per day. We will have to watch this
closely. In addition, cases in the European Union particularly in Eastern Europe are starting to
surge. This is all bad news as we enter into the cold season of the fall and winter.
Francis Collins and I had a conference call with chairperson Patty Murray of the HELP
committee. She was very sympathetic about the fact that the Republicans would have come at me
pretty hard and she wanted me to explain to her about gain of function research so that she could
get a better understanding of things and she promised that she would give me the opportunity to
respond if people like Rand Paul do not give me the possibility of the chance of responding
ACIP meets today to discuss Pfizer vaccine for 5 to 11 yo. Voted unanimously to
recommend vaccines for 5 to 11 year olds
Governor Phil Murphy of New Jersey was involved in a very close race for re election. The
next day (tomorrow) I texted him and congratulated him on his close win. He texted me back
thanking me for my friendship and sending his best regards to Christine. He is really a good guy.
Nov. 3, 2021 –
Final pre for the HELP Hearing. I fully expect that they will come at me hard
PRESS: CNN “New Day” with Briana Keilar; Usual WH Press briefing; CNN with Chris
Cuomo; MSNBC with Chris Hayes
Nov. 4, 2021 – Global – 247,472,724/5,012,337; USA – 46,180,190/747,970
Very important Day!!
Senate HELP Hearing - I together with Dawn O'Connell, Janet Woodcock, Rochelle Walensky
testified before the Senate HELP hearing chaired by Patty Murray . We had expected to have the
same conflict with Senator Rand Paul who continues to lie egregiously about the gain of function
research which he claims was done at the Wuhan Institute of Virology funded by NIAID. During
the last Hearing I had a direct conflict with him in which he accused me of being responsible for
the death of four million people by funding research at Wuhan. At that time, I angrily said that he
was the liar. He continued along this line totally misrepresenting facts and accusing me of lying
before the Congress. However, in contrast to what I did last time I did not aggressively call him a
liar, which he is. What I did was very calmly counter all of his arguments that this was a proven
leak from the Wuhan lab, that we were continuing to fund the Wuhan lab, and that I was
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. Chairperson Patty Murray was extremely helpful in
allowing me to counter his ranting lies . I closed the session by saying then I have a great deal of
respect for the institution of the United States Senate, but in fact everything he said was
“egregiously incorrect “. see link to the actual testimony below: https://bit.ly/2ZZzqAa
Call from Barack Obama – Leslie Dach had contacted Barack Obama to ask him to give me a
call to see what he could do to counter the slanderous lies there have been coming from the far
right press, extreme right elements in society, and even several members of the Senate and the
House. President Obama called me tonight at 5:00 PM on my cell phone and offered to help in
any way that he can. He started off the conversation by saying that he was concerned about me
and how I was holding up under this onslaught of slanderous lies. HE SAID THAT I WAS A
“CIVILIAN” and that I should not have to put with this nonsense. He as a politician is used to
this, but I have done nothing but serve that American public and the world for decades. He
expressed concern that this would interfere with my important work on behalf of the American
people. I explained to him what was going on and he was extremely sympathetic and in fact
said that he would call up Ron Klain and or Jeff Zients to ask them to have the administration be
proactive in countering these lies. I explained to him that President Biden as well as Ron Klain
and Jeff Zients had been extremely helpful and supportive in making it very clear that they had
complete confidence in me. In addition, I told him then Jen Psaki had continuously said at White
House press conferences when asked whether the President would fire me that indeed the
President would never fire me and that this was a bunch of nonsense. President Obama felt that
we should do more than just claiming that they have my support and actually go on the offensive
and call out people who are allowing this to be said and are not stepping up. President Obama
said that he would call up Jeff Zients and tell him to mobilize some of the people in the
administration to proactively go out and defend me. I told President Obama about the crazy
things that the far-right Republicans were doing including the fact that Donald Trump, Jr. had on
his website the sale of sweatshirts and T shirts to collect money for his campaign and on the T
shirts and sweatshirts it said “Fauci kills puppies “. Obama said That Donald Trump junior is “A
fucking moron”. He apologized for using crude language but then went on to say that Donald
Trump was a hopeless idiot who was a pathologic liar. He was very upset that none of the
moderate Republicans were actually speaking out on my behalf and were distancing themselves
from all of this terrible slanderous behavior against me. It was a great conversation that lasted for
25 minutes and he said that if he hears anything about movement in this direction he will get
back to me. It indeed was an incredibly memorable phone call.
Received the call late at night tonight from Albert Bourla, the chairman and CEO of
Pfizer. He wanted to alert me that tomorrow morning they will announce extremely
favorable results from their protease inhibitor + ritonavir (PAXLOVID). The results are
truly striking. In a randomized , placebo controlled trial, the efficacy of this oral formulation was
89% if given within the first three days following symptoms and 85% efficacy if given within the
first five days of symptoms. The group were people 18 years old and older with 1 or 2 risk
factors such as smoking, diabetes, and hypertensions. There were no deaths in the treatment
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
group and 10 deaths in the placebo group. Albert recognized that NI AID played a significant
role in the early development of this drug. They will apply for anyway soon.
November 5, 2021 – Global – 247,968,227/5,020,204; USA – 46,268,465/749,876
Phone call with Mikael Dolsten of Pfizer and his team. They explained to a group of us
(USG) the details of the Pfizer drug trial results (See above)
I continue to get hassled by people FOIA-ing my emails . For example today we got a request
from a Robin Bravender of Insider (a trash publication) for my e-mails from Nov. 3, 2021
Another extraordinary Day !!! I attended the Funeral services of General Colin L Powell
at the Washington National Cathedral at the invitation of the Powell family. Beautiful sunny
crispy cool Fall day! It was truly a moving and extraordinary event characterized by moving
speeches from Madeleine Albright, Richard Armitage, and General Powell's son Michael K.
Powell. A notable part of the event was the extraordinary rendition of the song “How great thou
are” by Wintley Phipps. The entire “A” list of present and former administrations including the
President (Biden) and first lady, former Presidents Barack Obama and George W Bush, and
former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. I went over and chatted with all of them right before
the ceremony. I thanked President Obama for our discussion the other night (see above), and I
had a very interesting and amusing situation with Hillary Clinton. As soon as she saw me she
opened up her arms and we gave each other a big warm hug. She whispered in my ear “now you
know what it feels like “clearly referring to the issue with the emails and all the other flak that I
am taking. I told her some details of what I was going through and she commiserated with me
thoroughly. She also said that she wanted to give me a call very soon so we could get together.
President Biden recognized me from across the room and gave me a nod and a finger point. On
the wayout General Mark Milley came up to me put his arms around my shoulder and said “the
only person who was getting his balls kicked more than me in Washington is you “. I responded
by saying “no shit”. he then responded by saying “Fuck ‘em”. I also ran into a number of other
people from former administrations who chatted with me including James Baker, and Donna
Shalala. I also met Ken Duberstein who is looking very frail and in a wheelchair. I didn't
recognize him until the person who is taking care of him re-introduced us he said that he was the
one who convinced Ronald Reagan to appoint me as director of NIAID and that I make him
proud every single day particularly when he sees me out on TV doing my good work. BTW - It
really is nice having a security detail to whisk you in and out of these events . It would have
taken me forever to get in and I would have been locked in there forever. However, with Brett
taking care of me it was as smooth as could be.
PRESS: NPR “All Things Considered” with Mary Louise Kelly;
Nov. 6, 2021
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
'God' asked people who should be sainted
next. Here are the top 20 most popular
responses.
Nov. 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
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
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;
Nov. 10, 2021 Global - 250,154,972/5,054,267; USA – 46,626,034/755,201
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
Many Eastern European countries by having record surges of COVID with increases in
hospitalizations and deaths. These countries include the Ukraine, Romania, Russia, Bulgaria,
among others. In the United states although the cases are plateauing as a group, there are other
areas of the country particularly some of the western and northern states it is starting to see
increases including the important state of California. In fact, the daily average over the past week
for the country has shown a 5% increase in cases.
Met by Zoom today with Eric Schultz at the request of Barack Obama - Eric was really very
helpful. He has enormous experience at being a comms expert working with Barack Obama. He
was involved in deflecting a lot of the criticism against Obama during his Presidency. Eric was
very realistic about what can be done in my case although he admitted that the level of attacks
against me was clerly organized and unprecendented. He wanted to find out what was being
negatively impacted by all of this. I explained to him that it was a very strong strain on me but
that I'm strong enough to withstand it and he seemed to resonate with that. I told him that my
scientific staff seems to be able to do their job even though the onslaught of this is so clear to
them and they feel badly about what I'm going through. I told him that the group that is getting
most overwhelmed with this is my legislative and my communications staff. Eric felt that it
would be very difficult to shame the right wing media and even the right wing members of
Congress and the Senate, and so he is unsure whether going after them would make a difference.
He wanted to know whether I needed more help at the staff level in communications and
legislation. I don't think that we do need that but I referred him to Courtney Billet with whom he
has already scheduled a meeting. He did say that he was interested in the Washington Post piece
that will be written by Yasmeen Abutaleb. He feels that if we can galvanize other media people
to call out these groups that are attacking me that this could be very helpful. Once you expose the
people who are instigating this, they often are reluctant to continue. And so, I am waiting to see
how is conversation with Courtney goes. I am very thankful to Barack Obama for helping to set
up this meeting with Eric.
Nice fireside chat with Bill First Bipartisan Center - The audience were a number of policy
makers who listened in on the bipartisan senators discussions. Bill asked the usual questions ut
the status of the outbreak but where we're going what does the end game look like and all the
other questions that are generally asked.
PRESS:Interview with “The Daily” – New York Times – Michael Barbaro;
Nov. 11, 2021
Just to catch up on what is going on with the Moderna/NIH patent dispute. It has been very
clear from the very beginning that there was a very strong collaboration between investigators at
the Vaccine Research Center (VRC) and the Moderna company . In particular John Mascola ,
Barney Graham, and Kizzmekia Corbett were heavily involved in the development of the mRNA
-1273 vaccine. It was assumed by everyone that there would be a joint patent inventorship. And
so, when a few months ago we heard that there was some disagreement among the tech transfer
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
people of the NIH and the lawyers at Moderna, Frances and I engaged in a couple of telephone
conversations with Steve Hoge and Stephane Bancef of Moderna. Steve and Stephane said that
the actual inventorship was solely Moderna and that although the NIH had rights to the patent
and licensing of the S2P immunogen, Moderna claimed that the actual “inventorship” was theirs.
This is critical since even though we would get a considerable amount of royalty from this
technicality and even though we could be “co-owners” of the patent but not inventors of the
patent this would still give Moderna complete control over who can or cannot use the mRNA
vaccine . This is particularly relevant if we try to get the vaccine produced for low and middle
income countries at a very, very low price. And so, after many attempts at resolving the issue we
were very surprised that Moderna unilaterally went out and filed the patent and specifically and
explicitly excluded John, Barney, and Kizzy. The entire academic community, when they found
out about this, was totally taken aback. And so, just this week Francis made it clear in an
interview with Reuters that we are going to bring Moderna to court and let the courts determined
the outcome . See below.
UPDATE 1-Moderna COVID-19 vaccine patent
dispute headed to court, U.S. NIH head says
By Julie Steenhuysen
Science magazine has written a critical appraisal of NIH and it has really pissed off Francis
Collins:
Editorial
Self-inflicted wounds
H. Holden Thorp
Science • 11 Nov 2021 • Vol 374, Issue 6569 • p. 793 • DOI: 10.1126/science.abn1244
•0eLetters
Nov. 12,2021 – GLOBAL – 251,266,207/5,070,244; USA – 46,783,309/757,663
I gave an interview with Peter Baker today for the book that he is writing on president
trump.
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
PRESS: NYTimes/The Daily: An Interview with Anthony Fauci https://nyti.ms/3ohAA22 ;
STAT Summit Interview with Helen Branswell; Sirius XM “Doctor Radio” with Marc
Siegel; NBC Nightly News with Tom Costello;
Nov. 13, 2021- Global – 251,788,329/5,077,907; USA – 46,910,412/759,552
I had an important TV interview with Ted Koppel to be aired on CBS tomorrow (see
below). The main gist of the interview was the attacks on me from the radical far-right.
However, Ted did bring up an issue that Hugh Hewitt brought up in a different context (see
above). Ted asked me (and he is a good friend) whether or not I realized that I was speaking to
the converted and the 50% of people who love me are already doing what I want them to do and
the 30% who hate me will never do what I say no matter what and so have I ever considered
pulling out of being a public spokesperson and just focus on my job as the director of NIAID. He
originally asked whether I should “step down” because I had to remind him that I do have a very
important job that has nothing to do with speaking to the press. When he understood that, he
corrected himself and said why not just pull back from interviews since I'm wasting my time. I
pointed out to him that there are still people who are on the fence whom I can convince and since
I am such a valued spokesperson and a good communicator that the President and the
Administration want very much for me to be out there. He got that and agreed, but it is
interesting that he even brought it up.
I have been including Larry Corey in one of the three weekly division director meetings
because in my opinion he is one of the most brilliant clinical trialists in the country if not the
world. However there is some growing tension that the division directors, particularly Emily
Erbelding and Carl Dieffenbach resent Larry being there since they feel he is giving himself an
unfair advantage inventing his ideas in front of me and putting them in a position that they have
to agree since everybody knows that he is a very close personal friend of mine. And so, at the
last meeting they spoke to me about asking Larry not to take part in the division director
meetings anymore since this in their mind is a conflict of interest. They do have a point but I
believe that they do not fully appreciate how much value added he is. And so tonight I had to call
Larry and tell him that he can continue to very frequently consult with me with his ideas but that
he cannot attend the division director meetings by zoom anymore unless invited for a specific ad
hoc issue. He was disappointed, and vented a bit about their lack of creativity , but he understood
and will stand down on this. I will continue to use him frequently as an advisor.
PRESS: Interview with Ted Koppel for CBS “Sunday Morning” to air tomorrow (Sunday)
Nov. 14, 2021
The interview with Ted Koppel went extremely well and I got more emails and texts than ever
saying how impressed people were with it. The tone of the interview was interesting in that he
allowed me to talk about the divisiveness in the country and he even brought it up in a good
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
context the fact that many people don't believe me anymore and even want me to resign. He
asked my opinion about that and I was very firm in saying that I focus on my job and that I did
not create the divisiveness in the country and certainly if people keep lying about me and
distorting the truth in egregious ways, of course some people are going to believe that and some
people are not going to like me but that's not what I'm all about. I'm all about doing my job and
I'm not going anywhere until COVID-19 is in the rearview mirror.
It is also interesting that with other things in the news including the contempt of Congress
charges against Steve Bannon with other charges soon coming against mark meadows, the
attention on me has lessened. Perhaps this is a temporary low but it certainly is noticeable.
Nov. 15, 2021 – Global USA
Went down to the White House today to participate with secretary Becerra - In a Health
Summit for Indian Nation.I gave a brief overview of the outbreak and the importance of getting
booster vaccinations and secretary Becerra and I answered a bunch of questions from different
tribal leaders. Well down there I ran into Susan Rice who gave me a big hug as usual as well as
Merrick Garland with whom I had a nice chat. He joked and said you've got to save us from this
outbreak and I joked back and said you've got to save us from the crazies who are out there. He
shook his head in affirmation and said he's trying.
