All of us searching for answers. How can i protect my children . How do i get food . Do we go to the super market. As a doctor and journalist and a father of three, i have been combing those answers with you. Examining the signs. There are evidence of as assymtomatics spread. About what went right. The decision to develop a vaccine may have been the best decision i have ever made. What really went so very wrong . There were about 100,000 deaths came from that surge. All of the rest of them could have been mitigated. I had a moment in life that says enough is enough. They had about 30day head start. I knew i was being watched. Were you threatened . This metaphor cal autopsy with the doctors in charge wont bring back the people we have lost. We are still not testing enough. It may help us to better understand how we got here. All of this was starting from scratch and hopefully how to move forward. This is a war. So if you are going to fight a war. You better start shooting at the enemy instead of at each other. As bad as this was, it could be worse and there will be another pandemic. Guaranteed. Doctors are not thought to be reflective. Most of the doctors i know are just that. Tormented by the past, the patients they could not help and those whom they lost. In medicine it is the autopsy that forces us to face our mistakes. An autopsy is far from easy. It is tough to bear witness and we know it does nothing for the patients on the table. We do it for the future to ensure that our mistakes are not repeated and the lessons that we learn help us to avoid every future preventable deaths we possibly can. I will figure it out. I will make sure that i dont make the same mistake twice. It is in that same spirit that i sat down with the top doctor in charge of the nations pandemic response. It was unbelievable. Dr. Hahn, how are you doing . For years they have carried the weight on their shoulders. Only to see their tireless Amber Efforts end in what could only be described as tragedies. More than 500,000 americans gone. Yeah, we take off our masks. All doctors agreed to meet in hopes of trying to figure out why. If i told you half a Million People would have died by this, a year later, would you have believed me . No. I would have been horrified that was a possibility that would happen. This is my haven. On a saturday in washington. I join americas doctors for a long walk. We used to run. Alongside his wife and kristine grady. It is a hawk. This mornings ritual served as a refuge for nearly a decade. This past year through the Ups And Downs of dr. Faucis crusade against covid19. Nothing in your life could have prepared you for this. No. It is like you are drinking out of a fire hydrant and all of these things happening, there was a time probably it was april or may when new york was on fire since that i was working literally 19 hours a day because i felt i had to. I was so exhausted that i didnt realized how exhausted and it was chris who said one night time out, do you see what you are doing, you are not eating and drinking any water. That was good she did that. It had not change much. At 80 years old. The nations leading i infectious earned another source. Celebrities. After his steady presence proproved one of the few constant of our lives in this year. You stopped and you think ab, my world completely changed. You dont realize it is changing. We got to get a vaccine and a drug and every once in a while you say wait a minute, i got two Armed Security guys here and i am on a path walking with my wife. What is that all about . Yeah. One year ago this march the Death Threats began. Dr. Fauci had secret Service Protection every step since. All the doctors received Death Threats. Received Death Threats . From the beginning. My daughter got the same text messages. You cant imagine what those messages looked like. A lot of sexual references saying the country would be better off if you were dead. You are misleading the country. Your tongue should be cut out. Early on i took them to the state department, you have to keep sending it to us. I didnt have time to do that. Just a few days after she learned that unlike her long time mentor, dr. Fauci, dr. Birx was not asked to continue her work with the Biden Administration. I am selfreflective of what can i do better because i dont want to make the same mistakes. Are you upset or frustrated or sad . I am encouraged there is a team in the white house. It was difficult being one person in the white house. People didnt understand. I was the coordinator of the response. I was not the originator of all of the responses. Hiv was what we call in march when dr. Birx was recalled. She had little experience working inside the white house and quickly realized that the role of doctors was not going to be at all what she expected. Thank you, mr. Vice president. I under estimated the white house and politics. Throughout these 11 months. Dr. Fauci and i talked or texted five out of seven days every week. Dr. Anthony fauci. This was not the first war fauci and birx fought together. The two battled a deadly virus, the hiv epidemic. It was an experience that informed each of their approaches to this new fight. Did you have a strategy to do this, good cop or bad cop . I was the bad cop. She was the good cop. They referred to me as i would often say the skunk at the picnic. Every time they say things were great, i said ehh, i dont think so. The answer was yes. It was easy for me to say that out loud and openly say that. I had my base. My base was the nih. Deb had a much more difficult situation. She had an office right there in the west wing. So i am very, very reluctant to condemn anything that eventhough people felt she should push more. She did a lot of good. She knocked herself out, getting up at 3 00 in the morning and putting that data together and presenting it everyday. You had your own dpgroup. I love there is a doctor group. It was important. We were not secret about it. We were pretty open about it, just not very many people knew about it. By that time, the task force was irre irregularly meetings. We had a Strong Coalition between docr. Redfield and dr. Hahn and myself. I wanted them to arm with everything. The disinfectant would knock it out in a minute. They kind of had an antiscience or not supported reputation with science. How did you plan dealing with that . I have dealt with president s and prime ministers around the globe who are misconceptions of the diseases and the community that disease impacts. I have always found that if you can find that Common Ground with the information and data, theyll change policies. Hes been so attentive to the scientific literature and the details of the data. Part of the reason why i did say it one time that the president looked at the data and understood the data because he would not have shutdown the country for 15 days and another 30. That never really happened again. There were too many parallel streams of data. One thing from the cdc director and another from you. Who are we to believe . You are supposed to believe the science. These data strips, you think they originated with scott atlas . I know some of them came from his team. I dont know where all of them came from. That was the motivation do you think present data that was inaccurate or at least inco incomplete . I think they felt they were defending their position. They believe everything i did sure of that was compromising the american economy, the american lifestyle. In their mind all of those things out phied the fatalities and Hospital Sizatio that i was concerned about. They did not took in the account of longterm side effect from a mild case. Do you think thats a real possibility . I dont know. With covid19 is not just about who lives or dies. It is also those stuck in between. The long haulers. The unknown of an unknown disease that we have not seen before. I dont think you should say youre mild or asymptomatic and you will be fine. I tracked them all in the white house and we had young people infected and i tried to follow up. Some of them took weeks to redevelop their sense of taste and smell. Thats unusual. When you see things that lingers, you worry about what else is happening that you dont see. It is an extraordinary virus. Wyou kind of live in a metaphor and the metaphor is that viruses particularly have a mind. Theyre smart. Theyre evil or they are benign. But, a virus that has adapted itself almost insidiously, adapted itself perfectly to a human. Not only it may infect you but i am going to make sure many of you dont have symptoms and i am going to use them to spread as much as i possibly can. If i kill the vulnerables, i am not going to eliminate the population so always have a lot of people that i can still infect. Now, that sounds crazy but thats the metaphor when you deal with Infectious Diseases, you say damn this virus, it is such a bad and evil virus. Was there a moment you said this was the big one. 40 increase in new York Hospitals in 24 hours. When i saw what happened in new york city. Refrigerated trucks are being mobilized as makeship. It was like oh my goodness. That was when it became clear that the decision we made on January The 10th to go all out and develop a vaccine. We had a number of vaccine candidate m candidate may have been the best decision. For science