August 21, 2003 --I

In context

A single line often inverts meaning once you see what it answers, so neighbouring messages are always shown.

1. 2003-07-12 00:00 Anthony S. Fauci open
   July 12-18, 2003 - Trip to Paris for the 2nd Annual International AIDS Society (IAS) meeting. I gave the "Extraordinary Plenary" lecture on Monday, July 14 on the topic of "HIV and AIDS: 20 Years of Science". I was immediately followed by Nelson Mandela who gave a lecture on the societal aspects of 20 years of AIDS. My talk was extremely well received; many said that it was the best talk that they had ever heard me give. There were >5000 people in the main auditorium at the Palais de Congres in Paris. Of particular note was the fact that prior to leaving for Paris, Dr. Brian Brink who is the Senior Vice President for Health of Anglo American Corporation, a gold mining firm in South Africa had contacted me. Brian is an advisor to Mr. Mandela on HIV/AIDS and was asked to write Mandela's speech for the meeting. Brian called me and asked for suggestions about what Mandela should say. I mentioned to Brian that Mandela had been seriously criticizing Pres. Bush for the Iraq war and that it would be very important for Mandela to publicly congratulate and praise Bush for the $15 billion Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. I said that Mandela would lose credibility if he did not do this. I even made up a paragraph for him to put into the speech. Brian agreed, but said there was no guarantee that Mandela would actually include it in the speech. To my great pleasure, Mandela included the paragraph practically word-for-word. I let Jay Lefkowitz know about this by e-mailing him from Paris. Jay was very pleased and said that he would mention this to the President.
2. 2003-07-19 00:00 Anthony S. Fauci open
   July 19-30, 2003 - Have had a number of briefings with TGT as well as the VP's staff (Carol Kuntz et al) on various subjects such as smallpox, anthrax, SARS, etc. Constituencies still upset that NIAID will have to do advanced development and some procurement of rPA anthrax vaccine to the tune of about $250 million even though the Congress removed the $250 million from our budget that OMB put in to do this. Josh Bolten (now OMB Director, replacing Mitch Daniels) has allowed us to spend this over 2 years instead of 1 year. Nonetheless it will be a burden. There are philosophical questions here regarding how much advanced development should be done by NIAID versus the drug companies. We are trying to allow BioShield to pay for some of the advanced development instead of limiting it just to the actual procurement of countermeasures.
3. 2003-08-01 00:00 Anthony S. Fauci open
   August 1, 2003 - Briefing at the White House. Two parts to the briefing. Jorge Tavel and Heather Wingard of CIA briefed on threat assessments and I briefed on Countermeasure Development. Present at briefing were: Carol Kuntz, Stewart Simonson, Andrew Hallman (CIA), Heather Wingard (CIA), Dr. McCreary (DHS), Bill Parrish (DHS), Parney Albright (DHS), Sally Stanfield (DHS), Ken Bernard (OHS), Jorge Tavel (OVP), Richard Falkenrath (for while, OHS), Julie Gerberding (CDC) Carol was very pleased with my presentation as I touched on all of the points that we had previously discussed with the Vice President such as genetically modified organisms, botulism, etc.
4. 2003-08-01 00:00 Anthony S. Fauci open
   August 1 - 21, 2003 - Summertime lull. Usual issues. Zerhouni pushing his "Roadmap" agenda . Few people can figure out what it really is and how it will be implemented. IOM report on the "Structure of NIH" came out. As usual, they commented on things that they were not asked to comment on. They pushed having greater resources in the Office of the NIH Director and having more "high risk" research to be managed out of the OD as well as trans-NIH research planned out of the OD. Seems like Zerhouni wrote the report. Also, and amazingly, they recommend 5 year term limits for IC Directors with the possibility of only 1 five year renewal.
5. 2003-08-21 00:00 Anthony S. Fauci
   August 21, 2003 --I
6. 2003-08-28 00:00 Anthony S. Fauci open
   August 28, 2003 -- Showed General John Gordon (Director of White House Office of Homeland Security) around NIAID , i.e. Vaccine Research Center where Gary Nabel and I gave him a tour and also Building 40 with Brian Murphy. Gordon loved it and was quite impressed. With us were Stewart Simonson and Ken Bernard.
7. 2003-08-29 00:00 Anthony S. Fauci open
   August 29, 2003 -- Briefing of General Gordon in Situation Room of White House on update of biodefense efforts. DoD also briefed as did Parney Albright of DHS. I have a new friend in General Gordon. August 30 -- Sept.7, 2003 -- Usual stuff going on. Will return to WH to brief Gen. Gordon again since he asked about my concems where I had mentioned the gaps in Chem. and Rad. Biodefense during my last visit to the WH. Also, have been discussing with Bob Kadlec the possibility of going to Iraq with him to visit the medical people and establish contacts. Moral at NIH very low due to the lack of clarity of Elias Zerhouni as to exactly what he is
8. 2003-09-11 00:00 Anthony S. Fauci open
   Sept. 11, 2003 -- Briefed General John Gordon in the West Wing of the WH on our plans for Chem/Rad/Nucl countermeasure research. Also, the question of the "breakthrough" by Craig Venter in synthesized the Phi X bacteriophage in 10 days. DoE is selling this as a major breakthrough and the WH has reacted by wanting to restrict the research dissemination. I argued that this is important, but it is not a conceptual breakthrough, only a derivative improvement in technology that is already widely disseminated in Biotech companies and private scientists. I argued for transparency as well as cultivating a culture of responsibility among scientists by a RAC-type approach to this research. Present at the briefing was Gen. Gordon, Stewart Simonson, Ken Bernard, Fran Townsend (Deputy to Gen. Gordon and former CIA Associate Director). They loved the briefing. They want me to brief the deputy secretaries tomorrow and Andy Card next week.
9. 2003-09-12 00:00 Anthony S. Fauci open
   Sept. 12, 2003 -- Gave another briefing in the Situation Room of the White House to General John Gordon. Present were Ken Bemard, Carol Kuntz, Robert Card (Deputy Secretary of DoE), Ari Patrinos, Phil Russell, Larry Kerr, Harriet Meiers -- Deputy to Andy Card. Topic was the Craig Venter situation. I presented the facts and pushed for an NIH RAC-like approach and argued again for transparency and cultivating a culture of responsibility. Adjourned with Carol Kuntz to her office and discussed the anthrax threat and the capabilities of Al Quaeda in this regard. Will brief the VP within a couple of weeks on a progress report of biodefense at NIH.

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