Over the weekend I had been back and forth on the phone with Larry Horowitz as well as
Jeff Zientz. The issue at hand is that many of the states including Colorado, California, New
Mexico, and soon Minnesota as well as a number of countries such as Canada Israel Germany
France and others are all recommending that everyone 18 years of age and older get their third
booster shot of an M RNA vaccine. The FDA is collecting the data from Pfizer to make the
authorization through an EU A for that age group. We are hoping that the CDC does not hesitate
no matter what the ACIP says and goes ahead and shows leadership to get everyone a booster
shot. The reason why this is important , despite the fact that there was concern about myocarditis
in younger men, is because the message of who should get boosted is ambiguous and even
people who should be getting boosted are hesitant to do so because they are not sure whether
they qualify for a boost. If you just say across the board that everybody who's received a primary
vaccination should get boosted within six months, then there is clarity about the fact that
everyone should get vaccinated. I have been respectful of the CDC and the process that they go
through , but over the last couple of days I have been very explicit saying that in my professional
opinion I feel that everyone should get vaccinated.
Got a call from Ari Emanuel today - He told me that he will be coming to Washington DC in
the next month and wants to come over the house for dinner to explain to me how naive I am and
not fully appreciating just how much money I can get from book deals films and speeches. Ari
has been calling me about once every several weeks to just check in on me and see how I am
doing and to maintain the connection. He is very obviously hot to be my agent when I step down
from the United States government.
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
PRESS: WTOP Radio with Gigi; Business Insider with Hillary Brueck (Print); CNBC with
Shepherd Smith
Nov. 16, 2021 – Global - 253,163,330/5,098,174; USA – 47,145,861/761,426
Michael Hiltzik of the LA Times - Has written another insightful review of the profound
weaknesses of the lab leak theory. He exposes Alina Chan of the Broad Institute as someone
leaning towards the conspiracy theory who has written a book providing no evidence whatsoever
other than conjecture about the lab leak theory (see below).
Discussion with Jeff and the medical team today. - Although the cases are starting to surge up
in more than 30 states, we have to start preparing for what level of acceptance of infection in the
community we are willing to live with. I have been explaining on TV/Radio shows the multiple
phases of outbreaks from pandemic phase, to deceleration phase, to control, to elimination , to
eradication. We have only eradicated one infection and that is smallpox. We have eliminated
infections from the United states such as polio, malaria, and measles. What we have looking
forward is “control “. However, there are multiple levels within the bracket of control and we
should not accept control at a level of 70 to 80,000 cases per day. We must get it down much,
much lower . In my mind that is considerably lower than 10,000 cases per day. Importantly, the
number of hospitalizations should also figure into that calculation since as I have been discussing
with David Morens and Jeff Taubenberger, systemic vaccination (subcut). Subcutaneous
vaccination does not give mucosal immunity very well except when you have very high levels of
antibody. When anybody levels fall below certain level one is acceptable to infection . However ,
B cell memory and T cell memory very often protect against pulmonary infection. And so we
can expect that there will be a time as we boost people that we continue to get mild infections
such as with the common cold but very few people wind up getting very sick requiring
hospitalization. Jeff and David also pointed out that for those vaccines that are required from the
respiratory move and do not result in viraemia we do not have good vaccinations to prevent
infection although we do have vaccinations that prevent the progression two serious disease. I
refer to influenza, parainfluenza , respiratory syncytial virus, and metapneumovirus. However,
viruses such as measles, smallpox, and other viruses that result in viraemia and systemic
involvement with virus give lifelong immunity after infection as well as after vaccination. These
are important considerations that very few people fully appreciate.
PRESS: Reuters TV with Julie Steenhuysen; NBC News Medical Unit - TV with Ashkay
Syal;
These authors wanted to push the COVID-19
lab-leak theory. Instead they exposed its
weaknesses
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
By Michael Hiltzik Business Columnist
Nov. 15, 2021 6 AM PT
On the Shelf
By Alina Chan and Matt Ridley
Nov. 17, 2021 – Global -253,640,693/5,104,899; USA – 47,244,379/762,994
I went to a book party last night for Jonathan Karl’s new book about Trump. It took place
at the Cafe Milano. The place was incredibly crowded and I was almost forced to take my mask
off for 2/3 of the time I was there since they were serving drinks and people were talking and
taking selfies. I was totally swamped all night by people wanting to say hello, shake my hands,
and take pictures with me. I could not get away from it . Although some people may think that
this is great to have people treat you like Elvis Presley , but it was really very unnerving. Jon was
very gracious to me being very excited about my meeting his family . We took hundreds of
pictures with each member of his family, as well as one big family photo. It turns out that his
father-in-law grew up in Bensonhurst and knew about my father's pharmacy on 13th Ave. The
book party event was punctuated by doctor Bill Hughes whom I know for years and who is
married to Ann Compton getting a vaso-vagal attack and I tended to him at the bar. We called an
ambulance, but Ann took him home after we documented that he was stable. When I went home
that night I was nervous all night looking at the ceiling concerned about having gotten infected in
that very crowded restaurant despite the fact that vaccination proof was required to get in. I'm
well aware that many people who are vaccinated are still getting infected and that worried me a
lot. I'm supposed to go to an even bigger black tie affair at the home of the French ambassador
tomorrow. I think I am going to cancel out since I don't want to go through the nerve-wracking
experience that I did last night worrying about having gotten infected.
Of note, there are more than one congressional bills that have been proposed with my name
on it . One is the “Fires Fauci Act” which was written by Marjorie Taylor Greene. Another bill
floating in the Senate (proposed by Senator Joni Ernst) is forbidding gain of function research
and that bill is called the “Fauci Act”
PRESS: NBC Now TV with Hallie Jackson;
Did an interview with Margaret Brennan today to be shown two weeks from now on Face the Nation.
Curiously she spent most of the time asking me to justify the many “mistakes “that have been made by
the CDC during this outbreak both during the trump administration and the Biden administration. I was
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
trying to defend the CDC to the best of my ability, but this was not easy since in many respects she was
right. I try to steer the conversation so with discussion of what I am responsible for namely the
development of vaccines and therapeutics. She responded by saying I am “America's doctor “and so I
should have to answer these things . She was not being mean since Margaret is tough but she's a very
fair and good person.
Nov. 18, 2021 Global USA
Call from Jeff Zients today with a message from Ron Klain – It is noteworthy that in prior
demonstrations it was always a concern when you give a message about a public health issue that
the administration is always afraid get the public to concern we're not concerned enough to be
incompatible with the message that they're trying to get. This was brought to the far extreme
trump administration in fact the message was completely garbled and riddled with allies from the
president , which I had to rectify. However, I was a bit surprised when I got a phone call from
Jeff saying that Ron thought I was doing a terrific job with the messaging but he was a little
concerned that I might be saying that we might have a tough time this winter pressing message.
However I was being perfectly truthful since in fact we are seeing the beginning of a surge and
when you look at what I said I was actually quite certain spectrum said that we can do something
about preventing surge and you just pull up to us if we want to blunt but could be an inevitable
surge of people continue to not getting vaccinate just the thought that there is some contact
commonality among all the ministrations but messages even the terrific ones like we're dealing
with now.
Phone call with Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) – Roger wanted information regarding global
COVID since he is going to a conference in Halifax about global response to COVID. He asked
good questions and then he asked about GOF and I explained the entire situation to him. He
seemed not hostile and understanding. Clearly, not all GOPs are jerks.
Interesting article in Axios that goes along with my saying that we did not know that masks
work until later on. This article came out today!!! –
Mask-wearing reduces COVID incidence by
53%, study shows
PRESS: Interview with Carl Zimmer of New York Times an the antiviral program for
COVID and other viral families; NPR “Morning Edition”/All Things Considered” with
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
Alison Aubrey; Russ Parr Morning Show (Radio); The Laura Coates Show (Radio); The
Ryan Cameron Show (Radio Atlanta); MSNBC Peacock – Mehdi Hassan;
Nov. 19, 2021 – Global – 255,324,963/5,127,696; USA – 47,587,441/770,461
PRESS: Fantastic article in the Washington Post online today by Yasmeen Abutaleb the
bunking in an incredibly efficient manner the false claims against me by the right wing
motivated White Coat Waste project regarding the Beagle experiments :
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2021/11/19/fauci-beagle-white-coat-waste/
Investigations
Fauci’s office flooded with attacks over
beagle experiments
Covid chief’s phone line rings 3,600 times in 36 hours after
campaign by little-known animal rights group
New York Times article about my advocating boosters:
F.D.A. Authorizes Coronavirus Booster Shots
for All Adults
If the C.D.C. agrees, adults who received a second shot of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine at least six
months ago could be eligible by this weekend.
By Sharon LaFraniere and Noah Weiland
Nov. 19, 2021, 8:31 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration on Friday authorized booster shots of both the
Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines for everyone 18 and older, opening up eligibility to tens of
millions more fully vaccinated adults.
Moderna and Pfizer both announced that regulators had broadened the authorization for their booster
shots.
The move simplifies eligibility, fulfills a pledge by President Biden to offer the shots to every American
adult and formally allows a practice already in place in at least 10 states. Fearful that waning protection
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
and the onset of winter will set off a wave of breakthrough infections, a growing number of governors
had already offered boosters to everyone 18 and older ahead of the holidays.
Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the federal government’s top infectious disease expert, has argued relentlessly
over the past month for booster shots for all adults, a position shared by most of Mr. Biden’s other
health advisers. Dr. Fauci has said that a dip in antibody levels in fully vaccinated people was a clear sign
that booster shots were needed. Public health experts who argue that healthy younger adults do not
need them, he has said, are ignoring the risks of symptomatic Covid-19.
“Enough is enough. Let’s get moving on here,” he said at an event Wednesday night. “We know what
the data are.”
Politico “Playbook:
•Mask on, mask off. That as the name of the game for ANTHONY FAUCI at JONATHAN KARL’s
book party Tuesday night at Café Milano. As gawkers tried to snap pictures of him indoors not
wearing a mask, America’s doc would put it on and take it off depending on whom he was
around. SALLY QUINN — who’s known Fauci since his days as a young NIH doctor, when he
inspired a love interest in one of her erotic novels — asked him why he was at a party with a
mask in hand, not on face. “I said, ‘You seem pretty ambivalent about your mask’ because no
one else was wearing one,” Quinn told Playbook. “He said, ‘I just decided that if anyone came up
that I didn’t know, I would put my mask on.’”
Quinn added that “paparazzi” were surrounding Fauci trying to get that “gotcha moment” of
the Covid czar without a mask on. Guests had to show proof of vaccination to enter the party.
“He was being safe,” Quinn said in his defense. “He knew everyone was vaccinated. If it was
someone we knew, he would trust them, and if it was somebody else, he didn’t.” Another guest
observed Fauci’s mask on/mask off dance, but said that the mask was firmly on when he came
to the rescue of a guest who had collapsed. We reached out to Fauci via NIH but didn’t hear
back Thursday night.
NY Times :
Dr. Anthony Fauci has become “a very, very relentless advocate” for boosters, The
Times’s Sharon LaFraniere, who covers the federal government’s response to the
pandemic, told us. “He keeps pointing out that the data is getting stronger.”
Nov. 20, 2021 – Global - 254,847,065/5,120,712; USA – 47,471,270/768,619
On both of these TV shows we discussed the authorization of boosters for everyone over 18
years of age and the EUA for Pfizer for 5 to 11 yrs old and what we have to look forward to for
the Holidays (see below). The major conversation topic over the last several days has been the
recent approval (finally) by the FDA and recommendation by the CDC to give booster shots to
people 18 years of age or older. However the CDC continues to abide by there ACIP
recommendations which confused the issue some what by talking about different categories that
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
either “should” or “may” be vaccinated with the booster shot. I clarified unambiguously on TV
that we should not let that confuse us and that everybody should go ahead and get a booster shot
if they have had get full vaccination. I also made it very clear that although the cases very well
may surge in the upcoming cold months that the people who are vaccinated and preferably
boosted can enjoy a comfortable safe holiday with their family indoors without wearing masks. I
was very explicit about that because every time I even hint that people need to be careful over
the holidays the far right radical idiots take things out of context and have a field day.
There is some buzz around regarding the Justice Department moving against not only
Steve Bannon , but also Mark Meadows, and Peter Navarro. The reason for the subpoenas or
that they refuse to abide by the house subpoena to appear before the committee. Peter Navarro
continues to claim that I am responsible for causing the death of over 4 million people worldwide
because I created COVID-19
More and more papers are appearing in the medical literature making it very clear that the
outbreak was almost certainly a natural occurrence and not a lab leak. The most recent
paper was one by Michael Worobey that appeared in Science 3 days ago:
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abm4454
Also, commentaries by Eddie Holmes (Australia) and others are nailing down the natural
origins story. Yet, the 3 stooges (Richard Ebright, David Relman, and Jesse Bloom) are still
pushing the lab-leak hypothesis literally based on absolutely no solid evidence, but only
conjecture
Nov. 21, 2021 – Global USA
Mike Osterholm and Eric Topol wrote an editorial in the New York Times sharply
criticizing the CDC and the ACIP for not giving a clear message that everyone over 18
years old should get a boost. This is something that I have also felt strongly about in that the
ACIP is being very rigid and overly careful and give a confusing message of who “should” get
vaccinated versus “who” may get vaccinated. Mike called me up after that and told me that
Rochelle called him and was very pissed off at him for writing the editorial; however, as much as
I love her, Mike and Eric were correct. The editorial got Jeff concerned since it did point out the
reality of the problem with the CDC, but it also reflects poorly on the federal government
responds . Jeff was extremely pleased as was Ben Wakana about the strong response that I gave
on the TV shows today ; however, Jeff wanted me to call Mike and ask him to tone down the
criticism since it reflects badly on the USG response. I gave Mike a call and we discussed the
situation and ne promised to make sure going forward that he separates the CDC response from
the total government and Tony Fauci response. I don't know what I can do to get the CDC and
particularly Rochelle to move away from that overly careful, slow, rigid approach that the CDC
and the ACIP had been taking for so long; it leads to nothing but confusion. On the Sunday
shows today I was very clear that we should not worry about “should” or “may” and that
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
everybody who is 18 years of age or older whose been vaccinated absolutely should get a
booster. Another example of the real problem we have with the CDC and its current mindset. I
should make sure that I spend considerable time on this in the book.
PRESS: CNN “State of the Union” with Dana Bash; ABC “This Week” with Martha
Raddatz; Yasmeen Abutaleb and Beth Reinhard’s Article in the Washington Post calling
out the lies about me regarding the Beagle experiments came out in the print form today ,
front page Sunday. This was online a couple of days ago.
Nov. 22, 2021 – Global USA
I had another very helpful conversation with my UK counterpart Chris Whitty discussing
the upcoming challenges of the winter in the UK versus the USA. They are seeing a surge of
cases similar to what we're seeing and they're seeing it even among vaccinated people
underscores even more strongly need to boost everybody since boosters clearly protect better just
the two doses.