and the world. But remember a vaccine does nothing for the patient down the table. In this case, Hundreds Of Thousands who perished before science could save them. When you look at your data now and you think okay, had we mitigated earlier and actually done it, how much of an impact do you think that would have made . If i look at it this way, the first time we had an excuse. There were about 100,000 deaths that came from that surge. All of the rest of them in my mind could have been mitigated or decrease substantially if we took the lessons we had learned from that moment. Thats what bothers me everyday. Thats why i have to be able to process this and understand this like you said in the post more tom, mor mo mo mortum we have to come out of this and do better. The first autopsy. I can use the word cover up but i dont know that. Hi, im a new customer and i want your best new smartphone deal. Well im an existing customer and id like your best new smartphone deal. Oh do ya . Actually its for both new and existing customers. I feel silly. But i do want the fastest 5g network. Oh i want the fastest 5g network. Are we actually doing this again . Its not complicated. Only at t gives everyone the same great deal. Like the Samsung Galaxy s21 5g for free when you trade in. Psst psst allergies dont have to be scary. Spraying flonase daily stops your body from overreacting to allergens all season long. Psst psst youre good. Tonight. Ill be eating loaded tots for march madness. doorbell thanks boo. Piano Glissando i think you better double them tots. No, this me was last year. I didnt get my madness last year, so were doing double the madness this year. So you want to make the best burger ever . I didnt get my madness last year, then make it that means cooking day and night until you get. ding . You got paid that means. Best burger ever. Intuit quickbooks helps Small Businesses be more successful with payments, payroll, banking and live bookkeeping. Where was it first discovered and how . Official words from the chinese cdc was not transmissible human tohuman. I had multiple discussions with my counter partners in china. We tried to get into wuhan to get a few questions answered, is It Transmissible or symptomatic i told them i was concerned of human and human transferable. He says there is no evidence of humantohuman transmissible. I would say by the 5th of january. I told him he had to go out in the community and look for people that have Unspecifii Unspeunspe unspecified symptoms. That evening he was quite distraught. He came to the conclusion that the cat was out of the bag. When he called you and was so upset, crying and distraught on the phone, that was a warning, was it . He was now officially worried. The earlier mortality and china was 5 to 10 . I would be crying, too. Wuhan is the city thats massive, 11 Million People. It is essentially shutdown, lockdown. They are not letting anyone out via airport, train stations. How much did you trust the information coming out of china initially . I always had skepticism about it because of what we went through with sars. China said it was flu, flu. They were not transparent. They did not give you all the information. How big of a difference if our own investigators had been on the ground in china . It would have been significance. We are dealing with a different beast. They sold us this is like sars s flu. Well, sars and flu, you can go after simymptomatic case findings, unfortunately, this virus, the majority of this transmission is in the nonsymptomatic stage. The chinese reported evidence of transmission in the symptomatic phase based on the data they have reviewed. The cdc had not reviewed that. Suspicion from data came out of china was reviewed. The first case of scenario had arrived. The first confirmed asymptomatic infection. Redfield and fauci and others still need to see the data in order to believe it. Did you believe it . You are hearing it from china. On january 28th you said in the r history of Respiratory Born viruses. It had never been the driver of outbreaks. I said that and it is true. Find it interesting. People throw quotes back at you nine or ten months ago and they say oh, but you said in the history of respiratory disease, thats an absolute correct statement but this was different thats the point and we were struggling what is and how different is this. Turns out this novel virus was really different. At least compared to the more recent outbreak of sars and mers which saw no significance of as asom as symptomatic spread. Why did it take to late march for the United States to finally figure that out . I think if we had sent our people into wuhan and able to talk to the chinese sicientists in a conversation that may have lasted an hour, you could have gotten so much information right from the getgo. They would have told us dont believe what you are reading. This is spread aasome tymptomat. I know Secretary Azar trying to get us in but the bottom line we did not get in. Did you have an idea . Who do you believe . A year after this pathogen started, we are having a critical analysis. That seems a little delayed. It seems to me that some of the information is people not being transparent about it. I can use the word cover up but i dont know that so i am not going to speculate that. Investigators in the World Health Organization discovered science that the initial Coronavirus Outbreak in wuhan in china was larger than previously thought. More questions fewer answers over the access and data china gave to the w. H. O. It is becoming increasingly clear that this virus is spreading much earlier than we were alerted. As soon as georgia understood it, we understood it. What i am telling you is wuhan understood it back in the fall. China has denied any cover up, insisting that a respond of the outbreak in a transparent and responsible manner. The United States is now pointing fingers in other countries. Now while it is almost impossible to know exactly what would have been different or how many lives we could have saved had our experts been allowed inside wuhan earlier. What we do know is that it caused us precious times. I guess what we need to do is shut down air travels from china because we dont know whos infected or who is not. When i spoke to dr. Redfield back in february of 2020, the United States was just beginning to acknowledge that Community Spread of the virus was unevid unevidentable. Al they recognized something was going on in early december. They had about 30day head start to when they publicly announced on 31st Of December that they had this mysterious pneumonia. And so they were already buying things in the market well in advance of us. They make a lot of those materials but things were made here in the United States, we found the domestic supplies were drying up because of foreign purchases. Was china being purposely opaque, buying up stuff and not alerting the rest of the world of whats going on. I dont want to be an apologyist for them because they were less than transparent in january honestly. Part of this is this is as war that kind of exploded in wuhan for reasons that are still yet clear to me. What happened in wuhan was transmitted to every province in china within 30 days. If i were to guess this virus transmitted i have the Point Of View of the most likely ideology of this pathogen and wuhan is from a laboratory escaped and other people dont believe that. Thats fine. Science will eventually figure it out. It is not unusual f for Respiratory Pathogens being worked onto infect lab workers. It is not unusual for that type of research to be occurring in wuhan. The c they experienced with bat coronaviruses. You are the former cdc director and you were the director at the time this was all happening. For the first time the former cdcs director stated publicly that he believes this pandemic started months earlier than we knew and it originated not at a wet market but inside a lab. It is my opinion. But, i am a virologist. I have spent my life in virology. I do not believe this came from a bat to a human. The virus came to human and became the most infectious. It takes a while to figure out how to become more and more efficient. I dont think it makes biological sense. In the lab do you think that process of becoming more efficient was happening . Is that what you were suggesting . Yes, i have coronavirus and i am working on it. Most of us in the lab were trying to grow virus and helping it grow better and better so we can do experiments and figure it out. Thats the way i put it together. Chinese officials have been increasingly promoting and unsubstantiated origins. The pandemic may have started in various locations around the world, even a u. S. Military lab. The World Health Organization is called any Lab Accident Theory extremely unlikely. But a team of their scientists allowed inside wuhan more than a year after the outbreak have been unable to determine the definitive origin of the virus. Perhaps, at this point many wonder if they ever will. Lessons learned looking forward. We need the w. H. O. , the world needs an organization that coordinates the Global Health issues but they need to reform in a way where they can go in and tell the members that you need to give us this information absolutely. They did not. China said no, we are not going to giver it to you. That was not right. It got to change. Next, did we believe a contagious virus spreading around the world was not going to come here . Now you know why i came to the white house. Germ proof your car with armor all disinfectant. Kills 99. 