thank you message from king holmes, for dr anthony fauci
1 messages over —, 2021-09-21 – 2021-09-21.
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Dear Tony, Thank you so very much for taking time out of your busy schedule to record and forward that very kind and complimentary birthday video in time for my September 1st Birthday. I have been one of your many fans since the earliest days of the AIDS crisis. Your support via the NIH, especially in building our Department of Global Health, has enabled the University of Washington to have national and international impact in many ways. It is especially meaningful to have a trusted, respected, and talented colleague like yourself offer such a wonderful tribute. I certainly return your regard, with much appreciation! After we received your video, I was telling my assistant about the days when you were taking on leadership at NIH, and how you appointed me to chair one of the new committees you formed. What a fantastic opportunity that was, and how many of my greatest friendships were begun and deepened in those early days of the NIHAIDS initiatives for research, prevention, and treatment of HIV/AIDS and HIV/AIDS coinfections. It's hard to believe that we have come so far in de-stigmatizing STDs and HIV/AIDS, and have successfully advocated for higher funding priorities at the national and international levels for all such infectious diseases over the course of our careers. On that note, I have also been following your work on the current pandemic with much interest and great respect. Your own career has spanned such a prodigious era of infectious disease research, from Ebola to the current pandemic, and your reputation as a reliable, straight shooting, "scientist's scientist" is fully deserved. You have navigated difficult political waters and public anti-scient biases with aplomb and at the NIH have kept a steady hand on the tiller as we navigated the most recent rise of an entirely new pandemic virus, demonstrating principled and fact-based scientific rigor at every stage. Your example serves to educate everyday citizens to the merits and reasonable expectations of science and the scientific process, thus becoming an ambassador for science to new generations, as well as to a few older ones - who seem to have embraced your wisdom with more than the usual enthusiasm Scientists engender. New fans of yours now "Fauci" (i.e. lose the phone number of) a date who doesn't wear a mask or refuses to get vaccinated. Now that is a practical public health trend! I must admit that I have succumbed to the Fauci fandom that has (justifiably) arisen in your wake. A few months ago, I was proudly wearing my Fauci socks when my son, King Jr. came over to join me for a walk - and showed me his own Tony Fauci socks. Clearly, I have taught my kids (and grandkids) well. W UNIVERSITY of WASHINGTON In closing, I know that you have multiple demands on your time and attention, so I am exponentially gratified by the time you took to make my birthday greeting so memorable. You are a truly great human being, in addition to being a world-class scientist and public health leader. Warm regards, King KING K HOLMES, MD, PHD Distinguished Professor Emeritus / Department of Global Health Professor Emeritus / School of Public Health Professor Emeritus / School of Medicine Director Emeritus / UW/Fred Hutch Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) Co-Director Emeritus / UW Center for AIDS and STD University of Washington office: 908 Jefferson Street / 13th Floor, Room 1311 mail: HMC # 359931 / 325 Ninth Ave / Seattle, WA 98104 phone 206.744.3620 / fax 206.744-3694 exec assistant: Elisabeth Gunningham / eg01@uw.edu kkh@uw.edu / globalhealth.washington.edu Everyone is tense about how things are going to turn out between the FDA authorization and the CDC recommendation. Jeff is very concerned and wants me to keep "mentoring Rochelle about the fact that she needs to show leadership and letting the ACIP know how she feels about what the recommendation should be. She seems reluctant to give any indication to them what you think should be done , thus leaving it totally up to them, where by she blindly follows their recommendation . This is driving Jeff, Larry Horowitz, and Leslie Dach completely crazy with frustration. They feel that she is showing no leadership qualities at all. I feel for her because I think she wants to do the right thing but he's very inexperienced in this role. The FDA came out with a decision that is inexplicable. Checkout 3rd bullet that is no different from the 2nd bullet: • individuals 65 years of age and older; • individuals 18 through 64 years of age at high risk of severe COVID-19; and • individuals 18 through 64 years of age whose frequent institutional or occupational exposure to SARS-CoV-2 puts them at high risk of serious complications of COVID-19 including severe COVID-19. Now we have a serious problem of how the CDC is going to interpret this regulatory approval . Clearly there is strife within the FDA which lead to this completely confusing authorization. Rochelle has her own problems with the acip who are not going to want to recommend anything for people less than 30 or 40 years old. What a mess. Let us see if in the long run we can make some lemonade out of these lemons. PRESS: CBS Major Garrett "The Takeout"; Washington Post 202 Blog with Jackie Alemay