Got a call from Kathy Hochul – Governor of New York - She was asking for some help and
support in her upcoming decision of reinstituting the indoor mask mandate for the state of New
York. She wants to exclude New York City from this mandate since they are doing a good job of
keeping their infections down. However, since the rest of the state is surging, she wants to make
sure that she doesn't let the surge get even greater. I supported her and told her that that was the
right thing to do and that she should distinguish New York City from the rest of the state even
though it is likely that this is going to get a lot of Flack.
PRESS: NPR “Morning Edition” with Steve Inskeep; MSNBC “Morning Joe”; CBS
Mornings with Gayle King; Print interview with Alice Park of Time Magazine; ABC
Australia TV – News Breakfast;
Nov. 23, 2021 - Global – 256,966,237/5,151,643; USA – 47,813,785/772,180
I continue to do the Governor's calls as well as the Principal’s calls once a week. I do not
comment on them regularly but each time Jeff asks me and Rochelle to give an update on the
epidemiology and the latest science . For example, today I briefed the governors and the
principals on the science behind the necessity for an the efficacy of boosters.
Dr. Markey is trying to help us get money for the development of a universal coronavirus
vaccine. See his letter:
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
(11.23.21) NIAID
Update on Universa
Important interview with Ari Melber on MSNBC tonight where I hit back at criticisms by
the far right particularly Ticker Carlson and Peter Navarro. It is a must to listen to:
https://bit.ly/32j3EPg
https://www.msnbc.com/the-beat-with-ari/watch/dr-fauci-tucker-carlson-s-personal-attacks-
are-a-badge-of-honor-127012421649
PRESS: BBC World News TV; WBAL Baltimore Local TV; MSNBC “The Beat” with Ari
Melber;
Nov. 24, 2021 – GLOBAL – 257,469,528/5,158,211; USA – 47,916,623/773,779
Very gratifying public response to the Yasmeen article in the Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/comments?storyUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2
Finvestigations%2F2021%2F11%2F19%2Ffauci-beagle-white-coat-waste%2F
Jeff just called me and told me that he wants me to brief the President in the Oval Office on
Monday from 4:00 to 5:00 PM on what we need to do looking forward but the pandemic.
He wants it to be only me representing the Medical Group because he feels I had a degree of
precise clarity. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I have been doing a lot of press in the usual
situation of having to predict and advise people of how to handle their safety during the traveling
period of the coming holidays.
Mike Osterholm and Eric Topol wrote a scathing article in the WashPost criticizing the CDC for
not giving a clear message on boosters:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/11/24/cdc-got-it-wrong-it-should-have-urged-
all-adults-get-covid-19-booster-shots/
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
Over 250,000 Black and Latino Churches
Express Full Confidence in Dr. Fauci's
Leadership and Medical Advice
News Provided By
National Black Church Initiative
November 22, 2021, 20:24 GMT
Based on COVID-19 data, Dr. Fauci has provided the world with sound advice on preventing the virus
from spreading, identified the importance of vaccinations, and advised on executing a plan for
distributing COVID-19 vaccines. NBCI, along with Conversation's Newsletter (December 2020), agrees
that Dr. Fauci was well-positioned to be the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. His preparedness stems
from following from his possession of the following qualities:
* Intelligence – He is brilliant and knowledgeable, with a background in science and humanities.
* Integrity – He has said that he has a personal responsibility to make a positive impact on society.
* Empathy – He has concern for others' well-being.
* Flexibility – He can redirect his work as needed.
* Energy – He has several meetings throughout the day that he attends and responds to emails daily.
* Trustworthiness – He is credible through his research and publication.
* Connections – He has been the adviser to seven U.S. presidents where his work has been covered by
science reporters since the 1980s.
* Communication – He is a clear communicator and listens before speaking.
* Recognizability- He has a distinct name, voice, and look.
* Team Building – He shares the importance of doing things as a team and being a part of a team.
PRESS: PRI Radio – “The World”; Philadelphia Radio “Reality Check” with Charles
Ellison; Univision TV with Andrea Linares; “The Grio” Online TV with April Ryan; CNN
“AC360” with John Berman
Nov. 25, 2021 (Thanksgiving Day) Global USA
The New York Times had a Thanksgiving day write-up on A summary of where we are with
COVID-19 in the context of an interview with me. The last question they asked was what I was
thankful for at Thanksgiving. My response is given below:
Adam: Last year we asked you what you’re thankful for, you very sweetly talked about your wife.
What in the last 12 months are you thankful for — personally, professionally, or both?
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
Fauci: Well, I’ll give you one of each. I’m professionally thankful that we successfully did something that
was unprecedented in the history of vaccinology. And that is, we went from the sequence of a virus to a
vaccine that was highly effective and safe. And we’ve been able to vaccinate a substantial proportion,
although not as much as I would want, but a substantial proportion of the of the population. That’s
professional.
Personally, it’s the same thing. It’s no secret that I have been clearly targeted by rather radical elements
who just keep attacking me every day, all day — Fox News, Breitbart — all those other crazies. And what
I’m thankful for is what I said last year, that I have an incredible partner who is really amazing in her
understanding of me and just keeps me grounded in reality when you have hand grenades being thrown
at you every day. To have somebody that reminds you that what you’re doing is absolutely important for
the health and the safety of the country, so don’t pay any attention to all that nonsense. That’s what I’m
thankful for
Major Serious Issue with new South African Variant!! - It is Thanksgiving Day and
something has come up today that is very serious. I got an email from Jeff Zients who forwrsded
an email from Stephane Bancel. Stephane was alerting Jeff to the fact that he had heard that
there was a new variant in South Africa called B.1.1.529. See below:
25Nov2021 SGTF
sequence report - N
One of the problems is that the mutations that have accumulated which are now greater than 30
on the Spike protein including 10 mutations at the RBD would predict an escape from immune
protection . In addition, the variant in RSA has rapidly gone from a couple of percent to double
digits. Clearly, it is highly transmissible and has been demonstrated in people who have
recovered from the Delta variant. This is very disconcerting since besides its transmissibility, this
suggests that is eluding immune protection. I engaged in a bunch of phone calls with Larry
Corey and John Mascola and multiple calls with Jeff Zients. I tried repeatedly to contact
Rochelle Walenski, but she is not answering texts, emails or telephone calls. However, it turns
out that there is a glitch in my connection to her text and my texts keep getting sent to an e-mail
address. We will fix this. I finally go to her later in the evening. Larry Corey has arranged a
zoom for 10:30 AM tomorrow with our South African colleagues including Glenda Gray, Penny
Moore and Tulio de Oliveira who is the evolutionary biologist from South Africa. Of particular
note, as I was scrambling around to contact people, the UK announced that they are banning
flights not only from South Africa but also from Namibia , Lesotho , Botswana , Eswatini, and
Zimbabwe. In addition, they are going to require PCR tests for all arrivals into the UK. Israel has
also now announced it will ban its citizens from traveling to southern Africa covering the same
countries as well as Mozambique. Again, with multiple phone calls with Jeff , we decided to wait
until tomorrow morning when we will have contact with the South Africans to get a clear review
of what is going on. When I finally connected with Rochelle later in the evening, it was clear that
she really didn't have any idea what was going on. I am really surprised by this since the CDC
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
should be all over these types of leads. In addition, when I began to probe it is clear that this
issue had been circulating for a couple of days, and amazingly on the calls with the White House
medical team Rochelle and the CDC never brought it up. This is really strange since I would
imagine that with their global connections they would have been all over this. I have arranged to
have both Rochelle and Francis Collins join the zoom call that Larry Corey set up for us to
engage with the South Africans. Just heard tonight that the WHO has called a special meeting to
address the issue:
First meeting of Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens
(SAGO)
https://www.who.int/news/item/24-11-2021-first-meeting-of-scientific-
advisory-group-for-the-origins-of-novel-pathogens-(sago)
WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the First meeting of the WHO
Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO)
https://www.who.int/director-general/speeches/detail/who-director-general-
s-opening-remarks-at-the-first-meeting-of-the-who-scientific-advisory-group-
for-the-origins-of-novel-pathogens-(sago)
WHO calls special meeting to discuss new Covid variant found in South Africa
with ‘a large number of mutations’
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/25/who-calls-special-meeting-to-discuss-
new-covid-variant-from-south-africa-with-large-number-of-
mutations.html?fbclid=IwAR1VKOrWxAWjeHqVzJH0KLpPgPBRhEH lWZU
KrN4bol3qFcrLgLYOjrO5aI
Covid: New heavily mutated variant B.1.1.529 in South Africa raises concern
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-59418127
New variant displaying a ‘big jump in evolution’ detected in South Africa.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/25/world/variant-south-africa-covid.html
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
More later. I sent an email to Rochelle telling her that she better be prepared to move
quickly with her team no later than tomorrow if in fact we decide that we are going to shut
down travel from southern Africa. I tried to give her the benefit from my prior experience with
shutting down from China as well as from the European states. She did not seem to be on top of
things, and so I gave her a real strong briefing about the fact that she is going to have to move
and move boldly.
Nov. 26, 2021 – GLOBAL USA
All set for Zoom with RSA folks this AM. Story starting to break as the South African
public health people had a meeting and discussed all the details of the increase in cases that
apparently are spreading rapidly throughout South Africa.
25Nov2021 SGTF
sequence report - N
Not sure about the evasion of vaccines , but the situation is certainly heating up . Will
discuss whether or not we're going to restrict travel from South Africa later today at a 12
noon call with Jeff.
Email from Cyrus Shahpar on 11/26/2021:
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
Deputy Health Minister in UK gave statement to Parliament about why they are
prohibiting travel fro RSA and other African countries:
Oral Statement on B.1.1.529 variant
The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has given a statement to Parliament on a new variant
under investigation and action government is taking.
From:
Department of Health and Social Care and The Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP
Published
26 November 2021
Delivered on:
26 November 2021
Email from Elodie Ghedin on her briefing by the South Africans:
Ghedin, Elodie (NIH/NIAID) [E] <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, November 26, 2021 8:57 AM
To: Collins, Francis (NIH/OD) [E] <[email protected]>
Cc: Tabak, Lawrence (NIH/OD) [E] <[email protected] >; Menetski, Joseph (FNIH) [T]
<[email protected] >; Wholley, David (FNIH) [T] <[email protected]>; Holland, Steven (NIH/NIAID) [E]
<[email protected] >
Subject: Re: New variant
Good morning-
We had an ad hoc/emergency meeting of the WHO Technical Advisory Group on Variant Emergence
(TAG-VE) this morning with a presentation from South African scientists.
We were asked to not report our discussion until the WHO puts out a statement later today so the
report below is confidential.
Here is the low-down:
•S.A. had gotten to a stage of very low infection rate so that they noticed this new variant—
B.1.1.529—because of its very rapid increase in cases; the rate of infection is higher than
expected. (as background, seroprevalence in S.A. was at 80-85% so that the low infection rate
they were seeing with Delta was likely due to the fact the virus ran out of susceptibles;
vaccination rate is at 30%).
•The first evidence was an increase in positive cases associated with S gene target failure (drop
out) in the qPCR assay; Sequencing of those early samples in Gauteng showed new mutation
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
patterns. While whole genome sequencing is still just ramping up (they have 77 genomes from
Gauteng and will have 100 new ones by the end of the day), they do see the same S-gene drop-
out pattern in many other provinces; so far this pattern is 100% associated with the new lineage
so they suspect it will be the case for these samples in other provinces. In summary: this is not a
unique outbreak cluster in Gauteng.
•Cases are starting to pop up in other countries, but numbers are still low. We suspect they will
increase quickly.
•Mutations: 10 in the receptor binding motif, many are similar to mutations observed in other
lineages but also new ones. High number of mutations –
•multiple in the RBD and NTD that are usually associated with resistance to neutralizing
antibodies
•Cluster of mutations (H655Y + N679K + P681H) adjacent to the furin cleavage site –
usually associated with more efficient cell entry
•NSP6 deletion (105-107) - convergent evolution as has been observed in Alpha, Beta,
Gamma and Lambda - could be associated with evasion of innate immunity, possibly
increased transmissibility
•Mutations in the N gene - R203K and G204R (also seen in other lineages) that are
associated with increased transmissibility
So mutation profile is predicted to be associated with significant immune evasion and enhanced
transmissibility, but no experimental evidence yet and epi data is still sparse.
It clearly has a different mutation profile than other circulating VOC/VOI but full significance is
not yet clear.
•One big question is how this highly mutated virus emerged. There are signs of possible
recombination at around nt 20,000. One of the spike mutations (N679K) is rare and also
observed in C.1.2; a lot of convergent mutations observed. One hypothesis is that because of
S.A.’s high rate of HIV/low CD4, this virus could have developed in immune suppression with a
recombination event.
•No evidence yet for different clinical presentation; age distribution tracks young so far but that's
because the first outbreak was at a university, but it is also the age group that is most mobile
and not vaccinated.
•Most are symptomatic but severity is still being established.
We are planning another meeting Monday. Will let you know if I have anything new to report.
Best,
Elodie
Briefing with RSA colleagues: Glenda Gray, Tulio de Oliveira and others -Clearly we have a
serious situation in South Africa. The virus is spreading rapidly in virtually all the provinces with
a concentration in Gauteng province which is where Johannesburg and Pretoria are located.
Reports now in multiple countries almost all related to travel from RSA. infections in RSA seen
in people who have recovered from delta as well as breakthrough infections in those who have
been vaccinated with the Pfizer product. What is unclear is what the severity of the infections are
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
, and this is a moving target that Glenda Gray and Tulio said they would keep us informed on as
soon as they get real data. Multiple countries in Europe and elsewhere are blocking travel from
RSA and neighboring countries. I briefed Jeff about this immediately after the 10:30 AM zoom
with the South Africans. Jeff wants me to brief the POTUS immanently. The president is
spending the Thanksgiving holiday with his family in Nantucket.
Conference call with President Biden: Jeff arranged for me to brief the president on a
conference call that included Jake Sullivan (NSC), Natalie Quillian, Ron Klain and Jeff. I
described the medical and public health situation to the President and Natalie and Ron discussed
the issue of blocking travel from RSA and neighboring countries. I explained to the President
that this is all the more reason to get people vaccinated and boosted. The president will make a
public announcement soon, likely this afternoon, that he has spoken with me and that the
decision has been made about the travel restriction. Announcement about travel restrictions went
out at 2:00 PM today. 212F is the authorization for restrictions
Slides on mutations:
Incredibly busy Thanksgiving Day. We had zoom calls with the Pfizer group led by Mikael
Dolsten to scope out what their plan is regarding scaling up boosters against prototype as
well as the advisability or not of developing Omicron-specific boosters. Also met with the
Moderna people for similar discussions.
Clearly, the virus is spreading widely with five cases in Israel all of which were picked up
by screening at the airport. E-mail from Danny Douek:
Dear Tony,
I have been on the phone with the Israelis this morning.
They have identified 3-5 cases of B.1.1.529
One case was AZ x2. Symptomatic.
Another was Pfizer x3. Asymptomatic.
All identified on screening on entry at the airport.
1 case from Malawi, 1 from Jordan, 1 from Egypt via Belgium.