9 of bacteria and viruses. Who takes care of yourself. So why wait to screen for colon cancer . Because when caught in early stages, its more treatable. Im cologuard. Im noninvasive and detect altered dna in your stool to find 92 of Colon Cancers even in early stages. Tell me more. Its for people 45 plus at average risk for colon cancer, not high risk. 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On a grand scale of something thats happening nationally conceivably simultaneously across several states, thats beyond the scope of what hhs has the authority to do and the second is the supply chain and the stockpile and our ability in recognizing there would be a tremendous need for personal protective equipment. That get to the third Lessons Learned which is money. What money can we scrape up to us to my things. Whos in charge . Do we have the supplies we need . Do we have the money . These are the same questions that came up again in february 2020. Officials were facing the real thing. What happened on February 21st . We had a Table Top Exercise, very serious conversation in the situation room, the john f. Kennedy swituation room. Nearly two months after first learning of the outbreak in china, secretary alex azar and mulvaney led a meeting of staff and redfield and fauci to perform an exercise closely to crimson contagent. Were there tangible things that came out of that Table Top Exercise . It says that we are in a disaster. We are beginning to appreciate there were facet s t these disease. What was the recommendations . The notion was while containment was ideal in terms of our ability to prevent this from entering our country, it is more likely or not that this virus is already in the United States and we need to be prepared to go to mitigation. After that Table Top Exercise in february of 21st, my understanding is you and your colleagues did want to go and brief the president and talk about this plan and call the four steps for mitigation. What happened . Were you able to brief the president . I did not. Before the group had a chance to brief trump, dr. Nancy, director of the Cdcs National Center issued a blunt warning that would infuriate the president. It is not a question of if this will happen. It is when it will happen. We are asking the American Public to work with us to prepare in the expectation that this could be bad. I think when nancy said what she said, i knew she was seeing what i was seeing. She got moved aside because of saying that. I supported her. I thought you know she was being prepared, life would change. The cdc believed that the virus will spread into the United States, it is not a question of if but when. Do you agree with that assessment . I dont think it is inevitable. It probably will. It could be at a small level of larger level. Whatever happens, we are totally prepared for it. Nancy got pushed back a lot because of that. She was right on the money. She hit the nail right on the head. I am going to be putting our Vice President mike pence in charge. When you heard the Vice President was going to be in charge of the task force, what did you think . I thought that was a good thing because i thought it is going to elevate it so we can get the attention of the powers there be. Mike is going to be in charge and mike will report back to me. We authorized, right . Pences appointment finally answer the first critical question. Whos in charge . With the pimportant caveat who handled crisis in the past, there was a different level of accountability. He could not be fired if he failed to perform. Someone who could be fired, the new coordinator for the White House Covid Task force. She will be my right arm. I am grateful that ambassador debra birx and dr. Birx will be in our team. Min march i spent several weeks to get some layer of the land. The risk of the American People remained very low. I want to stop saying that the risk to americans was low. I can see we were not going to be different than europe. We were going to have the same problem. The risk to the American Public is low. The risk is low. Why are we still saying the risk to americans is low at that point . Did we believe that a contagious virus that was spreading around the world that was not going to come here . Now you know why i came to the white house. Because i can see the avalanche coming. I could see that we were not prepared. And, i thought i could do something but when i arrived that monday morning i was like we have to do these three things. We got to test people and treatment of vaccine in and we have really talk to the medical correspondents because the community has to understand. We wont make progress unless the American People understand all aspects of this so they can interpret it and apply it to their lifestyles because it has to be real to them. And the Vice President did all those things that first week. I dont know why he listened to me because we had no prior relationship. He did not know me. Clearly some of his office did not support me being there. What do you mean . There was a group that beli believed this was not a big of a deal. Impacting peoples livelihoods for not good reasons. There was the other group that just was fatalistic that no matter what we did the outcome was going to be the same. When those in charge according to dr. Birx has not grasp the extent of the risk either. No time in the white house that anyone gives me the opinion that anyone thought there was a significance asymptomatic spread. Critics say even the cdc, the Health Organization was too slow to recognize the threat as well. One of the things i was surprised when i became cdcs director, how much of Public Health did not exist, the analytics, it did not exist. Some Health Departments are still using fax machines. It is our job to make sure the public has the best information. In 2018, he was named the top medical and science advisers to hhss secretary, alex azar. It is not meant to be a fully operationalized organization that can scale with the private sector and work with hospital in the private industry that we needed to. The nations federal pandemic infrastructure was not prepared for the crisis that was quickly unfolded. Our Public Health system was not prepared. Our Emergency Stockpile Supplies was not prepared. The supply chain itself all of it unprepared. When we started the pandemic in january, we didnt know what the status of the supply chain was. We didnt know what hospitals had on hand. We didnt know what the states supplies were. We didnt know what the commercial distributors got on their shelves and we diplomat know what was in the manufacturers warehouse. Why didnt we know that . Your team at hhs drew up plans to enforce the Defense Production Act. Yes. The Defense Production Act gave the federal government power to expedite. It was not signed or enacted for some time later. You have to have a contract. That did not happen until april because we did not get our money until march. We can only be prepared for the amount of money we have. He has come under fire signed by rick wr bright. I would challenge the accuracies of his complaint. He was the one that was sounding the alarm and nobody was listening. And you and others did not see the urgency he did. I had the urgency. There was no doubt. He was one of many voices that i listened to basically said what we need to do. The Public Health service and the leader of this Great Commission core behind me. When you walk into this pandemic, how far behind do you think we were at that point . We had no systems in place. The way to find out how many ventilators being used just to call up and see. Who are the manufactures . We dont know. Whats the supply chain . We dont know. How about tubes to transport . Never heard of them. How many tests do we have in a Stoc Stockpile . There were none. We didnt have a swingle swab. All of these were from scratch. What went so wrong at testing . I felt that we were starting at. 0 back then. We were really unprepared. Including vera wang love, enchanted disney, endless brilliance and so much more. Shop online with a virtual consultant. Exclusively at zales. The diamond store. Tonight. Ill be eating loaded tots for march madness. doorbell thanks boo. Piano Glissando i think you better double them tots. No, this me was last year. I didnt get my madness last year, so were doing double the madness this year. naj at Fisher Investments, we do things differently i didnt get my madness last year, and other Money Managers dont understand why. Money Manager because our way works great for us naj but not for your clients. Thats why were a fiduciary, obligated to put clients first. Money Manager so, what do you provide . Cookie cutter portfolios . naj nope, we tailor portfolios to our clients needs. Money Manager but you do sell investments that earn you high commissions, right . naj we dont have those. Money Manager so whats in it for you . naj our fees are structured so we do better when you do better. At Fisher Investments were clearly different. In a recent clinical study, patients using Salonpas