A single line often inverts meaning once you see what it
answers, so neighbouring messages are always shown.
-
August 10, 2001 - Secretary Tommy Thompson came to NIH to hold a press conference to discuss the embryonic stem cell decision. He requested that I be with him on stage along with Claude Lenfant, Lana Skirboll, Ruth Kirschstein, and Audrey Penn (acting Director of NINDS). When he asked me to speak, I made a statement thanking him for his leadership (since he favored allowing funding all along) and also thanked the President for his courage in making a difficult choice, but one that will allow us to go 1 told him exactly NIH. forward and do some good for mankind. I also pointed out the important fact that now we can do head-to-head comparisons of stem cells derived from embryos versus adults versus fetal tissue. My comments appeared on the front page of the New York Times on August 11 and a clip of my comments was shown on the Lehr Newshour on the evening of August 10. I am sure that some scientists will criticize me for saying that the decision was a positive thing. However, it is clear to me that these types of people are clueless when it comes to the world of Washington, D.C. Furthermore, the far right will also be upset since I favored the use of embryonic stem cells at all. I care even less about what they think of my position. All in all, I believe that this was a good day for biomedical research. Lana Skirboll deserves much create for turning the President around.
-
August 12, 2001 - CNN in association with Time Magazine ran a special program on "America's Best in Science and Medicine". I was featured in an 11 minute segment along with 4 other scientists. This was in association with Time Magazine naming me one of 18 scientists as "America's Best in Science and Medicine". This feature appeared in the August 26 edition of Time that reached the newsstands on August 13.
-
August 13, 2001 - Bob Wood (Chief of Staff for HHS Secretary Thompson) phoned and said that Secr. Thompson and President Bush have been discussing my turning down of the NIH Director's job and they want me to reconsider and to name my own conditions including maintaining my Directorship of NIAID and virtually anything else I wanted.
-
August 14, 2001 - Terrell Halaska (Deputy Chief of Staff to Secr. Thompson) called with almost identical pleas as that of Bob Wood (see above). She mentioned that I am frequently mentioned at the White House and that the President wanted very much for me to be NIH Director. I told Terrell that I did not want to do this and explained to her that my reasons were similar to those 12 years ago when I said no to President Bush (the elder), i.e. I wanted to work fulltime on the AIDS epidemic and on Global Health and Infectious Diseases. She was very understanding and was quite complimentary to me, saying what an honor it was to work with me. Clearly, the phone call went well.
-
2001-08-15 00:00
Anthony S. Fauci
August 15, 2001 - As I had promised, I called back Bob Wood and told him exactly what I had told Terrell Halaska. Bob also was very understanding.
-
August 20, 2001 - Secr. Thompson spends entire day at NIH as part of his week at NIH. I presented to him on Global Health and Vaccine Development at NIH. Also, Gary Nabel and I gave him a tour of the NIAID Vaccine Research Center.
-
August 21, 2001 - Attended a meeting at the White House of the Policy Coordinating Committee of the Biological Weapons Conference group. Chaired by Robert Joseph (Special asst. to the President) and Richard Falkenrath (Deputy to Condolezza Rice). Present at meeting was Ambassador Donald Mahley, Special Negotiator at State Department for Chemical/Biological Weapons, as well as representatives from Justice Dept., State, DOD, DHHS (me, John La Montagne, William Steiger), etc. Purpose was to review document that the group put together (White Paper) as a policy that the President will articulate in association with the USA refusing to re-certify the Biological he Weapons Conference. The paper takes a high road approach about how to handle this problem, while recognizing that much of what was contained in previous agreements was unenforcible. John La Montagne and I had contributed to the scientific components of the white paper.
-
August 23, 2001 - Secr.Thompson on a visit to NIH again offered me the position as NIH Director and said that the President wanted me and that I could indeed be NIH Director, NIAID Director, and keep my Lab. I told him that I wanted to remain doing what I was doing at full speed and so refused his offer. He was extremely gracious and quite complimentary to me. He said that I was the most outstanding person that he had ever met ....really. He said that he would not ask me again unless I brought it up.
-
Sept. 11, 2001 - Day of infamy. I was in New York City at the time of the attack on the World Trade Center. Below is a note that I sent to Andy Saxon (in response to his concern for the safety of me and my family) after returning to Washington, D.C. that explains what happened: Dear Andy: Thanks for the note. I was actually in New York City about 30 blocks from the World Trade Center in a taxi cab getting ready to go to a meeting of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation at the precise time that the first plane hit. By the time I got to the meeting in mid-town Manhattan and went into the building, I saw on TV the second plane hit. It was the most horrible day of my life. I was not hurt nor was I ever in any danger; however, it is an experience that I will never forget. As you know, my father lives alone in New York, but his apartment is about 70 blocks uptown from the WTC and he is fine. Also, as you know, my girls go to school in Washington, D.C; however, they are reasonably far from the Pentagon. They saw the smoke from their classrooms on the grounds of the National Cathedral and as expected were emotionally traumatized. All DC schools were immediately dismissed and the children went home. However, Jenny, Megan, and Alison (not to mention Chris) were very frightened since they knew that I had just left for New York City that morning. I could not phone to tell them that I was OK since all of the cell phones and fixed phones were jammed. Finally, I got through to them and they were obviously very relieved. I feel very fortunate. I was stranded in NYC for a while, but finally caught a late night train out to DC. Washington is an eerie town right now. Military police are all over downtown, National Airport is closed INDEFINITELY, and F-16 jets are flying in combat formation all day and night over the city. The NIH has concrete barricades at every entrance and if your car does not have an NIH sticker and you do not have an NIH ID, you could be the Pope and you will not get on campus. This is true of all Federal Buildings. As you probably know from the News, the FBI now knows that there are several cells of terrorists still in the USA with plans to execute terrorist attacks, and Washington, D.C. is the prime target. I do not think that things will be the same around here. What a terrible situation for us and the world. Again, thank you for your concern. Best regards, Tony September 17 - 20 , 2001 - I have been called to several top secret meetings over a 4 days period at the White House with the National Security Council (NSC) in a group chaired by Richard Falkenrath (see other notes) to discuss short and long range plans for how to handle a bioterrorism attack, particularly one of smallpox. Also, several meeting in top secret format were held at DHHS in the Humphrey Building. People at the DHHS meetings include Stewart Simonson (Chief of Staff to Claude Allan), Scott Lillibridge, Claude Allan (deputy Secretary), Tom Month of Acambis company that is making smallpox vaccine, D.A. Henderson (Hopkins), Kathy Zoon (FDA), Ann Agnew (Exec Sec. OD/DHHS, John La Montagne (NIAID), James Meegan (NIAID), Bill Raub (DHHS), and others. Check files. At the White House (Chaired by Richard Falkenrath, Deputy to Condi Rice) there was Avis Bohlen (State), J.D. Crouch (Defense), Kenneth Justice )Commerce, Kathy Zoon (FDA), John La Montagne (NIAID), Bill Steiger (DHHS), Don Mahley (State), Michael Chertoff (Justice), General John Parker (Defense), Peter Jahrlin (Defense) and others. Check with John La Montagne and other notes. We discussed and provided 'White Papers" a) to justify our not agreeing to the renewal of the 1992 Bioweapons Convention because it is un enforcible and would also hinder our legitimate scientists workiing on biomedical research on these organisms. b) justification for not destroying the smallpox stores since we need them to do research to counter effects of a smallpox terrorism attack with diagnostics, vaccines, and therapy.c) Short and long range plans for countering an immediate or distant bioterrorism attack.