PRESS: CNN “New Day” with Brianna Keilar (she was rude and asked questions about
Brett Giroir out of context); Interviews with Sheryl Stolberg – NY Times; Kaitlan Collins –
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
CNN; NBC “Evening News” with Lester Holt
Bloomberg:
U.S. Needs Data on
Variant Before Limiting
Any Flights, Fauci Says
By Kathleen Hunter
November 26, 2021, 8:17 AM EST
Nov. 27, 2021 – GLOBAL USA
Conversation with Jerome (Jay) Powell, Chair of the US Federal Reserve. Bob Grady texted
me this morning to connect me with Jay Powell who wanted to talk to me about the implications
of the new variant on the economy since he was in the process with the Federal Reserve of
making trillions of dollars in loans to other countries. He wanted to hear from me first-hand
about what my projections for the outbreak would be. He will be testifying before Congress this
coming week and we agreed that I would keep him posted as to any additional information that
comes out. I briefed him thoroughly and what we know up to this point.
PRESS: NBC “Today” with Kristen Welker and Peter Alexander;
Nov. 28, 2021 (Sunday) Global USA
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
Very Important Day!! - An extraordinary amount has been going on over the last 24 to 48
hours. It is very clear that with the Omicorn variant is rapidly spreading from the epicenter in
South Africa with mostly travel-related cases to a number of countries at this point including
Botswana, the Netherlands, England, Hong Kong, Australia, Italy, Israel, Belgium, Czech
Republic, and several other countries. This is unquestionably a highly transmissible virus. We
had a very productive zoom call at 12 noon Washington DC time with our South African
colleagues once again. The main players among the South Africans were Tulio de Oliveira,
Glenda Gray, and Carolyn Williamson. The have been extraordinarily transparent and helpfu
giving us data in real time. It is a shame that we had to block travel from RSA. However, we
would have gotten killed by the press if we did not as we are now getting killed for having done
it. I expressed my deep gratitude to them for their help. The South Africans gave us a really
good feel about the fact that there are things that we know and things that we don't know at this
point. The combination of the many mutations in the spike protein together with the fact that
they are seeing spikes in infection among people who have recovered from delta as well as those
who have been vaccinated. The critical question is how severe is this disease that likely will
result from this new infection.
Immediately after the briefing with the South Africans, Jeff wanted me to come to the White
House to help prepare the speech that the President will be making tomorrow about Omicorn. I
spent a considerable amount of time in Jeff's office together with Natalie working on the
presentation that I would be giving to the President this evening as well as the content of his
upcoming speech tomorrow. After we worked on the presentation and his speech, we went to the
Oval Office at around 3:30 PM and sat around the Resolute Desk. Briefing the President were
Ron Klain, Jon Fine, Natalie, and Jeff. I gave a full briefing to the President about what the
situation was with the new variant. In addition, we all sat around and edited with him the speech
that he will deliver tomorrow at a White House press conference. At the end of the briefing, Ron
and Jeff strongly suggested and the President agreed that I should be at the press conference with
him tomorrow morning at 11:00 AM to answer any of the scientifically related questions. The
President was very much in favor of this. I was a little bit concerned because I did not want it to
appear that we were pushing out the surgeon general (Vivek) and the CDC director (Rochelle).
BTW, both of them were not in DC (Miami and Atlanta). However, Jeff and Ron were very
adamant that it be me alone since they did not want there to be any confusion about who would
answer which question. One of the things that I noticed that was very clear is that the President
appeared extremely tired and very muted and low key. I'm beginning to see that this is his
style . However, when we got to the question and answer. He asked all the right questions. And
so I can understand why his critics can often refer to him as “Sleepy Joe” when in fact he really
is paying attention and is very measured in his responses. In addition, he speaks in a very low
monotone which makes it appear almost that he is frail when he is not.
After the briefing I rushed home and joined the Sunday night call with the COVID medical team
led by Jeff. Tomorrow will be a big day. We are hearing a lot of pushback from people who are
saying we should not have blocked travel from southern African countries. They fail to
understand that we are not trying to completely prevent the influx of infection. Rather, we want
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
to buy ourselves a little bit time usually measured in a couple of weeks to better prepared,
understand better what is going on, and to get people vaccinated and boosted. However, as usual
no matter what you do people are going to try and punch holes in it and give a reason why they
think it is a mistake. I have gotten extremely used to this and understand that very well.
See Below:
Readout of President Biden’s Meeting with
COVID- 19 Response Team on the
Omicron Variant
November 28, 2021 • Statements and Releases
Following up on the regular briefings he had on COVID while traveling, the President met in person
today with his Chief Medical Advisor, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and members of his White House COVID
Response Team. Dr. Fauci and members of the COVID Response Team updated the President on the
latest developments related to the Omicron variant. Dr. Fauci informed the President that while it will
take approximately two more weeks to have more definitive information on the transmissibility,
severity, and other characteristics of the variant, he continues to believe that existing vaccines are likely
to provide a degree of protection against severe cases of COVID. Dr. Fauci also reiterated that boosters
for fully vaccinated individuals provide the strongest available protection from COVID. The COVID
Response Team’s immediate recommendation to all vaccinated adults is to get a booster shot as soon as
possible; all adults are eligible for a booster if they were vaccinated six months ago or more with Pfizer
or Moderna, or two months ago or more with Johnson & Johnson. Importantly, those adults and
children who are not yet fully vaccinated should get vaccinated immediately. The President will provide
an update about the new variant and the U.S. response on Monday.
PRESS: ABC “This Week” with George Stephanopoulos; NBC “Meet the Press” with
Chuck Todd; CBS “Face the Nation” with Margaret Brennan – she played an extensive
taped interview with me that is worth viewing since I pushed back on some of the nonsense
that is going on. I called out Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and the far right Republicans that have
been slamming me.
Nov. 29, 2021 GLOBAL USA
POTUS Press Briefing - I was called to the White House to help to prepare the President for the
press briefing that he would give this morning at 11:45 AM. I got to the White House at 10:00
AM and went over his speech with Jeff and Natalie and went over the Qs and As that the
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
President would need to prepare him. We then went to the Oval Office and directly briefed the
President . In the Oval Office were Natalie, Jeff, Jake Sullivan, the vice president, Ron Klain, Jen
Psaki, and a few others. We tweaked the Qa and As and helped him answer them in his own
mind and then the President, the vice president, and I went out to the press briefing which took
place in the Roosevelt Room. They only needed me to answer one of the questions that was
asked of the President and that related to the travel restrictions on southern Africa and what we
were doing right now to prevent people from other countries who might be infected with
Omicron from coming into our own country. I explained that now anyone coming into the
country who is not an American citizen needs to be vaccinated as well as having a test before
they get on the plane whereas American citizens and LPRs need to be tested before they get on
the plane and when they get off the plane they are quarantined voluntarily for seven days and
must get a PCR test within three days.
PRESS: ABC “Good Morning America” with George Stephanopoulos; CBS “Mornings”
with Gayle King and Tony Dokoupil; PBS NewsHour with Judy Woodruff; CNN “The
Lead” with Jake Tapper; MSNBC “The Reid Out” with Joy Reid; Peacock TV with Mehdi
Hassan
Nov. 30, 2021 - Global USA
There's been a lot of concern and discussion about the decision to block travel from
southern Africa. The Africans are feeling like they're being punished as a result of their
transparency in getting this information out quickly. I totally understand their concern and I do
hope that this travel ban will be quite temporary. On the other hand in typical fashion the far
right is now criticizing me together with President Biden for using the Omicron variant as
a political tool against the Republicans. I have no idea how they make this connection, but
they are totally crazy. In addition, I got criticized by the New York Post for being too slow in
considering a travel restriction and therefore likely caused loss of life. Obviously, this is a lose
lose situation.
Had a very important conversation with Trevor Bedford last night. Trevor is a
computational biologist in Seattle. He discussed some models for John Mascola, Larry Corey,
and others by zoom at 8:00 PM last night. He is concerned about the immune evasion
capabilities of this virus but admits that it is too early to tell what the ultimate impact will be.
He believes that in a delta-immune population such as in the United States that it is very likely
that this new variant will spread widely and be dominant by the time we get to the end of
February. However, he underscores that this is purely an estimate on his part based on his
model and may not turn out to be the case. We still do not know with the level of severity of his
viruses and only time will tell. By assaying on whole virus and pseudovirus, we will have a
determination in the next two to three weeks regarding the degree of immune evasion.
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
PRESS; MSNBC with Craig Melvin; NPR with Rob Stein;
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Part 6 – Continued from Part 5
May 31, 2022 Global USA
Conspiracy theories about me continue and abound:
The Spectator: The Harvard connection
Was a Fauci-endorsed Chinese donation part of the lab-leak cover up?
PRESS: Korean Broadcasting System documentary “Corona Chronicles interviewed by
Yoonki Kang
June 1, 2022 Global 527,603,107/6,290,452; USA – 83,949,036/1.002.067
It is becoming very clear that there is a different dynamic now that Ashish Jha has taken
over from Jeff as the COVID coordinator. He clearly likes very much and wants to be the
primary person dealing with the press. And for the first time we're seeing him wanting to do the
White House press briefing alone without anyone else when it was always with Rochelle and I
and sometimes Vivek. Also, it is clear that when calls are coming in for Sunday shows that the
White House is putting him on instead. Since he is the boss of the coms people related to
COVID, it is clear that he is telling them to do that. I do not begrudge him that because I know
that he does want to be on TV a lot (and he is good at it) as he was before he took the job. But
this is certainly a change in the dynamics. I'm still doing a lot of TV during the week but when it
comes to things like the White House press conference and Sunday shows it is very clear that he
is promoting himself above me and the rest of the team.
Emily Bass wrote a terrific “Guest Essay” in the NY Times today both praising and
criticizing the Biden administration or not taking a strategic approach globally towards COVID
the way George W. Bush and I took towards aids with PEPFAR. It is a really good article to read
for historic purposes:
Guest Essay
America Led on Global Health Before. It Must
Do So for Covid.
June 1, 2022, 5:00 a.m. ET
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
A day or two ago Ashish, David Kessler, Rochelle, Vivek and I had an important meeting with Andrea
Palm and Dawn O'Connell regarding the fact that we are running out of money and have no money
left to purchase anymore monoclonal antibodies. If we do not purchase any the company will stop
making it and an important tool in our toolkit will now be missing this could be disastrous for people
who are immunocompromised and who do not have the capability of making anybody in response to
vaccines. We pushed really hard but Andrea and Dawn had no solution for us since the Congress is still
not granting us the supplement that we've been asking for for some time. We pushed hard and there
was a bit of tension in the room, but we found out today have we made an impression on them since
they have found some extra money to keep the antibody production going for at least a few weeks. The
company, Lilly, does not want to commercialize the antibody (Bebtolivumab) and will only make it if the
government pays for it. It looks like we had an impact on them when we stood together and insisted
that we needed the money.
Today, we had another important conversation among the team.I have been pushing and I was very
explicit about it that we should make vaccine available to anyone younger than 50 years old who wants
it. The emergency use authorization does not allow this right now but we are trying to find a way around
this by setting up a meeting with Rob Califf to see if there is any mechanism that would allow us to make
vaccine available. The reason we want to do that is that we have plenty of vaccine that we're not using
and even though a fourth dose does not substantially increase the protection against severe disease (it
does it a little bit), it could prevent symptomatic infection which could in the long run diminish the
amount of long COVID that we experience. I came on very strong with my opinion that we should make
vaccine available to anyone who wants a fourth dose at any age. Rachel was uncomfortable with this
because she did not think we could get it through the FDA or the ACIP. I still insisted that we should go
ahead and try.
Had a very important meeting on Monkeypox today organized By Raj Panjabi (NSC
pandemic preparedness leader). The meeting was attended by Rochelle Walensky, Harold
Phillips of the White House AIDS office and a whole bunch of activists including Peter Staley,
David Barr, and a wide range of others. Emily from my group was present as was several CDC
folks. We all agreed that we need to put all our resources together and engage the LGBTQ
community in our planning about testing, treating and vaccinating people with monkeypox. It
was a wonderful meeting because it showed right from the beginning of what could be an
important outbreak that the White House was working with the health authorities like myself and
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
Rochelle as well as with the activist community. We vowed to continue to work together to try
and make sure that this disease gets properly addressed and we do not underplay it or overplay it.
There obviously is a danger of stigma generating from this disease because of its propensity to be
infecting gay men. More to come on this new partnership.
The New York Post is truly fabricating This has to do with the proposed “Pandemic
treaty”:
Beware Fauci’s scheme to empower the
World Health Organization
By
Betsy McCaughey
May 31, 202
PRESS: FOX with Neil Cavuto; “Life Itself” with Sanjay Gupta and interviewed by Seth
MacFarlane (Virtually – I received a standing ovation from the audience at the Coronado
Hotel in San Diego).
June 2, 2022 Global USA
Monkeypox continues to spread now involving over 23 countries with 800 cases. There are
19 documented cases in the USA but this is likely a very significant undercount at this
point.
PRESS: South Florida PBS interview for Town Hall with Michael Zinner; USA Today
interview on HEROS study (food allergy and COVID)
June 3-6, 2022 –Global – 528,816,317/6,294,949; USA – 84,424,159//1,003,308
I had an idyllic weekend at Jeff Zients’s palatial estate in Annapolis. Chris and I (together
with Brett and Tony….) had a spectacular weekend. The weather was absolutely perfect at 85
degrees with a cool breeze and not a single cloud in the sky for the entire 2 1/2 days that we were
there. We did everything: swim, boat, fish, basketball, tennis and most importantly – bird-
watching. There were osprey all over the place with a nest in a tree in his back yard. There were
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
copious varieties of birds that we saw and heard. Gave me the opportunity to return, however
briefly, to some form of “normality”. it was entirely refreshing.
I received an important call during my stay in Annapolis. Secretary Becerra wanted to
speak to me to get my advice about whether we were doing all we can as a department to
address the emerging monkeypox challenge. He was calling upon my experience in
previous outbreaks to make sure that HHS (particularly CDC) was doing everything that
they could. This was triggered by the fact that Ron Klain is very concerned about whether
the CDC is up to the job and would not drop the ball again with regard to things like
making a number of tests available. The secretary asked me what I thought the potential
vulnerabilities were and I emphasized the fact that we cannot accept the CDC saying that
they are the only ones that can do a test for monkeypox. We've got to convert this to a
commercialization as quickly as we possibly can so that we don't have the same problem
with not enough tests to understand whether or not we are dealing only with the tip of an
iceberg. I offered up the cohorts of stored server that we (NIAID) have from the days of
HIV/AIDS to see if there was smoldering below the radar screen infection with monkey pox
among the gay population for some time before we even recognized it. Right now, as the
results are coming in, it is clear that overwhelmingly the cases in the non-endemic areas of
the United States, Europe, and other continents are predominantly among gay men. It is
striking that the secretary “hinted” that Ron Klain is on the verge doing something
dramatic with the CDC, such as removing Rochelle, which I believe would be a mistake
since it is not her fault; it is the institutional rigidity of the CDC that has been the problem
for decades. I explained this to the secretary and told him that it was not Rochelle that was
the issue it was the structure beneath it. I got the impression that he completely understood
this and was asking for my help and making sure things get done correctly.
June 6, 2022 –
Angela Rasmussen did an excellent job of blasting Jeffrey Sachs (and also co-author
Richard Ebright) for their article claiming that COVID was due to a lab leak. See link and
some selected excerpts from Angie’s tweets:
Link - https://bit.ly/390lafa
Not overlooked, but ignored because I don’t wish to further amplify it. But here’s a quick
summary:
Like many of his fellow economists with Ivy League credentials but no specific expertise
in biology, he suffers from the delusion that he knows what the fuck he’s talking about.