Patch reported reductions in pain severity, using less or a lot less oral pain medicines. And improved quality of life. Ask your doctor about salonpas. Its good medicine. We look up to our heroes. Idolizing them. Mimicking their every move. And if she counts on the advanced hydration of pedialyte when it matters most. So do we. Hydrate like our heroes. Out here, youre more than just a landowner. Hydrate like our heroes. Youre a gardener. A landscaper. A hunter. Because you didnt settle for ordinary. Same goes for your equipment. Versatile, powerful, durable kubota equipment. More goes into it. So you get more out of it. Testing. Many would argue it is the original sin of our covid response. The age old trap of too little too late. From the now infamously flawed cdc tests to trumps false pronouncement that anybody that wants a test can get a test. And these problems started from the very beginning. In january of 2020, well before covid19 was designated a pandemic, weeks before the United States had their own test, there was already a test available to diagnose the novel virus. The World Health Organization, the w. H. O. , had a test that was pretty good, 95 sensitive. Yes. That was january 17th data. Was using those tests a consideration for the United States . I can honestly tell you i dont know. I think thats something to ask dr. Redfield or someone who was involved at that point. In order for us to use it, the fda had to review it. But i can tell you it wasnt available in the United States and maybe steve gave you a different answer. Yeah. I dont know who the w. H. O. Would have reached out with respect to that test. I wasnt aware that w. H. O. Reached out to fda or had submitted data. The w. H. O. Told me the United States never asked to use its test. No. We did not offer the test to the u. S. , which would be Standard Practice if we were asked. Obviously, we would have responded. Was it a mistake not to use those tests. It was a mistake not to use everything that we had and every tool. Confident in their own abilities, the cdc chose to develop and distribute its own test, a decision that would come to haunt the agency and its director. Early coronavirus test kits may have been contaminated, leading to a possible delay in the cdcs ability to get those kits to health labs. Within about five weeks, with the fdas agreement, we got all of the Public Health labs of this nation to have an effective test. So that would have been five weeks. Probably about five weeks it took to correct it. Five weeks, which many have called the lost month. When covid19 spread across the United States, mostly undetected. I was not a happy camper that cdc decided to manufacture tests. Were not a manufacturing corporation. The private sector was supposed to work with the fda to develop that. But the fda added another step to the process. They asked labs to apply Forage Emergency Use Authorization or eua to bring their tests to market during a Public Health emergency. Something many labs never had to do before. Declaration of a Public Health emergency allows us to use our Emergency Use Authorization authority. That allowed us to use a different, if you will, evidentiary standard and regulatory standard to authorize products. That did exhibit the private sector from coming in and the academic sector from coming in because thats not something they really were used to. We heard this over and over again. Weve got this great alternative. We cant get the fda to pay attention. Were those fair criticisms . Upwards of 60 of the tests that we reviewed had problems with them. And, so, the question is do you want tests that are on the market just so you can get tests on the market, or do you want there to be some oversight to ensure the specificity and accuracy is appropriate . In the meantime, in addition to that w. H. O. Test, other countries were now successfully deploying tests of their own, and the United States was falling further and further behind. So far the motivation is only testing less than 500 people. And Health Officials are questioning whether thats enough. Well, were testing everybody that we need to test. And were finding very little problem. We had received a lot of comments from folks in those laboratories that the process was slow. And it was at that point that we decided to revise, to allow them to go to market without authorization. The fda did revise their rules, but it wasnt until midmarch that the Eua Requirement was dropped entirely, right as infections in the United States began to spike and new confirmed cases in those countries with aggressive testing began to fall. Were seeing a decrease in cases across asia. What we know works is testing. Testing worked. But only if you were testing the right people. Both people with symptoms and without. The only way were going to know where this virus is is if we test people. At the time we were thinking we didnt need that because we could pick out people with symptoms. In the spirit of postmortem, without pointing any fingers, the stance we took was you test somebody who is symptomatic. And not everybody who wants a test should get a test, only those who need a test. And we were wrong. The priorities for testing and who we recommended to be tested directly match what our capabilities were, right . And thats just a fact. March 4th were talking about 75,000 tests available in the entire United States. Okay . From one source. Anybody that wants a test can get a test. The president s remarks two days later on march 6th simply werent true. Making it more apparent than ever that someone needed to take charge of the nations testing. We need to have someone in charge of making sure that as many people as possible across this country have access to getting tested as soon as possible. Who is that person . Is it you . Is it the Vice President . As i tried to explain to congress his answer was i really dont know. It was the next day, essentially, that you were appointed the testing czar. Three months into things or, you know, middle of march now, time frame, its basically been declared a pandemic at this point. Why are there hardly any tests out there . Why at that point . So of course i ask myself that question a lot. And my best answer is a few different answers. Over a million tests have been distributed before the end of this week. Another four million tests will be distributed. When we said there were millions of tests available, there werent, right . There were components of the test available, but not the full deal. None of these things worked in a vacuum. They needed to be brought together in a reasonable way. It seems like such a small thing, but if you dont have that kind of Coordination Put together, it doesnt get done. Coordination, though, was far from the other fundamental issue. According to the doctors, it was the administrations overall attitude toward testing as well. People really believed in the white house, that testing was driving cases rather than testing is a way for us to stop cases. If we didnt do any testing, we would have very few cases. Testing was this flash point. It continued to be a flash point. I think thats why scott atlas was so powerful when he came into the white house because he really didnt believe in testing for asymptomatic cases. Thank you, mr. President. Dr. Scott atlas joined the Trump Administration as a Special Adviser on covid in august. A concerning choice, given that atlas is not an Infectious Disease expert. His specialty is in diagnostic radiology. Dr. Atlas had already made his controversial views on testing clear, even before arriving at the white house. There is absolutely no reason to require massive, widespread testing. Just weeks after his arrival and months into the pandemic, the cdc reversed their guidance to exclude most asymptomatic testing. The agency now says that people exposed to coronavirus may not need to be tested. Once i saw it and saw how it was being interpreted, i made sure it was changed because it was not the message the cdc was going to put out. It was not the message i was going to put out. As you know, thats why i changed that guidance. Was there pressure on you or the organization to put out a message like that . I wouldnt say theres pressure. You know, ive not been silent about my Points Of View that dr. Scott atlas, his perspective was, in my view, allowed him to illinform a lot of people. As a consequence, it kind of degaited dr. Birchs, dr. Redfields, dr. Faucis voice at the highest levels of government. I felt very strongly that i didnt want an action that legitimized in any way his position. Total Onlation Isolation is actually preventing the development of Herd Immunity where the actual network of infection can be blocked, protecting the vulnerable. When scott atlas said, hey, i think Herd Immunity in certain populations should be the way to go, i mean, what were those conversations like then . They were pretty heated because it is clear that dr. Atlas position is that we should just let it go in the healthy population to create Herd Immunity. That is not up for question. Day one when he showed up, that was very clear. It was written as his view. The subtly here, though, is he thought, as you could protect the vulnerable and let the well build up this Herd Immunity and dr. Birx and i and the rest of the doctors said this is a fallacy. They truly believe that that was possible. Cnn reached out to dr. Scott atlas for comment on the doctors views, but he never responded. We were not testing enough. Agreed. Were still not testing enough. I agree with you. I told you. Why not . People were talking about how many tests we have, rather than sitting back and saying how many tests we need. We need to be doing about five million tests a day to get testing positioned as a critical part of the mitigation plan. You know, obviously we started very late. I think they worked very hard to bring testing up, but we were always behind in testing. When we come back put your mask on, you idiot the clash between science and politics. Masks should have never become a Dividing Line in our country. Hi, im a new customer and i want your best new smartphone deal. Well im an existing customer and id like your best new smartphone deal. Oh do ya . Actually its for both new and existing customers. I feel silly. But i do want the fastest 5g network. Oh i want the fastest 5g network. Are we actually doing this again . Its not complicated. Only at t gives everyone the same great deal. Like the Samsung Galaxy s21 5g for free when you trade in. So jeff, you need all those screens streaming over your xfinity xfi. For your meeting . Uhh yes. And your lucky jersey . Oh, yeah. Lauren, a cooler . Its hot. Its march. And jay, whats with all your screens . Just checking in with my team. Of colleagues. So youre all streaming on every device in the house, what . that was a foul. Its march. And youre definitely not watching basketball. No, no. Im definitely not watching basketball. Right. horn blaring as scientists around the world worked day and night to create a vaccine for covid19, there were already simple things we could do to slow the spread of this virus. Wear a mask, wash our hands, physically distance. The same things we did more than 100 years ago, the last time a pandemic this deadly ravaged the world. But just like back then, some of us chose not to. In a country of plenty, we too often wait for science to rescue us. To pull us out of the fire. But the better choice, preventing the fire in the first place. My administration is recommending that all americans, including the young and healthy, work to engage in schooling from home when possible, avoid gathering in groups of more than ten people. We gave the strong recommendation that we really shut things down as best we can. How hard a sell itwas it . I thought he accepted it pretty well. I really did. Our government is prepared to do whatever it takes, whatever it takes. I think that at that moment in time the white house believed that this was serious. And i think part of what drove that is the president s understanding that he had a friend dying, part of that understanding was seeing elmhurst hospital and understanding that that could be repeated in 6,000 hospitals around the United States. When you saw how much that exploded in a way that we have never seen before but didnt just explode with the number of cases but almost overrunning of our health care systems. In the face of the unimaginable, the doctors devised an unprecedented 15 day shutdown plan, which ultimately expanded into 45 days. It was the doctors attempt to flatten the curve, to present a surge in cases and to buy us a time to answer the inevitable question. Now, what are we going to do . We cant stay shut forever, so lets open up. But if you want to open up, you better open up carefully. You got to have 14 days of coming down in the slope, and you go to phase one. And you have another number of days coming down on the slope. You may have some blips, but in general the trend has to be down. And thats how you wind up trying to open up. If you look at that opening up criteria, it was written and gained out so that no state could really make it through all of those gates before august, which i, in my mind, thought would give us enough time to really get testing and ppe and everything that we needed together. Thats not what happened. States that had been very good about the 45 days to slow the spread then completely ignored the opening criteria. I didnt see coming that no one would follow, really, the criteria, including the average american. So when memorial day came, it was it was shocking. Thats when i believe there was really a problem. Some try to do it right, but the constituents in the state didnt hardly pay any attention. Covid is a fraud it is a scamdemic. I got a reputation on the outside of not caring about the economy, only caring about the Public Health. But, you know, i didnt want to see the country go down the tubes. But i also was very adamant that if we did it correctly that we could open up the country and open up the economy and still not have a soaring of cases. I dont want to get emotional, but we have had enough. We have to support our families. Open arizona people are hurting. People are hungry. Its ridiculous. Other parts of the world seemed to have done a lot better. Was that a uniquely american problem . Why did this happen here versus other cases around the world . So i was in asia during sars. I could see the Population Move as one in many of the asian countries. Within minutes of the sars pandemic, every single shop in the terminal had masks on. They had the experience of masking entire society because of sars. They were ready. And they moved as one. Open us up mirroring our politics, conspiracies about the shutdown multiplied. And as the protests grew, the president chimed in. Our country wasnt built to be shut down. The thing that hit me like a punch to the chest was then all of a sudden he got up and says, liberate virginia, liberate michigan. I said to myself, oh, my goodness. What is going on here . It shocked me because it was such a jolt to what we were trying to do. And the then Policy Directive he gave to me in april which was the last time i really had any briefing with him in that kind of way was, we will never shut the country down again. Compounding the growing backlash against the doctors recommendations to stay home was a stark reversal in guidance from the cdc on an issue bizarrely politicized more than any other in this pandemic, masks. The cdc is now recommending the use of face coverings when any of us goes out in public. For several weeks, the doctors had been advising americans not to wear masks. We do not recommend them to be used by the general public. People should not be Walking Around with masks. On march 8th you told 60 minutes, you were not recommending masks for every day communities. We know its spreading asimilar toematically. Why not masks at that point . We were told at the level of the task force that we have a real shortage of masks, so we dont really want the whole country going out and trying to use up all the masks. Our Health Care Providers were putting themselves in danger every day of taking care of people who you know are sick. We dont want them to go without masks. So what changed . A, all of a sudden there was no shortage because you could get a cotton mask and you could put it on and you could be protected. Number two, we didnt know that cloth masks work. The third thing, it became imminently clear that asymptomatic people were spreading infection. The cdc is advising the use of nonmedical cloth face covering. The same day the cdc began recommending masks, the president publically dismissed them. I dont think im going to be doing it. And would continue to mock them throughout the campaign season. I wore one in this back area, but i didnt want to give the press the pleasure of seeing it. Maybe theyre great and maybe theyre just good, maybe theyre not so good. In fact, it was just the opposite. New studies revealed that masks and specifically double masking could prevent the spread of covid19 by upwards of 90 . But even after contracting the virus himself, the president was often seen without one of our most powerful tools at that time to stop it. Masks should have never become a Dividing Line in our country. I mean, if hes not wearing a mask, im not going to wear a mask. If hes not worried, im not worried. The president . Yes, sir. My constitution right and my civil right the divisiveness in our society that prevented us from attacking a common economy in a common way. And the enemy was the virus, but it seemed that we in our own country were fighting with each other, instead of fighting with the virus. I have to tell you, when we last met in november at the white house, this is postelection, the president , members of his family and people within the white house had been infected with the virus. And i was so struck inside at the white house at that time how few masks i saw. Did it strike you . Well, that was my world every day. There was a feeling in the white house from the beginning. And i dont know if this is true or not because i never confronted the president because i didnt have access to him by that time. That the president was not supportive of mask wearing in the white house. And that trickled down through every single leader. There was one event in the rose garden. It was made clear that they didnt want us wearing masks. And, so, all of the cabinet officials, and even some of the military members, took their mask off. Dr. Fauci and i did not, and you can see we