Jeff Sachs is the chair of @TheLancet COVID-19 Commission. This isn’t an official
government board with any real mandate. It’s just a prestigious medical journal deciding
to make up a task force of prestigious people to write more prestigious content for said
prestigious journal.
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The Lancet COVID-19 Commission will issue a bunch of reports that are glorified opinion
pieces stating the obvious: we weren’t prepared for the pandemic, there are massive
inequities, it had huge global impact, need more vaccines/infrastructure, etc.
This includes Richard Ebright, the human manifestation of Pepe the Frog, who spends
his days squatting on his Twitter lily pad croaking at everyone who disagrees w/ his
uninformed views on biosafety, virology, & evolution that they are shills, stooges, &
thralls of the CCP.
Feel free to lecture me about professionalism here & get blocked w/ a quickness. I gave a
talk on Twitter disinfo & had an entire slide cataloguing every time he called someone
(inc me) a stooge in the prior 2 weeks. He’s an abusive bigot & I don’t owe him
professional courtesy.
Cases starting to come down in Northeast, but still cases going up in undervaccimated
areas, mostly in the South
Monkeypox problem growing:
Global.health tracker -- 921 confirmed MPX cases, 70 suspected (non endemic countries)
https://bit.ly/392v2F1
June 7, 2022 Global - 5630,266,292/6,299,364; USA – 84,762,952/1,004,260
Note for the memoir regarding my PTSD around memories of my HIV/AIDS experience: I
did an interview today (see below) with The Independent”, a UK News outlet on the issue of
what I described in the NAT GEO book “Expect the Unexpected” talking about my PTSD
around HIV/AIDS. The reporter asked me to describe how the PTSD expressed itself in me and
what triggered it. In my description of it to the reporter, it became clear to me that it is something
that I should include and expand a bit in my memoir.
Last night, Stephen Hoge of Moderna explained their booster data using hybrid boosts to a
group of us from HHS. The bottom line is that boosting with an omicron together with
wildtype bivalent, The response protected against omicron – B.1, but not against BA.4 and BA.5.
This has important implications in what decision the FDA and CDC make about what the 4th
dose boost should consist of. Should it be an omicron boost or should we steer it towards BA4
and BA5 which does not seem to be protected against by maybe one boost.
Met withVidar Helgesen CEO of the Nobel Foundation; Anna Sjostrom Douagi of the
Foundation and Dr. Franklin Carrero-Martinez of NAS. They want me to be a lead speaker at
the Nobel/NAS Symposium in May, 2023 on “trust and information”, a theme right in tune with
my commencement addresses on “the normalization of untruths”
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
PRESS: Interview with “The Independent” (UK) by Io Dodds; Interview with Theodora
Tsoli for “The Bima” – Greek Newspaper;
June 8, 2022 Global USA
Io Dodds piece came out. Excellent historical piece:
Exclusive: Anthony Fauci on the AIDS crisis,
monkeypox, trans rights and his retirement
In an exclusive interview with Io Dodds, Dr Anthony Fauci
looks back on his decades-long career in public health
Met with a delegation from the UAE on the 6th Floor of Building 31. Leading the
delegation was Sheikh Abdulla Al Hamed, Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Department of
Health. They are here to try and generate collaborative efforts between their group and our VRC
and other elements of our program, particularly Danny Douek and Adrian McDermott In the
context of the PREMISE program that was started at the VRC. This would be the first time that
we are having any substantial interaction with the UAE.
Cases not going down very much over past week although certain regions are plateauing:
PRESS: Bloomberg TV Quick Take – “Emma Barnett Meets”; Interview with Robert
Gaynes for his book second edition of “Germ Theory”
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
June 9, 2022 Global USA
The big discussion items over the past 24 hours have been the growing number of cases of
monkeypox which at last count is over 1400 globally and over 70 in the United States. In
addition, there was concern about what kind of decision will be made regarding the 4th
shot boost with the mRNA vaccines. Although the Moderna data indicate that the bivalent
vaccine of wildtype plus omicron gives quite good response to omicron, their data show only a
modest protective effect with a three to fourfold decrease in efficacy against BA4 and BA.5. The
data from Pfizer are even more dramatic in showing the lack of a good response against BA4 and
BA5 when you vaccinate with a bivalent consisting of wildtype and omicron. The real issue is
going to be that by the time the Fall comes it is very likely that neither omicron (BA.1) nor
BA.4/BA.5 will be dominant since even though BA4 and BA5 are starting to take over
dominance, they will likely peak and come down by the time the Fall comes and so we will be
making a booster for a virus that very likely does not exist in society at the time that you are
using the vaccine. Clearly, this is a major dilemma that we are all facing with the virus that
moves so quickly.
Good history of the evolving of variants:
PRESS: NBC Medical Unit Interview with Akshay Syal;
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
June 10, 2022
Last night I received another humbling honor associated with the honorary doctorate in
science that I received from Rockefeller University in New York City. I could not attend in
person because of scheduling conflict and so I taped my acceptance speech. However, last night
there was a black tie affair in which individuals presented the life work of the degree recipients.
Jeffrey Ravetz did an amazing job in presenting my story going back to my early days in
Brooklyn. At the end of his presentation Rockefeller President Rick Lifton was very generous in
his praise for me and pointed out that the audience at the celebratory dinner was giving me a
standing ovation, which I could not see since I was connected to the affair by Zoom. It has been
an extraordinary spring with all of these wonderful honors that I have received. This will have
been my 58th honorary doctorate.
Major issue that I am involved with regarding the choice of the 4th dose boost in the Fall.
Everyone is trying to decide what 4th dose boosts will be given to the entire population in the
Fall. A recent study by Moderna showed that there was a modest advantage of the bivalent
omicron plus ancestral strain vaccine boost over ancestral strain alone when one measures
antibodies against omicron. They are pushing this now to be the candidate for the 4th dose boost
in the Fall. However, there is no Omicron (BA.1) around right now and even though BA.4 and
BA.5 are emerging, by the time we get to the Fall we will have already peaked and declined with
BA.4/5 and so we will have a vaccine that is directed against a variant that very likely will not be
present in the fall and winter. We have hundreds of millions of doses of ancestral strain vaccine
and in order to get a new bivalent boost available we would have to make a decision in July or
August to get it ready for October or November or later, which actually might be too late. If we
do not use those hundreds of millions of doses of ancestral strain they will go to waste and have
to be thrown away. And so as far as I'm concerned the ancestral strain boost may not raise the
titers against different variants to a very high level, but it does keep them within a protective
range so I would make an argument then rather than waste millions of doses and invest in a
candidate that might not do anymore of protection against a given variant in the fall and winter,
we should go ahead and utilize the ancestral strain vaccines that we have which might do just as
good a job against any future variants. I will try to make that case as we talk about future plans
for boosters.
PRESS: Zoom wih Clara Lussich of El Pais (Uruguay); Radio interview with Marc Siegel
Sirius Doctor Radio;
June 11, 2022 – Global USA
Had a glorious and historic day at Holy Cross today. The college named their integrated
science complex – “Anthony S. Fauci Integrated Science Complex” in my honor. The
outpouring of love, affection, and admiration on the part of the students and the faculty at Holy
Cross was very moving. I gave a Q and A session with about 30 students, which was really
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
terrific.it is a beautiful renovated building of laboratories and classrooms. My visit to the college
was on the occasion of my 60th reunion. I ran into some old friends that I have not seen in
decades including Jim Mulvihill, Jack Fellin and Mike Leding. President Rougeau gave a
wonderful introduction of me, and one of the thrills of the day was to see that Bob Cousy drove
himself to the campus just to be there and honor me. I had a great conversation with “Cous” who
is 93 years old. All in all, it was a wonderful day.
I did a terrific fireside chat with David Rubenstein at the meeting of the Trilateral
Commission at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Washington DC. David was his usual
humorous self and we had a typical interview that we have had several times in the past. He
asked the usual questions about his own health am I kidded him about the fact that he is a
hypochondriac. Prominent people at the meeting were David Petraeus, Meghan O’Sullivan, Jake
Sullivan, Fareed Zakaria, among many others.
PRESS: I gave an extended and exhausting all day interview with a half day photo shoot to
Anna Peele, who is a freelance reporter doing a front page extensive Washington Post
magazine article on me to be published in the next few weeks.
June 13 – Global USA
Net cases and hospitalizations coming down, but very slowly. Some counties/states coming
way down while others rising or plateauing. BA4/5 becoming more dominant. Sec. Becerra got
infected for the 2nd time in 4 weeks.
Monkeypox getting considerably more attention. >1400 cases in non-endemic areas with
~50 cases in USA
Wonderful memorial for Rob Stein at the Evermay Estate in Georgetown. I gave one of the
Eulogies. Remarkable man in life and as he was dying. He was beloved by many and a very
dear friend to me and my entire family
June 14 – Global – 533,816,957/6,309,633; USA – 85,520,045/1,006,8890
BA4/5 creeping up in dominance:
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
I had another very productive discussion, which I have had on a regular basis, with the UK
chief medical officer Chris Whitty. We discussed the evolving situation in the UK and
compared it to that in the United States. He mentioned to me that they were starting to see a
surge of cases of BA5 which he feels will ultimately become dominant. In addition,
unfortunately hospitalizations are starting to tick up and he believes that they are likely going to
see a bit more of a wave in the coming weeks. This is very disconcerting since we were hoping
that there would be a sharp downturn in omicron sublineage viruses in the UK which usually
foreshadows what is going to happen in the United states.
Egregious example of “PORK” on the part of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee
concerning the earmarking of funding for the BSLs
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
not support the best science. Despite these concerns, the Subcommittee staff indicated that this
directed funding would be likely to continue in FY2023and for the foreseeable future
June 15, 2022
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
Big tragedy is that I will be missing my daughter Megan's wedding in New Orleans. This is
much more painful and disturbing then the fact that I have a disease that could possibly
kill me.
Getting literally hundreds of texts and e-mails from all over the world wishing me a speedy
recovery. Very much appreciated. Write-ups in all major news media (Times, Post, NPR,
etc.). My symptoms fortunately are relatively mild with one bad night tonight with flushing
feeling and a lot of primary and some cough. I started Paxlovd
Jimmy Fallon: “I read that Dr. Fauci has tested positive for COVID, but luckily, he’s only
experiencing mild symptoms. COVID must feel like it just reached the final boss in a video game,
like, ‘We did it. We beat Fauci.’ Right now, even Fauci is reading the CDC guidelines like, ‘Damn,
these are confusing.’”
June 16, 2022 Global – 535,248,141/6,313,229; USA - 85,825,048/1,007,964
Feeling considerably better today. I bit the bullet and testified before the Senate HELP
committee. Rand Paul was his usual stupid self asking questions about royalty payments. It
was a three hour hearing and I was exhausted but I made it through.
Cases, deaths, and hospitalizations seem to have stabilized and are not coming down any
further:
PRESS:
Politico:
Covid doesn't stop Anthony Fauci from taking on Rand Paul –
again
The two engaged in their usual heated debate at a Senate HELP Committee hearing on Thursday.
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
June 17, 2022 Global USA
Symptoms still relatively mild. I'm on day three of Paxlovid. many texts and emails
wishing me well from friends and people that I do not know in the USA and around the
world.
PRESS:
The Independent:
Dr Fauci accuses Rand Paul of ‘absurd
exaggeration’ over claims about booster shots
Josh Marcus
Trevor Noah: “Dr. Fauci has COVID, which feels a little like finding out Smokey the Bear got
trapped in a forest fire.”
Seth Meyers: “Dr. Anthony Fauci tested positive yesterday for a breakthrough case of the
coronavirus. Fauci is like COVID’s final boss. This is like hearing that the Coyote caught the
Roadrunner. Also, you caught it now? You made it through all that time in the maskless Trump White
House and you caught it now? That’s like running a triathlon with no problems and then throwing
your back out while petting a dog.”
June 18, 2022
FDA gives EUA to Moderna and Pfizer for vaccines for children 6 months to 5 years old.
CDC recommends!
I'm really starting to feel the depression and sadness that I will be missing Megan's
wedding today in NOLA where I would have been with my entire family had I not
contracted COVID. I viewed the ceremony buy live stream as well as interacting with
people during the reception and the picture taking via FaceTime .Will Fekeci and Sam
provided the face timing for me.
The usual stuff is going on regarding my infection with Tucker Carlson doing A5 or 10
minute discussion tearing me down but the usual accusations and belittling the people who
are supporting me. What a total asshole!!
I just finished Yasmeen Abutaleb’s and Damian Paletta’s book “Nightmare Scenario”.
They did a very good job and I should use that book heavily as a reference in my own
upcoming book.
PRESS:
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
Gov. DeSantis not recommending vaccines for children 6 months to 5 years:
washingtonpost.com
Gov. Ron DeSantis abandons Florida children
Editorial Board
But Mr. DeSantis appears to relish playing politics with public health. He is running for reelection and
has his eye on a Republican presidential campaign. His decisions and comments are a craven bid for
support from the anti-vaccine movement. We’ve seen this before. Mr. DeSantis also fought vaccine and
mask mandates. His campaign sells “Freedom over Fauci” flip-flops that leave a message when worn on
the beach: “Fauci can pound sand.”
June 19, 2022
PRESS: Book about the disgraceful behavior of authorities at NY Hospital-Presbyterian
(particularly Laura Forese) during the outbreak peak in NYC:
Facing Death During the Pandemic
Marie Brenner’s “The Desperate Hours” looks at how health care workers dealt with the perils of Covid.
By Sandeep Jauhar
June 20 2022
Tested negative today and have had an essentially asymptomatic course.
Began reading Deb Birx’s book “Silent Invasion” and it is clear already from the first couple
of chapters that she is revising history regarding her initial involvement. I am sure that part of it
is true but it wants me to be careful that I have to be strict to the truth of exactly what happened
and not pad it in my favor
Important discussions today by phone with me and separately David Kessler, Larry
Horowitz, Richard Koup and Peter Marks regarding what the ultimate choice for the
booster vaccine for the upcoming fall surge. I have been very concerned of late that we are
not carefully analyzing the immunological basis for the choice of a booster shot to be
administered before the potentially upcoming Fall surge. The companies Pfizer and Moderna
apparently want to give a bivalent of wildtype plus omicron since that is what they already seem
committed to and are making. It is my opinion that by the time we get to the fall season omicron
will be completely gone and off the map since it is already gone. The closest thing that we likely
would see would be a surge of BA4/5. Yet everything seems to be pointing to the decision of
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
doing an omicron/wildtype bivalent. Peter Marks who will make the ultimate decision at the
FDA agrees with me that we will be fighting yesterday's war if we go with omicron. There will
be many discussions this week that I will catalyze to make sure that we get all the appropriate
information for the FDA to make a good decision about the booster.
June 21, 2022
GOP threatening me if they assume control over Congress:
Top Republican On House Oversight Eyes Hunter Biden, Fauci As Investigative
Targets – ‘The Takeout’.