are way in the back because they didnt want us front and center and masked. You were the Covid Coordinator and no one around you is wearing masks. That must have felt like you were being marginalized, that people werent listening to you. I was marginized every day. I would say a majority of people in the white house did not take this serious. Next that was a Line In The Sand for me. The doctors are pushed to their limits. And i finally had a moment in life where i said, you want to fire me, fire me. Enough is enough. So you want to make the best burger ever . Then make it that means cooking day and night until you get. ding . You got paid that means. Best burger ever. Intuit quickbooks helps Small Businesses be more successful with payments, payroll, banking and live bookkeeping. Like an Echo In The Forest [singing in korean] another day will return [singing in korean] like nothing ever happened locating your parked car with li the touch of a buttoned might seem. Excessive. Unless. Getting lost is the whole point. The harrys razor is not the same our razors have 5 germanengineered blades designed to stay sharp so you can enjoy lasting comfort and we never upcharge you for high quality harrys. Available in store and at harrys. Com and we never upcharge you for high quality Danafarber Cancer Institute discovered the pdl1 pathway. Pdl1. They changed how the world fights cancer. Blocking the pdl1 protein, lets the immune system attack, attack, attack cancer. Pdl1 transformed, revolutionized, immunotherapy. Pdl1 saved my life. Saved my life. Saved my life. What we do here at danafaber, changes lives everywhere. Everywhere. Everywhere. Everywhere. Everywhere. Tonight. Ill be eating loaded tots for march madness. doorbell thanks boo. Piano Glissando i think you better double them tots. No, this me was last year. I didnt get my madness last year, so were doing double the madness this year. Thats why at americas beverage companies, our bottles are made to be remade. Not all plastic is the same. Were carefully designing our bottles to be one hundred percent recyclable, including the caps. Theyre collected and separated from other plastics, so they can be turned back into material that we use to make new bottles. That completes the circle, and reduces plastic waste. Please help us get every bottle back. Scientists and doctors like to consider themselves above the political fray, immune to the whims of whichever party may be in power. The reality is far more complicated, particularly during a pandemic. This past year, if anything, has revealed the high price we all pay when science and partisan politics collide. So when did you officially take the job as commissioner . The 17th of december 2019. Heck of a time to become the Fda Commissioner. For sure. Six weeks after you formally take the job, they declared a Public Health emergency. I was concerned. I dont think any of us understood the magnitude of the response that would be necessary. Dr. Steven hahn was a washington outsider. A medical and radiation oncologist. He was most recently lauded for his role at top medical professional. His critics warned that his lack of Policy Experience posed some serious challenges for a Critical Role that requires deft political savvy. President trump began tauting hydroxychloroquine back in march. And you have hydroxychloroquine. I think it could be very exciting. You came up right after that and explained that Clinical Trials were going to be needed. We want to do that in the setting of a Clinical Trial, a large, pragmatic Clinical Trial to actually gather that information and answer the question that needs to be asked and answered. Just nine days later, march 28th, the fda issued an Emergency Use Authorization for hydroxychloroquine. Would you have done the same thing if President Trump wasnt tauting hydroxychloroquine the way he was . If there hadnt been that publ publicity, the need, in terms of the stress on the system and the shortages of the drugs, wouldnt have been there. Risk reward. Thats the metric that you use for a ua. Ultimately. Was the risk higher than the reward for that Eua For Hydroxychloroquine. We didnt think that initially because we made the decision to go forward with the eua. You had no basis. You yourself said we need to study this. So, with anything, you use the data at the time. And as you know, the center for Drug Evaluation Research used a published article that was performed, phase two trial, with respect to hydroxychloroquine that should benefit in hospitalization patients. It formed the basis for that risk reward assessment, plus 30 Years Experience with the drug. A lot of good things have come out about hydroxychloroquine. President trump even called it a gift from heaven. He was convinced that it would work. But it didnt work, and the fda revoked the Eua For Hydroxychloroquine two and a half months after it was first authorized. Their scientists had concluded that the drug was unlikely to be an effective treatment for covid19 and was even tied to serious cardiac events. Risk higher than reward. Do you think people were hurt because of that eua . We sent out a safety alert i think some time in april or may regarding the potential for increased risk of heart side effects. But i do believe once we collected the data and had the information that we made the Appropriation Decision and revised that based upon the data we had. You have had a year now roughly to reflect on that. Was it the right decision . I think it was the right decision at the time. I also think that the revocation of that eua was the right decision. What is the less son . I think my lesson from that is that the discussion around medical interventions for a Public Health emergency are best held by medical experts. Next . Next, please. When the president , from whatever podium hes at, talked about a therapeutic or some medical intervention, that became a political football, frankly. And it was an unfortunate situation. I will turn it over to dr. Hahn, if it is okay, mr. President. What was your relationship like with dr. Azar . Strained. There were certain situations where we had basic disagreements. And Laboratory Developed tests is a perfect example. Where are your tests now . In august after months after debate surrounding the fdas role in approving covid19 tests, Secretary Azar revoked the agencys power to regulate tests. That was a Line In The Sand for me because i knew this oversight was important and i knew the fda stamp of approval meant something. I can 100 assure you i did not shout and scream at the secretary of health and services. Did he shout at you . You should ask him that question. If the secretary of health is screaming at the Fda Commissioner in the middle of a Public Health emergency, thats a problem. Yeah. There was definitely that sort of pressure, sanjay. Its true. At the end of the day, someones trying to ask me to do something that i dont think is right, and my patient, the American People, need something different. Former Hhs Secretary alex azar told us in a statement that, quote, fdas illegal assertion of jurisdiction over common Lab Developed tests slowed the development of u. S. Covid testing and that dr. Hahns recitation of this call is incorrect. The only conduct according to azar was dr. Hahns threat to resign. Dr. Hahn told cnn he never threatened to resign on the call. I really had dreams that she was going to be unbelievable and i would have a great relation hit with the secretary. He would have total confidence and just let me run the cdc. Unfortunately i dont think thats the deal i got. I dont think thats the deal hahn got either. The cdc director had with the white house. I didnt have really difficult challenges with the white house. What happened . I think some of the ones that were the most notable that i was the most offended by was the calls that wanted me to pressure and change the mmwr. The mmwr is the morbidity and mortality weekly report, a cdc published roundup of Important Research on death and disease as well as recommendations. It is highly revered in the world of Public Health. Doctors and scientists of all stripes rely on these reports to inform their decisions, often decisions of life and death. I was on more than one occasion called by the secretary and his leadership, directing me to change the mmwr. Now, he may deny that, but its true. The one time that was the most egregious was not only was i pressured by the secretary and his office and his lawyers as i was driving home, his lawyer and his Chief Of Staff called and pressured me again for at least another hour, even to the point of, like, accusing me of failing to make this change that would cost, you know, thousands of lives. I finally had a moment in life where i said, you know, enough is enough. You know . If you want to fire me, fire me. Im not changing the mmwr. The former secretary declined our request to be interviewed. But provided a statement which states in part that, quote, any suggestion that i pressured or otherwise asked dr. Redfield to change the content of a single scientific Peer Reviewed mmwr article is false. In a separate statement, azars former Chief Of Staff, General Counsel and other senior Staff Members also pushed back at redfields account stating that, quote, Secretary Azar and his staff always regarded the mmwr as sacrosanct. Im struck because i hear of things happening in the United States and i think those are the sorts of things that happen in other countries. They dont happen here. And then you describe a situation like this, thats the United States . Its hard to believe. Yeah, it was hard. But one thing you will know about me, sanjay, is i spent 23 years in the military. I am a Command Chain kind of guy. And if i cant stay in the Command Chain, then ill leave. I will decide to stay as long as i think i still have value for the nation, and thats what i did. After the break what happened . I got called by the president. Another autopsy lesson. Were you threatened . Allergies dont have to be scary. Spraying flonase daily stops your body from overreacting to allergens all season long. Psst psst youre good if you have moderate to severe psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis, Little Things can become your big moment. Thats why theres otezla. Otezla is not an injection or a cream. Its a pill that treats differently. For psoriasis, 75 clearer skin is achievable, with reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. For psoriatic arthritis, otezla is proven to reduce joint swelling, tenderness, and pain. And the otezla Prescribing Information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. Dont use if youre allergic to otezla. It may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. Otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. Tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts or if these feelings develop. Some people taking otezla reported weight loss. Your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. Upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. Tell your doctor about your medicines and if youre pregnant or planning to be. Otezla. Show more of you. Years ago, while in Residency Training to become a surgeon, a favorite professor of mine told me something id never forget. I was on call for the first time, and as he was leaving me alone in the hospital, he said, call me if you need me. But if you do, it will be a sign of weakness. Through the years, i thought a lot about that conversation. What it said about him, about our profession. And mostly about leadership, the delicate balance of strength and humility, especially in a time of crisis. Which brings us to our final lesson. This is a novel coronavirus. How do you make Big Decisions in the face of so little known and so much uncertainty . You do it with trying to grasp as much data as you can within that really limited time frame, use experience and then maybe some good judgment. But there is a danger there because if you are in it, things are going to change. Dr. Fauci has seen quite a bit of change in his career. President biden is now the seventh president he has advised. Seven very different leaders. I had a very good friend, and he knew me well. And what he said was, do yourself a favor. Every time you go into the white house, whisper to yourself, this may be the last time im walking into the white house. I took his advice. I did it with clinton. I did it with george w. Bush. I did it with obama. And i did it with trump. The only trouble is, with trump it became much more dramatic because i literally had to get up and directly contradict something he said. You know, the answer is no. And that was something that, you know, we know the story of that. Fire fauci dont tell anybody, but let me wait until a little bit after the election. Some people, i think, give the idea that somehow in that environment there was a lot of pressure not to say what you had to say. That may be true from a number of people. I didnt experience that. First i want to thank you for your decisive leadership in helping us put Public Health first. You heard the president say, anybody that wants a test can get a test. It wasnt true. You also praised him. Well, i praised him for his leadership and his divisive leadership in shutting down air travel to china, which i did feel was a decisive decision which, having been in the room, there was a lot of pushback. Thats not to say i praised him for decisive leadership across the board. But i would like to say that i found the president to listen to what i had to say, really listen. So ill ask dr. Redfield, who is a real professional, to come up and explain. Please. Did you feel you were prepared to take this job as head of the cdc . Thank you, mr. President. Yes, i did. I know there is some that may not have felt that. But i think i trained my whole life for this. Do you want to respond to that . Do you have the numbers . Sure i have the numbers. People have had a lot of perceptions of me. They made that very clear. I understand that. Did i handle it perfectly . I am sure i did not. Our federal messaging was not consistent. I heard it from every state of how important the president and Vice President messaging was and how critical it was to get them on message. I was not capable of keeping the white house on a message. But i will tell you when i sat with the president and said to him, with these kinds of curves, its going to be worse than anything we have seen before. And i cant carry the message that the white house is carrying right now. And he looked at me and said, you do what you need to do. To me that was permission to really take the message that i needed and people should know, i flew to these places on his plane. And thats why we developed the whole state level strategy. Deb would be with her suitcase getting on a plane and visiting everybody. I would be constantly on the phone with governors and mayors talking about what they need to do. I would be allowed to be very frank. This is the least use of masks that we have seen. And that facilitated to be frank with regional and local press and governors and mayors and be very clear about Mask Mandates and closing bars and severely restricting Indoor Dining and all of these elements that i was never allowed to say nationally. Were you being censored . Clearly someone was blocking me from doing it. My understanding was i could not be national because the president might see it. You know, i dont want to get into rehashing the white house situation, but i can say without hesitation that the Vice President is a really good person, a good human being. And he really tried to get a discussion around. But the discussion, you know, it never got to the point where there were things that needed to be done that got up and were agreed upon right up the chain. For me, he provided me the only support that i got from anybody in leadership. Im going to yield to the expert. But ultimately the leadership the doctors needed and that americans were depending on was from the president himself. People are tired of Hearing Fauci and all these idiots. Were rounding the turn. They hate it when i say it. No matter what the task force did or said, after that initial shutdown in march, trumps public message never fully aligned with the doctors again. I knew i was being watched. Everybody inside was waiting for me to make a misstep so that they could, i guess, remove me from the task force. It is extraordinarily widespread, the Cnn Report In August that got horrible pushback. Everybody who lives in a rural area, you are not immune or protected from this virus. That was a very difficult time because everybody in the white house was upset with that interview and the clarity that i brought about the epidemic. I can tell just by reading your face that was a really tough time. What happened . Well, i got called by the president. What does he say . Well, i think you have heard other conversations that people have posted with the president. I would say it was even more direct than what people have heard. It was very uncomfortable, very direct and very difficult to hear. Were you threatened . I would say it was a very uncomfortable conversation. I think the idea that people may have been muzzled, when youre in the middle of the biggest Public Health crisis of our lifetime, is really concerning. Does he threaten you . He felt very strongly that i misrepresented the pandemic in the United States, that i made it out to be much worse than it is. I feel like i didnt even make it out as bad as it was. I mean, there was a lot of parts of the United States that werent prepared. There was a lot of antimaskers. There was a lot of covid deniers. And i was worried that the virus would intersect with that. For you, what is the Lesson Learned here then . How much of this was because of a lack of a national message, National Leadership on these issues . Absolutely key. I mean, the federal government did not provide consistent messaging to the American People. And that is fault number one. When we return, the conclusion of our covid autopsy. This is a war. What was the biggest failure . G loaded tots for march madness. doorbell thanks boo. Piano Glissando i think you better double them tots. No, this me was last year. I didnt get my madness last year, so were doing double the madness this year. You know when your dog is itching for a treat. I didnt get my madness last year, itching for an outing. Or itching for some cuddle time. But you may not know when hes itching for help. Licking for help. Or rubbing for help. If your dog does these frequently. They may be signs of an allergic Skin Condition that needs treatment. Dont wait. Talk to your veterinarian and learn more at itchingforhelp. Com. Youre clearly someone who takes care of yourself. So why wait to screen for colon cancer . Because when caught in early stages, its more treatable. Im cologuard. Im noninvasive and detect altered dna in your stool to find 92 of Colon Cancers even in early stages. Tell me more. Its for people 45 plus at average risk for colon cancer, not high risk. False positive and negative results may occur. Ask your prescriber or an online prescriber if cologuard is right for you. Im on it. Sounds like a plan. Im on it. Germ proof your car with armor all disinfectant. Kills 99. 