CBS News (6/17, 5.39M) reported that “if Republicans take control of the House in the next
Congress, the House Oversight Committee” would investigate NIAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci,
according to Rep. James Comer (R-KY), the top Republican on the committee. Fauci has
“maintained that COVID-19 likely resulted from a ‘natural occurrence,’ as opposed to a lab leak in
Wuhan, China, telling a Senate committee this week that the virus likely jumped from ‘an animal
host, perhaps through an intermediary host, into a human species, which then spread throughout the
human population.’” Comer told CBS News chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett on this
week’s “The Takeout” podcast, “We are not going to let up on that. I think the American people
deserve to know the truth about COVID 19. They deserve to have a government try to actually find
the truth about where the COVID 19 originated from.”
Clyburn’s Committee has finally shone a bright light on the destructive nature of the Scott
Atlas dogma of “herd immunity” and the Great Barrington Declaration:
House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis
New Select Subcommittee Report Reveals Full
Scope of Trump Administration’s Embrace of a
Dangerous and Discredited Herd Immunity via
Mass Infection Strategy
Jun 21, 2022
Press Release
Report is the first in a series on the Select Subcommittee’s investigation into the Trump Administration’s
political interference with the federal coronavirus response
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
PRESS: Read this. More preposterous nonsense about me by the radical right media.
This is one of hundreds of such items coming out on a daily basis:
The Fauci Protocol: Treating Fauci’s Covid Diagnosis According To His Own
‘Standard Of Care’.
For “The Corner” of the National Review (6/17, 798K), George Leef linked to a piece in the
Brownstone Institute by Jordan Schachtel, who argued that NIAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, is
unlikely to follow his own advice after being infected with COVID-19.
Regional Press – Nextstar with Raquel Martin; Hearst with Christopher Sales; Gray with
Molly Martinez; “Fatherly” with Tyler Santora; Telemundo National with Francesco
Fajardo; Parents Magazine with Nicole Harris;
June 22, 2022
There has been some considerable tension between the new H-CORE group who is headed
by Jason Roos and the rest of the HHS tream. They are involved in making major decision
about distribution of money. Yet the leadership component of H-CORE consisting of the
following has not been consulted on any major decisions:
Several people including Cliff Lane and I are concerned that decision are being made in a
vacuum and Jason seems uninterested in calling the leadership group for advice and consultation
PRESS: regional press: The Klay Kane Show (Sirius XM) with Klay Kane; Revolt TV with
Ryan Dennis; The Midday Party on Hot 103 Jamz (Kansas City) with Julee Jonez; Cox
with Kirstin Garris; WSB (ABC Atlanta, GA) with Linda Stouffer; WDIV (NBC Detroit,
MI) with Dr. Frank McGeorge
June 23, 2022
Real problem evolving with people having got infected at Megan’s wedding on June 18.
Megan is devastated since at least a dozen family members and friends seemed to have gotten
infected while in NOLA, likely, but not definitely at the wedding.
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
Rep Steve Scalise is agitating with Rep Jim Jordon about getting me to testify or be
questioned in closed doors by the House Select Committee on the Coronavirus Crisis chaired
by Rep. Jim Clyburn. They are saying that the USG is “hiding” me. Clyburn does not want to
allow it since he knows they will make it into a circus. However, they are playing it out publicly
that I am hiding something and that is why I do not want to testify. If it were up to me, I would
absolutely testify.
PRESS: BBC News TV; White House Press Briefing (of note, this is the 1st one that I have
briefed at in several weeks (see my comment above about Dr. Jha)
June 24, 2022
We are stuck at around 100,000 cases/day and this is very likely a significant
underestimate. Deaths remain low:
Had and important Zoom conversation with Peter Marks and a whole bunch of people (see
below) regarding the upcoming choice of a booster for the fall season. I am in favor of a
bivalent wild-type/BA4/5 or a monovalent BA4/5.
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
June 25, 2022
Bad day with rebounds sxs. Started on 2nd course of Paxlovid
June 26, 2022
Feel much better this morning, on my second day of Paxlovid. Will take it very easy today
and see what happens over the next couple of days.
I'm reading Deb Birx’s book and it can serve as a really good reference for me to refresh
my memory about dates and events.
June 27, 2022
Just for the record – Ashish Jha is promoting himself on all major TV and clearly
excluding Rochelle, Vivek and me. Rather obvious and a big deviation from Jeff Zients
approach
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
We seem to be “stuck” at around 100,000 cases per day (surely an underestimated since
most cases are not reported due to home Ag tests) and 300 deaths per day:
June 28, 2022
Monkeypox cases continue to increase. USA activists (James Krellenstein et al) now
increasing pressure on HHS (ASPR) to be explicit on how many tests, antivirals, vaccines
are available for distribution.
PRESS: National Press Foundation Roundtable; Foreign Policy Global Health Forum
Keynote;
June 29, 2022
Patterns starting to show insidious increases in all parameters:
PRESS: Monkeypox press briefing (with Raj Panjabi) for LGBTQ community press;
Multi-cultural media briefing for children vaccines
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
Daily Mail: Anthony Fauci says that he's experienced rebound Covid symptoms after
taking a Pfizer's antiviral Paxlovid - which studies now show is NOT effective for people
who are vaccinated.
Washington Post (Online)
The Pandemic Is Waning. Anthony Fauci Has a
Few More Lessons to Share .
America’s most famous doctor on mitigating covid, giving your
adversaries the benefit of the doubt and working way too
much
By Anna Peele
June 29, 2022 at 10:17 a.m. EDT
June 30, 2022
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
Still recovering from COVID. I had a rebound as indicated above after stopping my first course
of Paxlovid. Have now finished my second course and my antigen positivity is very very slight.
Hopefully it will disappear by tomorrow.
Little by little going in the right direction.
Important zoom meeting with Karl Lauterbach (Minister of health of Germany), Ugur
Sahin (CEO, BioNTech) and Ashish Jha. We discussed the pros and cons of what the optimal
booster would be in the fall. Carl and Ashish called upon Ugur and me to give the scientific
rationale of why our FDA has come down on the side of recommending a BA.4/5 bivalent (with
Wild type) boosts for the fall. Although it may take a little bit longer to get enough doses to start
off early in the fall, the advantage of having a powerful BA.4/5 stimulus and response may be
worth the slight delay. We also agreed that if we get a surge very early in the fall before we have
enough BA/4/5, then we can actually boost with the ancestral monovalent since this does induce
a reasonable response although not optimal against BA. 4/5. Karl mentioned that Germany had
been leaning towards and omicron bivalence, particularly in the context that this is what
Moderna has been pushing since that is what they have decided to make at risk and they don't
want to lose the use of those dosages. At the end of the discussion it was clear that Ugur and I
convinced Karl that the better direction to take would be as discussed above with BA. 4/5. It
was a very good discussion and I came away impressed that Ugur is a brilliant scientist and
seems to be a really nice person.
Had my usual every two week zoom call with Chris Whitty of the UK. Chris and I have
developed a very good relationship and we exchanged information about what is going on in the
UK compared to what is going on here. They are unclear as to what boosts that they would use
given the fact that they do not believe that they will have enough time to get enough BA. 4/5
boost made to meet a potential false surge we both agreed that if the surge comes early they can
utilize the unused ancestral Wuhan vaccine that they have plenty of.
PRESS:
The New York Times (Shery Stolberg):
Fauci says he believes Paxlovid kept him out of
the hospital, even though he tested positive
again.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Biden’s top pandemic adviser, sought to discourage doubts about the
antiviral drug Paxlovid following what appeared to be a “rebound” of Covid-19 after taking the pills.
July 1, 2022 Global – 543,352,927/6,331,059; USA – 87,298,343/1.012,767
Tested Ag negative today!!
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
Importance of vaccination + boosters:
Cases clearly going up everywhere in the USA and in UK:
I am struggling with the issue of what the precise and most appropriate time to step down
from my current position to move on to writing books and entering the next phase of the
winter of my career. It is very difficult for me to pull away from being the director of NIAID
given the extraordinary history that I have created and lived through over the last 38 years as
director. As we approach the decision making time of this summer although I lean very strongly
two announcing my departure in August and leaving at the end of 2022, the thought of this still
causes considerable anxiety in me as to whether or not I am doing this too soon. However, I will
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
be 82 years old at the end of the year and I have always said that I want to go out while I am still
very much on top. That is the driving force that has me feel that I will go through with the plan
PRESS:
https://paw.princeton.edu/article/commencement-speakers-offer-parting-words-2022-grads
July 2, 2022
2nd day in a row Ag negative
Noteworthy is that Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) despite his seeming antagonism of me
sent me a very nice, handwritten “get well soon” note.
Monkeypox problem growing…..
Global.health: 6178 confirmed MPX cases in 67 non-endemic countries; 51 suspected. 459
in USA
July 3, 2022
UK reporting anther “concerning variant – BA. 2.175
July 4, 2022
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
I had a very relaxed day today. Went on a nice walk. After that we hung around the house
and towards the evening we went fishing on the canal but, as usual, we didn't catch
anything. Yesterday was a fun day in that not only did we go for a good walk, but I also
threw the baseball around in preparation for my trip to Seattle, and then Brett and I shut
around some baskets at Horace Mann school. Next week is going to be a tough week in that
there's a lot of stuff going on in addition I have my CT scan on Sunday.
July 5, 2022 Global USA
Recent article in The Atlantic by Cary Gross and Zeke Emanuel criticized the NIH for not
moving quickly or effectively enough on research on COVID. Larry Tabak wrote a letter in
strong response:
THE CONVERSATION
Letter: The NIH Has
Responded Forcefully to
COVID-19
The nation’s leading health-research agency, its acting director
writes, has moved with unprecedented speed against a global
threat.
July 6, 2022 Global USA
Activists including James Krellenstein, Gregg Gonsalves and Peter Staley among others are
getting agitated at HHS and NSC (Raj Panjabi) for the lack of Jynneos (MVA – Bavarian
Nordic) for PrEP for Monkeypox for the Gay community (MSM)
MPX cases increasing greatly in USA especially in DC, NYC and Chicago
July 7, 2022
BA.2.75 increasing in Australia, India and several other countries. Some cases in USA.
Watching it closely
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
Met with Adam Russell, Acting Deputy Director of newly formed ARPA-H
PEPFAR Oral history: https://www.bushcenter.org/publications/essays/pepfar.html
PRESS: Newsy TV Interview; Radio New Zealand RNZ;
July 8, 2022 Global USA
PRESS: Mother Jones Interview on HIV Vaccines with Jackie Lynn Mogensen
July 9, 2022
People are acting like and hoping that COVID is over, but it is not. There are still
>100,000 cases/day which is likely a gross undercount since many cases (perhaps x5) are
not reported and deaths are stuck at ~300 with hospitalizations increasing:
I had a conversation with Rochelle and Vivek about this today (Saturday) indicating that I
believe we are not doing enough in a proactive way of getting out there with the press and
in other venues talking up how we need to increase mitigations such as reminding people
about the importance of wearing masks as well as pushing to get people vaccinated and
boosted. Also, as I have said in the recent discussion with Dan Diamond of the post in which he
tweeted I would discussion that we need to be more liberal in getting people a fourth shot who
are less than 50 years old but might have some underlying conditions without necessarily being
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
immune compromised. Bottom line is that I am pushing that we be more aggressive. I am
disappointed that I have not been out in the classic media of TV and radio either because the
media are not interested or because the White House is not sending them my way. The same
holds true for Rochelle and Vivek. They are not being out there as much as I believe we all
should be.
Dan Diamond tweet: Officials have been debating, for months,
whether to recommend a 2nd booster, especially because so
many Americans haven’t gotten their 1st. But TONY FAUCI
told The Post he’s “leaning toward flexibility” for more
younger Americans to get another booster shot.
MPX still increasing in USA and around the world. In USA 790 reported cases. Likely
and undercount.
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
Global.health 9060 confirmed MPX cases in 71 non-endemic countries, 40 suspected
Politico – Story about BARDA contract to company Phlow to make continuous generics.
They did not fulfill their contractual responsibility.
Trump-era federal Covid contract recipient has yet to meet
major deadlines
Two years in, Phlow Corp. has not delivered on high-tech methods to domestically manufacture cheap
generic drugs.
Peter Navarro was likely influential in picking the company that was not even a company
yet when BARDA gave them hundreds of millions of dollars:
“Evidence uncovered by the Select Subcommittee raises questions about whether White House officials,
including Mr. Navarro, exercised inappropriate influence over contract awards for [personal protective
equipment] and medical supplies that should have been handled by career procurement staff,” the
letter continued.
July 10, 2022
Preprint (MedRXiV): Asymptomatic monkeypox virus
infections among male sexual health clinic
attendees in Belgium
We need to be careful that we do not fall into the same issue that we did early on with COVID,
i.e. not appreciating the importance of asymptomatic spread.
Follow-up Chest CT – Unchanged!!!
July 11, 2022
On our weekly call with the secretary, I brought up the issue that we need to be much more
proactive in warning people about the spread of infection and that we have to be pushing
the wearing of masks and getting people vaccinated and boosted. The secretary agreed and
we're going to discuss this even more with Ashish tomorrow.
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
Washington Post article describes my pushing to be more aggressive during this surge of
BA.5 variant:
Biden officials push to offer second booster shots to all adults
Plan would make coronavirus shots available to millions more amid rising
cases, hospitalizations.
By Dan Diamond, Laurie McGinley and Lena H. Sun
While the booster plan still needs formal sign-off from regulators and public health officials, it
has the backing of White House coronavirus coordinator Ashish Jha and Anthony S. Fauci, the
government’s top infectious-disease expert, according to five officials who spoke on the
condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the plan.
In an interview, Fauci said that he’s “leaning” toward allowing second booster shots for younger
adults, pending authorization from the Food and Drug Administration and agreement by the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
While persuading those who haven’t gotten vaccinated or fully vaccinated to get the full regimen
and their first booster shot is critical, Fauci said, “we also need to allow people who are under 50
to get their second booster shot, since it may have been months since many of them got their
first booster.”
“If I got my third shot [in 2021], it is very likely the immunity is waning,” Fauci added.
July 12, 2022
Was called to the White House for a meeting with Ron Klain, Ashish Jha, Sec. Becerra,
Richelle Walensky and Dawn O’Connell. Ron was really ****** that he is getting a lot of
Flack from New York City who feels that they are not getting enough doses of monkey pox
vaccine. Ron is upset with the formula of distribution among the states. He feels that doses
are being sent to places with few cases and not being used and there are lines of people
waiting to get vaccinated in New York City and they are making a big stink about this
causing what may turn out to be a political problem for POTUS. I kept quiet through most
of the discussion which was pretty tense between secretary Becarra and Ron. However, it
became clear to me that the lesion was that the contractor who is shipping the doses from
Denmark to the United States do not appear to realize that this is an emergency and they're
talking about sending one plane per week with about 140,000 doses per plane. I brought up
the point when Ron mentioned that I was being very quiet and he wanted to know my
opinion. I said that it is inconceivable to me that we cannot do better than 140,000 doses
shipped per week when we have about a million doses in Denmark sitting ready to be
shipped. I believe that this is an example of people not pressuring to get things done during
an emergency and accepting business as usual. The astounding fact is that they said that
the reason they have to rely on the plane flying back from the United States to Denmark to
reload with another bunch of vaccines is that they only have limited carriers to put the vials
in when they are shipped on the plane. What are they talking about?? One can make
carriers with 3D printers. In addition, I don't understand why they can only do 140,000 at
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
a time. After the meeting I emailed Dawn and expressed to her my astonishment that we
can't do better than this. She checked and found out that all of a sudden they could now
ship 400,000 doses of vaccine per plane instead of 140,000. In addition I encouraged her to
work with the Department of Defence to get more planes in the air. This is another example
of a serious logistic snafu that could have easily been solved if somebody was just thinking
with a clear head.