9 of bacteria and viruses. As we continue to return to classrooms. Parents like me want to make sure were doing it safely. Especially in the underserved communities hardest hit by covid. Trust me, no one wants to get back to Classroom Learning more than teachers like me. Using common sense Safety Measures like masks, physical distancing, and proper ventilation. Safety is why were Prioritizing Vaccinations for educators. Because together, we all have a responsibility to do our part. And together, we will get through this, safely. A staggering 1 in 3 americans has now lost someone to covid19, according to a recent survey. One in three. It is a painful reality that has solidified this pandemic as one of the deadliest chapters in american history. But what is still yet to be written is what we do next. Will we as a nation heed the lessons of our failures . Or will we wait and continue to hope and pray that science will be there again eventually to rescue us. Drug maker pfizer is reporting that early data from its Vaccine Trial has shown it to be 90 effective. Are you there . Welcome. Hello, dr. Goodman. I get a call on my cell phone, and its al. He said, are you sitting down . And i said yeah. And he said, its more than 90 . And i got to tell you, it was like, oh, my god. It was it was just like this emotional catharsis. And then a week later, moderna got exactly the same results. It was like beyond your expectation. You dont always get a home run in science. The vaccine is a home run. It is a home run from the standpoint of how quickly and how exsent and how well the trials were done. But even with a home run in hand, some of the same pressures that plagued the doctors efforts throughout the response were also threatening their greatest success. Were very close to that vaccine, as you know. And i think closer than most people want to say or certainly closer than most people understand. How did that translate to you . I can just tell you from the f fdas perspective, yes, we felt pressure. The president never said that to you. Get it out as quickly as possible, yes, to save lives. That was the conversation. But everyone heard what was being said publically. What we did hear from the president was that he believed there was politics at play with respect to when the data was released, that it could have been released earlier, that it was done to hurt his reelection chances. I can categorically tell you from My Point Of View as Fda Commissioner that we did not play politics with respect to the timing of the release of the data. The fda is reportedly considering stricter guidelines for the Emergency Authorization of a covid vaccine. That sounds like a political move. It strikes me, mr. Hahn, the idea that that job, Fda Commissioner, which is so predicated on science and evidence and data, should also be a politically appointed job. In the spirit of this autopsy, are there lessons there Going Forward . Having a set term, potentially thats outside of the political schedule, if you will, i think there is some real benefits to the consideration of that. I personally have felt, and i will as a former cdc director, share my opinion to those that will listen that this job would be a 7 to 10year appointment. I think these are important jobs to get out of the political cycle, for sure. Cdc, fda, nih, these arent just important jobs. They represent our countrys most trusted scientific institutions. And over the past year, that trust has sadly eroded. A legacy of this pandemic that many worry will outlast all of the doctors who tried to lead us through it. Whether right or wrong, history will tell. I know we gave It Everything we did. We were honest with the American People. And i do believe that all of us want the Biden Administration to be enormously successful and to do things that we never did. Is this an emotional time for you . Yes, its an emotional time. I felt the lives of everybodys grandmother on my shoulders. When you see how other countries that are similar to us were able to get their children into school, you cant look at any of this and say it was okay. The best we could do seemingly if you look at the data was be the worst in the world in terms of overall number of cases. What did we miss . We have a terrific sick care system. We dont have a Public Health or well care system. And thats really the fundamental paradox. The reason the Mortality Rate is greater in america than these other countries is not because these doctors know how to take care of these patients. The reason is unfortunately the American Public is less healthy. A third of us can meet the criteria for being defined as obese. You dont find that in south korea. We saw that by the degree of comorbidities in our population. 90 of the individuals that died of covid had these comorbidities. People would say, look, i dont want to be the guy that authorized billions of dollars in spending every year for a threat that never happened. Yeah, a pandemic may come again but maybe not for another 100 years. Here is my answer to that is. We have seen what the cost of unpreparedness has been. We have 11 Aircraft Carriers. We invest in those at about 17 billion a pop to build. Were talking about one Aircraft Carrier investment to make america not only safer but healthier. I would hope that as a nation we realize that we cant do it this way again. Maybe you and i will be having this conversation again. I hope were not over a pandemic. But if we are, do you think things will be different . I cant guarantee it, but i hope so. Im nervous about the intensity of the divisiveness in the country right now. President biden is doing a lot of things to really get science back on track. So im looking forward to the next four years. The idea that you can get up here and talk about what you know, what the evidence what the science is after speaking with the doctors just days after the new administration took over it is somewhat of a liberating feeling. It occurred to me that only dr. Fauci will be able to continue his work and see this fight through until the end. Something that was not lost on dr. Birx either. I try not to think about this from a personal perspective because its devastating if you think about it from a personal perspective of what people are saying and how people have interpreted your actions. But it is important for america at this moment for them to have a clean break. Thank you, mr. President. Dr. Fauci has earned the reputation as americas doctor after all this. A lot of times people refer to you by your scarves. Why do you think that is . I saw it every place i went. Obviously i came up at a very difficult time. Very few women in medicine. Almost no women in the military. Thats the world that i have been in my entire life. Were just held to a very different standard. And i think we have to be very careful that a lot of these perceptions still continue. At the end of the postmortem you have to write down the primary cause of death. What would you write when it comes to this pandemic . Not being as prepared as we thought we were. And not implementing what we knew worked. I would probably write in the top line is a lack of transparency early on from china as a cause of death. I would say that we lacked the Public Health infrastructure that could confront the pandemic at the time we had to use one. I think its the environment in which the outbreak occurred in our country. We are so divided, and there is a lot of mistrust across the board in the u. S. And we need to overcome that and we need to come together. For me, one of the big ones was hubris. I think institutions that transcends personalities, it was this idea that somehow we could just weather our way through this. Whats the therapeutic for hubris. Well, i think what we have experienced, a hard lesson, a hard series of lessons. Thats the opportunity in the midst of this challenge. Where do we go from here . As bad as this was, it could be worse. And there will be another pandemic. Guaranteed. Hmmm. Where to go today . La . Vegas . No, the desert. Lets listen to this. Louder. Take these guys . I mean, theres room. Maybe next time, fellas. Now were talking. Alright. Lets. Go. If you have moderate to severe psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis, Little Things can become your big moment. Thats why theres otezla. Otezla is not an injection or a cream. Its a pill that treats differently. For psoriasis, 75 clearer skin is achievable, with reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. For psoriatic arthritis, otezla is proven to reduce joint swelling, tenderness, and pain. 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