------------------------------------------------------------
Good coverage of the White House press conference where I emphasize the need to take the
current situation seriously without letting it disrupt our lives:
The Hill - Fauci: Take new subvariant seriously, but
don’t ‘let it disrupt our lives’
by Peter Sullivan - 07/12/22 11:10 AM ET
NY Times – Sheryl Stolberg As BA.5 spreads, the White House warns
that Covid is not over.
:
“Variants will continue to emerge if the virus circulates globally and in this country ,” Dr. Anthony S.
Fauci, Mr. Biden’s chief medical adviser for the pandemic, said at a White House news briefing. “We
should not let it disrupt our lives. But we cannot deny that it is a reality that we need to deal with.”
PRESS: White House Press Briefing; MSNBC with Chris Lansing; Nexstar with Don
Kauffman; Interview with Eileen O’Reilly for Axios; Fox TV with Neil Cavuto;
July 13, 2022
Hospitalizations going up. Deaths stable at ~300/day. BA4/5 >80% of isolates with BA5
>50% Europe having a big surge of BA5.
Met with Bob Barnett again last night planning the announcement of my stepping down
and the subsequent linking up with publishers and speaking bureaus after I actually leave.
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
GOP in Congress inappropriately trying to shut down all research collaborations with
China:
Draft bill would ban CDC, NIH from funding lab
research in China
House of Representatives measure catalyzed in part by
suspicion that pandemic virus escaped from Wuhan
laboratory
•12 Jul 2022
•6:00 PM
•ByJocelyn Kaiser
PRESS: CNN “New Day” with John Berman
July 14, 2022 Global – 5546,897,312/6,356,812; USA – 88,932,987/1,018,035
Cases, hospitalizations, and deaths now going up:
Rochelle called me up tonight and arranged to have a zoom with me to get my advice about
pressure she is getting from the White House who is responding to New York pressuring
them to get more monkey pox vaccines (see above on July 12). This relates to the meeting we
had a couple of days ago with Ron Klain where he was very concerned that we are being
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
perceived as being unresponsive with regard to vaccines and the POTUS is getting a lot of
pressure from NYC for more vaccines. The White House wants her to distribute the vaccine
according to the number of cases and she feels correctly that that is not a totally fair way since
there is a consideration for the at-risk population in certain locations that don't yet have a lot of
cases. Also, southern states with black MSM are not really tresting since they are stigmatized
and cases are not being recognized. I counseled her that it is a battle she will lose if she insists
on distribution other than just by case numbers. She will lose the fight with the WH. In 1 to 1
and 1/2 weeks there will be hundreds of thousands of vaccines shipped from Denmark. At that
point we can do what I would strongly suggest is to blanket the at risk community with vaccines
for everyone who is at risk particularly those who are on prep for HIV or who are infected with
HIV and are suppressed with their viral load due to antiviral drugs. Those are the ones that are
out there having sex and not feeling vulnerable because they are on antiviral therapy. I told her to
hang tight for week or so and the problem will solve itself.
PRESS: Rickey Smiley Radio Show; KAMR TV Amarillo, TX; NBC Livestream News with
Phil Lepof; CNN with Erin Burnett;
July 15, 2022 Global USA
After talking with Ashish this morning, Rochelle decided to allocate vaccines for
monkeypox at 75% according to the number of cases and 25% for the level of risk and a
given community. That seems like a reasonable compromise which I agree with and will
back Rochelle on. As mentioned above, in two weeks this will be a moot point since there
will be hundreds of thousands of doses of vaccines arriving from the outside.
We are not keeping up very well on booster shots:
PRESS: Univision Digital with Borja Voces; Skimm TV ONLINE with Maria Corpus;
Bloomberg TV “Balance of Power” with Joe Mathieu
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
July 16, 2022
PRESS: CNN with Laura Coates
July 17, 2022 (Sunday)
Important conversation with Ashish Jha. But she's called me up and wanted my opinion and
backing on what he wants to bring up to Ron Klain. He wants to propose putting billions of
dollars into a program that would mimic operation warp speed in which he has been calling
“hyperdrive”. The purpose is to put a full court press on getting you closely administered
vaccines to prevent infection and transmission as well as next generation platform and imagine
designs for greater breadth and durability of response. These latter concepts word described by
me to him. The reason Ashish wanted my help was that he heard from Ron that unless we're
proposing something that is more than just incremental and that would actually be transformative
and play a major role in turning around how Americans think about COVID, then he doubts that
Ron will take the step to go to the president to have the president use a chit with the Congress to
get the money. The trick about all of this is that Ron will want a product to go into the arms of
Americans within 18 months to coincide with approaching the end of the administration and the
election for the presidency. I told Ron that I would back him on the transformative nature of the
two pillars that I mentioned above, but I have considerable skepticism as to whether or not we
can do this in 18 months. I suggested to Ashish that week altogether a group comprised of him,
me, Peter Marks and Rob Califf from the FDA as well as some knowledgeable people from
biotech and pharma. Unless we have corporate sponsors we are not going to go anywhere with
this and we will never be able to do it in 18 months. Ashish will set-up the meeting and hopefully
we can make a determination and get back to the president. Ashish feels that if we cannot
convince Ron about this then there is no way that we can get the money.
July 18, 2022
Sarah Ohermohle wrote an article in Politico where I mentioned that I would be leaving the
NIH sometime before the end of President Biden's first term to which is January 2025. This
is being interpreted by many in the press that I'm announcing my retirement. This is
obviously not the case because I have given no date for stepping down and I am not retiring
when I leave government service. However given the interest in me it is not surprising that
this is now gone viral:
Anthony Fauci wants to put Covid’s politicization behind him
The disease fighter says he’s plotting his departure and reflecting on how he wants to be
remembered.
Financial Times: Kiran Stacey
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
US chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci to step
down in Joe Biden’s first term
Kiran Stacey
4-5 minutes
Washington Post:
Fauci says he will retire from government post
by the end of Biden’s term
By Yasmeen Abutaleb
July 18, 2022 at 11:45 a.m. EDT
New York Times (Sheryl Stolberg):
Fauci Says He Will ‘Almost Certainly’ Retire by
January 2025
Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, 81, said he expected to see out President Biden’s current term.
Wall Street Journal – Stephanie Armour and Betsy McKay
Anthony Fauci Plans to Retire by End of
Biden’s Term
One of the leading public faces of the U.S. public-health
response to Covid-19 says he hasn’t decided on exact date
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
----------------------------------
I had a very good talk today with Sam Bankman-Fried and his brother Gabriel Bankman
who runs a foundation called “Guarding Against Pandemics”. Also on the call were their
associates Jacob Swett and Annabel Snidow. (see above) . We spoke about how Sam with his
billions of dollars could partner with the NIH and pushing the scientific agenda for the
prototype pathogen approach of pandemic preparedness. Sam is a good friend of senator Joe
Manchin and Joe is the one who originally pointed Sam in my direction to see if somehow we
can all work together to having some sort of a partnership where the Congress puts in a certain
amount for pandemic preparedness using the prototype pathogen model and Sam puts in an equal
amount to support the effort through NI AID. We left it that they put together a proposal and that
I serve as the scientific advisor for the amount of money that Sam wants to put into this even
though I must be careful and will be careful about not getting involved in writing any legislation
since Manchin has been talking about writing this into a reconciliation bill.
PRESS: CNN with Kate Bolduan; Reuters interview with Julie Steenhuysen; NBC Online
Web; NPR with Rob Stein (talking about the Politico article (see above)
July 19, 2022
I had an important conversation this morning with Peter Staley in which I asked his advice
about messaging to the gay community regarding monkey pox. There seems to be a debate in
New York City among public health officials versus some gay leaders. The tension is whether or
not to tell gay men to hold off on multiple sexual partners until they get a PrEP version of the
vaccine. Some people are saying that that would increase the stigma against gay men. However,
Peter agrees with me that there is nothing wrong with and probably a good idea to tell gay men
to just hold off and cool it for the next couple of weeks until we get enough vaccine to vaccinate
all people who are at risk namely those who've had multiple sexual partners within the last 14
days. I will be out in the press talking about this and I just wanted to check with Peter as to
whether he agreed with me and in fact he does.
BA.5 dominating isolates:
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
PRESS: The Hill Health Summit Interview and streaming with Steve Clemons; Good
Housekeeping with Zee Krstic; WHUR 96.3 FM DMV/ HBCU Network with Harold
Fisher;WJLB 97.9 Detroit with Bushman; WNYM (FOX-NYC) TV with Lori Stokes;
July 20, 2022
I just had an important conversation with Rochelle in which I related to her the
conversation that I had last night with Carlos Del Rio in which Carlos articulated that there's
a great deal of concern and agitation in the gay community, which I already am aware of,
regarding the difficulty in getting TPOXX for the treatment of monkey pox. I decided to call
Rachel and give her a heads up that the community is really starting to get very agitated to the
point that they may be attacking the administration and her and the FDA and all of us in the press
if we don't do something soon to cut down the difficulty in getting TPOXX to those in need. I
suggested to her that she and the FDA think in terms of doing something akin to the parallel
track approach that I initiated decades ago during the HIV pandemic. She will look into this
with her people.
I had a great meeting today in building 31 with Dr. Karl Lauterbach, the Minister of
Health of Germany. He relied heavily very heavily on my advice about how to handle the
decision about and distribution of booster shots for COVID in Germany. He is having some of
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
the same problems as we are having here in trying to decide what the correct booster should be in
the fall. He has already ordered millions of doses of Moderna bivalent which is an omicron plus
ancestral as well as Pfizer which is a BA.4/5 bivalent plus ancestral. Moderna is obviously
pushing their product, but Karl was very interested in what my opinion was. I told him that on
the advice of me and others, the FDA has already authorized the bivalent of BA.4/5 and ancestral
for the full dose. It is now up to the CDC and teir ACIp to make a recommendation f who
“should” versus “may” receive the dose.
We also spoke about the tension regarding vaccinating people now who are at risk of severe
complications given that there is a wave of infections in Germany as well as in the United States
versus waiting until a more variant-specific boost is available in the fall. Germany is facing the
same dilemma as we are in that some people in Germany are arguing in a very similar way to
Paul Offit who is saying that we should not be vaccinating people now. Paul is smart and a good
friend but he is a victim of what I consider making the perfect the enemy of the good. From a
purely immunological standpoint it is obviously not optimal to have a boost now (ancestral) and
require an even better boost (bivalend BA.4/5 + ancestral) just a couple of months down the pike.
However, you have to balance the public health benefit of getting some form of vaccine to
people who are at risk for infection and severe disease now compared to the relatively minor
negative effects of giving a vaccine shot now followed in 2 to 3 months by a vaccine shot with a
better boost. I was surprised that bloggers such as Paul Offit have a major impact globally. Karl
mentioned to me that he and his colleagues listen very carefully to what I say and it would be
very helpful to them to hear what I am telling him today and that I agree completely with him
since he is absolutely in the same lane as I as well as many of my NIH colleagues including
Rick Koup and others. It was a very stimulating conversation and I was on my A game.
We then went on to discuss the issue of monkeypox. According to Karl monkey pox is out of
control in Germany and similar to what we are seeing in the United States the gay community is
very frustrated with the lack of as many vaccines as they need as well as the lack of easy access
to antivirals. They seem to be having no trouble with diagnostics which are plentiful. I explain to
him that our situation is very similar here in the United States. The conversation ended with him
wanting to take a picture with me since his daughter who is 15 years old apparently is a great fan
of mine. We exchanged cell phone numbers and he promised me that he would be calling me
frequently.
John Laureman (Bloomberg) wrote a very nice laudation of me today:
An Early Farewell to America’s Top Pandemic
Expert
July 21, 222
Harassment from the far right continues:
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
Rand Paul Sends Message To Fauci: You’ll Have To Testify Under Oath If GOP
Wins.
Fox News (7/20, 23.99M) reports, “Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., issued a warning to Dr. Anthony Fauci: If
the GOP takes back Congress in the midterms, be prepared to testify under oath regarding the
coronavirus pandemic.” On Wednesday, he argued on “America Reports” that “the American people
deserve the truth and answers on whether there was a cover-up for a lab leak in China.”
President Biden tested positive today (Thursday)! Tested negative on Tuesday, went to
Boston on Wednesday; had mild sxs this AM and tested positive.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Letter-7.21.pdf
Obvious media storm. He has mild sxs. My only concern in the way that his MD (Kevin
O’Connor) is treating him is that he D/C’d his Eliquis and Lipitor. I do not care about the
Lipitor, but I am very concerned about the discontinuing completely of the Eliquis. The president
has a atrial fibrillation and I would have merely lowered his dose to 1/2 the dose rather than
completely discontinuing it because of my concern about him throwing analysis in getting a
stroke. I mentioned this to a sheesh during a briefing called this evening since we are all going
on television tomorrow.
Couple of interesting things related to the infection of the president. 1) I called up Kevin
O'Connor who is the physician to the president and got a briefing from him for the simple
reason then when I go out on TV and I'm asked whether or not I have been consulted with it
would be rather embarrassing to say that they did not call the so-called most famous infectious
diseases expert in the world, who happens to also be the chief medical advisor to the president. I
explained to Kevin my concern about the anticoagulation. He understood my concern and said
that he has started the president on low dose aspirin which is a good thing. Kevin explained that
the president was negative for an antigen test on Tuesday, did not sleep well on Wednesday
evening, and woke up on Thursday predominantly with fatigue. Tested himself on a routine
basis which for him is 2 to three times per week. The test came back positive, confirmed by a
PCR. Throughout the day he then began to get sniffles, at first a dry cough and then a loose
cough. His temperature rose to 99.4 F, which came back to normal with tylenol. His oxygen
saturation was 97 to 98%. He was resting reasonably comfortably when Kevin left him tonight.
2) We had a meeting with the comms people and Ashish Jha this late afternoon in preparation
for media requests tomorrow. I was under the impression that they were going to spread out the
request for morning shows between Ashish and me. I found out later in the evening that all the
morning shows will go to Ashish and they will give me regional meeting in the afternoon. As
mentioned several times above it is very clear that Ashish is trying to dominate the media scene
with regard to COVID-19 and is telling his staff to lead me out of the major media hits. Again,
he does a good job but it is a bit of Bush league to do that. I have asked Courtney to
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
communicate with the White House calms people and two in a very nice way ask them just what
is going on here.
Monkeypox continues to spread throughout the world. 15,000 cases worldwide in 70
countries; >2000 in USA:
Monkeypox Virus Infection in Humans
across 16 Countries — April–June 2022
J.P. Thornhill, S. Barkati, S. Walmsley, J. Rockstroh, A. Antinori, L.B. Harrison,
R. Palich, A. Nori, I. Reeves, M.S. Habibi, V. Apea, C. Boesecke,
L. Vandekerckhove, M. Yakubovsky, E. Sendagorta, J.L. Blanco, E. Florence,
D. Moschese, F.M. Maltez, A. Goorhuis, V. Pourcher, P. Migaud, S. Noe,
C. Pintado, F. Maggi, A.-B.E. Hansen, C. Hoffmann, J.I. Lezama, C. Mussini,
A.M. Cattelan, K. Makofane, D. Tan, S. Nozza, J. Nemeth, M.B. Klein,
and C.M. Orkin, for the SHARE-net Clinical Group*
The activist community is very angry . See Washington Post article:
Opinion
The Biden administration’s monkeypox
response has been a mess
By Gregg Gonsalves
July 21, 2022 at 3:56 p.m. EDT
PRESS: FOX “Good Day” NYC TV with Rosanna Scotto; WGN Chicago Radio with Peter
McMurray and Rob Martier;
July 22, 2022
Kevin O'Connor called me this morning at 10 48 AM to give me an update on the
president's condition. He is quite stable has a slight fever up to 99F that is easily brought
down by tylenol. He has a cough which started off as dry but now is a bit “loose” as
described by Kevin which means it seems deeper in the chest. However, the president feels
well enough to continue to work from the White House although he is a bit fatigued as you
might expect. More later.
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
Letter from Kevin O’Connor to the USA – POTUS doing well:
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
The Guardian – Gay community in revolt about monkeypox. Article about Peter Staley:
‘Nobody’s acting like this is an emergency’: Act
Up veteran Peter Staley condemns US
monkeypox response
Wilfred Chan
Rochelle has pleaded with me to back the CDC plan of distributing vaccine more on the
basis of at risk population then on the actual number of cases since it is anticipated that
with a variety of gay pride galas coming up including “Southern Decadence” among others
that although there are not a lot of cases in the southern states including Louisiana, there
will be soon and although New York City and other large cities but particularly in New
York City is hammering the White House about the lines that there are to get vaccine in
people who perceive themselves and in fact are practicing risk behavior even though they
have not been in direct documented contact with an infected person. The White House is
responding to the complaints of the gay community that the response to the monkeypox outbreak
has been a terrible disaster (see above with Peter Staley) and they are pushing Rochelle and the
secretary to distribute it favoring New York since they have the most cases. Rachel wants me
and I agree to back her in making it a 75% on risk and 25% on cases whereas the White House
wants the distribution to be 25% on risk and 75% on cases. I believe that this is short sighted
because we are quickly going to see areas that do not have a lot of cases now but will very soon
not having enough vaccine to prevent the outbreak. I was very forceful in the zoom call with the
secretary and the HHS team in saying that I would back Rochelle; however, we must have the
flexibility of apportioning doses to the at risk locations in small allocations so that if they don't
use them we will not have given them all of their doses at one time and thus cannot recall them
to give them to cities and locations that actually have a large number of cases. Once you send
doses to a location, by FDA regulations, you can't pull them back and send them somewhere
else. And so smaller allocations are the answer. Whether or not Ron Klain will accept this is a
big question. He is very interested in the political blowback from New York. This is
understandable since he is a politician but he is not looking at it from a purely public health
standpoint. I was very forceful with the HHS team when the comms people were suggesting that
we explain this gap that we have in availability of vaccines on the lack of funding. I told the
secretary on the zoom that I have to be frank with them, but I thought that this would be a total
disaster since that is an excuse and not an explanation and the gay community would kill them
for making excuses. I mentioned that we had to own the problem and tell them that it would have
been nice to have all the doses that everybody needed, but the fact is we don't have all the doses
and therefore we will do everything we can to get as many doses to people as we can in an
equitable manner. Bottom line is that I told them what I told the Trump administration, and that
is the only way to solve a problem is to first own the problem.
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
Was on multiple TV shows (see below). One of the things that came up was why the
president's physician, doctor Kevin O'Connor, was not out there describing the president's
condition. I answered that I was not in the loop and I did not know why. However it is very clear
as mentioned above and as confirmed by Dori Solcido that Ashish really wants the spotlight and
wants to be the one talking about the president's condition. I consider that an unforced error
because that's what the press is going to focus on that we are hiding something. I do not want to
get into that seen Ashish wanting to essentially be on every single possible major TV show, but
that's the way it is. Also, the White House was concerned that Kevin mentioned that the
president had a temperature of 99.4F. the temp responded very well to Tylenol and I brought up
too Dory as to how foolish it is to get upset because Kevin mentioned his temperature. It is the
perfectly normal thing to have a low grade temperature with a upper respiratory infection. Even
though this White House is a good White House they're concerned about message control is ill
advised and they are only making unforced errors.
I spoke again tonight (10:00 PM) with Kevin O'Connor and he brought me up to date on
the President's condition . He still requires Tylenol to keep his temperature down. He is very
comfortable and even played some golf on the putting range in the White House outside because
he was getting a little bit cabin fever. According to Kevin he continues to improve, but Kevin is
concerned about Paxlovid rebound and is considering giving him eight days of the drug. He
wanted my opinion as to whether or not that was a good idea. I am ambivalent about this since
there will be a lot of blowback about why he was treated differently than the recommendations.
Cliff lane would not treat him for an extra few days but would take the chance that he was going
to rebound. I will recheck with Kevin tomorrow.
I had a long talk with Raj Panjabi (NSC) who sought my advice about how to deal with the
activist group who feel that he is lying to them and that they have lost confidence in his ability to
give them straight information. I mentioned to Raj that he needs to be straight with the activists
and put himself in their shoes where they are looking at hundreds of millions of dollars invested
in a product to be put in this row tegic national stockpile, and now that we need that product it is
not available to the gay community. They are outraged and all he and his colleagues are doing is
making excuses for it (see above about owning the problem). I made it clear to Raj and cannot
have his comms person speak to Peter Staley, David Barr, and James Krellenstein et al. he must
do it himself otherwise it would be showing disrespect to the activists. Raj was extremely
grateful for my tutoring of him in this regard.
PRESS: CBS Livestream Online; NY1 Spectrum News TV with Kevin Frey; Alice Park
with Time magazine; ABC World New Tonight; NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt; CNN
“The Situation Room” with Wolf Blitzer; FOX News with Brett Baier; MSNBC “The Beat”
with Ari Melber; KMOJ FM (Minneapolis) with Freddie Bell; Univision National
with Andrea Linares; Telemundo National with unknown
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
July 23, 2022
Yesterday I spoke with dawn O'Connell and told her that I would be very much in favor of
the secretary declaring a public health emergency for monkeypox. She is now running it up
the chain to see what others think about that..
I had my usual call this morning with Kevin O'Connor, the president's physician. It was a
disturbing call because Kevin told me that Ashish is really trying to manipulate what Kevin
says regarding the health of the president and Kevin is starting to get very aggravated by
this. For example, Ashish did not want Kevin to mention that the president's temperature
was 99.4F because then that would be a topic for the news discussion. That is completely
ridiculous because it is totally expected that someone with a URI would have a mild
temperature responsive to Tylenol. In addition, Ashish did not like the use of the word
“malaise” which was the exact word the president used to describe how he felt. Ashish was
afraid that that word would bring up recall of president Jimmy Carter and the negative
response that the country had to his describing “malaise” in the country. And then finally
in today's report Kevin wanted to put in a new symptom that the president complained of
which was muscle aches, an entirely understandable symptom that has nothing to do with
progression of disease. They insisted that he not add that. Kevin pushed back and said that
he would not sign off on anything if they force him to hold back on what the true symptoms
are.
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
Call from Larry Horowitz regarding Ron Klain saying to him (Larry) that the President
wants to make some changes since Health area (COVID/MPX) is not going well.
“Someone needs to get fired.” Primary target is Becerra, but they feel that they cannot
fire him since they never would get a replacement confirmed in he Senate. Next in line in
Rochelle. They really are disappointed with Rochelle and want to fire her. They asked
Larry for suggestions for replacements. Larry called me about this. He suggests Mark
McLellan or Anne Schuchat. Wants names from me. Larry also called Jeff Z. They do
not know that Jeff is working with me regarding my stepping down. Could get
complicated. I called Jeff and we discussed the situation. See below my discussion the
next day (Sunday) with Jeff.
Had a long conversation with Jeff about the above issue concerning firing someone at
HHS/CDC. Similar to the situation that I faced years ago with Secretary Burwell wanting
to fire Tom Frieden because of poor performance with Ebola where I defended Tom, I
found myself defending Rochelle. Rochelle is a wonderful person, but she does not have
control over her agency and she has to learn to balance the politically expedient thing while
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
still maintaining solid scientific principles. The problem is she relies too heavily on the
entrenched people at CDC who are smart and will meaning but who have no oversight or
quality control from the outside. This allows them to proceed with somewhat antiquated if
not ossified ideas. As the discussion went the options were to fire Secretary Becerra;
however, this would be very difficult since it would be tough to get a Senate confirmation
for a secretary within a relatively acceptable period of time. The other option is to fire
Rochelle, but now is not the time to do that and it would be against my recommendation.
One of the points that Jeff made is that they are considering in a humane way to ask
Rochelle to step down at the end of the year before the beginning of the second-half of the
first term. Despite my trying to protect Rochelle there is a very good chance that that will
happen.
Kevin O’Connor continues to call me 2x/day. The president continues to improve and is
completed his 4th day on Paxlovid. .He was out for four hours today by the pool doing
reading work. The next big question is whether to give him eight days or 10 days instead of
five days of pax livid. That would be a problem since it would be against FDA
authorization and the public would cry out that we had treating him differently than other
people. the concern on the part of the White House is that if he rebounds after he is
negative for several days, he will likely be out talking and mingling with people. If he
infects someone following an inadvertent rebound, he will be blamed for infecting other
people. My suggestion would be to treat him for five days have him stay in the White House
virtually for an additional five days testing him everyday if he turns negative as soon as he
turns negative send him out even if it's before the 10 day. And have him wear a mask in
order to avoid him inadvertently infecting people if he rebounds, I would just test him
every morning before he gets up and goes out to meet with people. If he is negative he will
be OK, if he is positive continued isolating.
Emergency phone call among HHS people (Becerra, Dawn et al) regarding convincing
POTUS (and Ron) to declare a Public Health Emergency (PHE) for MPX. Becerra says
that POTUS will rely heavily on my opinion. Problem is that they are concerned that if you
declare a PHE for monkey pox then why not declare it for gun violence or for reproductive
rights. That sounds very much like the negativistic attitude of RON.
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
PRESS: ABC “Good Morning America” Weekend; CBS Mornings (Weekend); CNN “New
Day” Weekend; Fox News with Neil Cavuto
July 24, 2022
Kevin O’Connor continues to call me 2x/day. The President continues to improve and is
completed his 4th day (Sunday) on Paxlovid. He was out for four hours today by the pool
doing reading work. The next big question is whether to give him eight days or 10 days
instead of five days of Paxlovid. That would be a problem since it would be against FDA
authorization and the public would cry out that we had treating him differently than other
people. The concern on the part of the White House is that if he rebounds after he is
negative for several days, he will likely be out talking and mingling with people. If he
infects someone following an unrecognized rebound, he will be blamed for infecting other
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
people. My suggestion would be to treat him for five days, have him stay in the White
House virtually up to an additional five days testing him everyday. If he turns negative, as
soon as he turns negative send him out even if it's before the 10 day period. And have him
wear a mask in order to avoid him inadvertently infecting people if he rebounds, I would
be OK, if he is positive continued isolating.
Had long conversation with Ashish who was asking my advice. He started off the
conversation by saying that the White House continues to have a lot of problems with
Rochelle, the latest of which was the apportionment of vaccine doses. (See discussion
above about strong consideration of asking her to step down). Ashish said that Ron wants
my take on the situation with Rochelle/CDC and the distribution of vaccine doses. She
wants to divide the vaccines for monkey pox according to the formula of 25% according to
cases and 75% according to risk. This is something that we had discussed yesterday in a
call with the secretary. During that call I promised that I would back Rochelle's proposal
because of the fact that if they do not distribute more, namely 75%, according to risk, when
we have outbreaks related to “Southern Decadence” and other gay pride functions we will
not have vaccine in place to counter it. However Ron Klain is adamant that he does not
want vaccines shipped to locations in which there are few cases and when they do not get
cases or they do not administer vaccine to their case countthat the vaccine goes to waste
(you cannot reship vaccine). I made the following point to the secretary yesterday and I
repeated it word for word to Ron today. I would be supportive of a 25% for cases and 75%
for risk distribution only if the jurisdictions that received the 75% for risk are given the
vaccines in small apportionments. For example if they were scheduled to get 400 vaccines,
you would give them 100 and tell them that if they don't use that 100 expeditiously the next
shipment of 100 would not be given to them but would be given to a jurisdiction that has a
high number of cases. I explained this to Ron when he called me today and told him that
that would be my position. He said that Ron is very interested in what I would do and that
this would hold a great deal of weight in the discussions that we will have tomorrow, which
is Monday.
Had a long conversation with Jeff about the above issue concerning firing someone at
HHS/CDC. Similar to the situation that I faced years ago with Secretary Burwell wanting
to fire Tom Frieden because of poor performance with Ebola where I defended Tom, I
found myself defending Rochelle. Rochelle is a wonderful person, but she does not have
control over her agency and she has to learn to balance the politically expedient thing while
still maintaining solid scientific principles. The problem is she relies too heavily on the
entrenched people at CDC who are smart and will meaning but who have no oversight or
quality control from the outside. This allows them to proceed with somewhat antiquated if
not ossified ideas. As the discussion went the options were to fire Secretary Becerra;
however, this would be very difficult since it would be tough to get a Senate confirmation
for a secretary within a relatively acceptable period of time. The other option is to fire
Rochelle, but now is not the time to do that and it would be against my recommendation.
One of the points that Jeff made is that they are considering in a humane way to ask
Rochelle to step down at the end of the year before the beginning of the second-half of the
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
first term. Despite my trying to protect Rochelle there is a very good chance that that will
happen.
Kevin O’Connor continues to call me 2x/day. The president continues to improve and is
completed his 4th day on Paxlovid. He was out for four hours today by the pool doing
reading work. The next big question is whether to give him eight days or 10 days instead of
five days of pax livid. That would be a problem since it would be against FDA
authorization and the public would cry out that we had treating him differently than other
people. the concern on the part of the White House is that if he rebounds after he is
negative for several days, he will likely be out talking and mingling with people. If he
infects someone following an inadvertent rebound, he will be blamed for infecting other
people. My suggestion would be to treat him for five days have him stay in the White House
virtually for an additional five days testing him every day if he turns negative as soon as he
turns negative send him out even if it's before the 10 day. And have him wear a mask in
order to avoid him inadvertently infecting people if he rebounds, I would just test him
every morning before he gets up and goes out to meet with people. If he is negative he will
be OK, if he is positive continued isolating.
Of note, Ashish states that he wants Kevin to go up in front of the cameras to describe the
President's condition, but it is Ron who does not want him to go up as well as Karine Jean-
Pierre. That is interesting because I am hearing that it is Ron who does not want Kevin to
get up in front of a camera.
PRESS: MSNBC with Jonathan Capehart
July 25, 2022
Spoke with Kevin O'Connor again this morning and evening. the president is doing
extremely well and continues to improve. He we'll complete his fifth day of Paxlovid today.
The next question will be when he can go out into