A single line often inverts meaning once you see what it
answers, so neighbouring messages are always shown.
-
Nov. 5, 2003 - Meet in my conference room with Israeli Ambassador to the USA - Daniel Ayalon to discuss potential for collaborations with Israel. We got along very well; he is quite engaging. We discussed scientific collaboration as well as our difficult situation in Iraq with the insurgency and terrorism.
-
Nov. 6, 2003 - Meeting at the EEOB (White House) to discuss how I will brief the VP on
-
Nov. 7, 2003 - Still sorting out the likely anthrax contaminant at the Anacostia Post office. Met in my office today with the South African activist who last year refused to be treated with ART for his HIV because the S. African government was not providing treatment for the rest of the country. He is a very gentle person and a true hero. He just wanted to come and meet with me.
-
Nov. 13, 2003 - Met with the PCC (Policy Coordinating Committee) regarding the response to the Fink report. The PCC adopted for the most part the responses of the DHHS to the Fink report. We (Stewart Simonson, Stuart Nightingale, Amy Patterson, Lana Skirboll, John La Montagne) have been working on DHHS's response for several weeks now. Also, I was on conference call this afternoon with Secret Service, DHS, DHHS, FBI regarding a letter that contained ricin that was sent to Greenville, SC; however, now a letter addressed to the White House also containing ricin has been discovered. The discussions among the Secret Service, FBI, Department of Transportation, etc. is chaos. It is somewhat embarrassing. The discussion centered around the investigation and not the public health issues until DHHS (Bob Blitzer) brought up the fact that we really need to find out who might have been exposed. This phone call was like the Keystone Cops!
-
2003-11-14 00:00
Anthony S. Fauci
Nov. 14, 2003 - Continual conference calls regarding the ricin incident. It turns out that someone crushed some castor beans and stuck crude material into an envelope to blackmail the Dept. of Transportation. Letter was also sent to WH. Bottom line - no health threat.
-
Nov. 20, 2003. VP wants me to take care of the Nucl/Rad countermeasure situation since he does not have confidence in the scattered others. Issue is that this is not my primary area of expertise. He wants me to do it anyway. Nice compliment, but this will be a lot of work. Also, Anthrax situation evolving at Anacostia Naval Post Office. Possibly contaminant.
-
Nov. 20, 2003 - Went to West Wing of WH to brief VP Cheney on Nuclear and Radiological Threat Countermeasures. As I was crossing Pennsylvania Avenue to enter West Wing at 9:30 AM, there was an alarm that a small aircraft had encroached upon WH airspace. WH was evaculated and many machine gun armed Federal police appeared. After a while they let us in, but the VP had already been scooped off to safety and so the meeting was cancelled and rescheduled for a few days from now. President Bush was in UK at the time.
-
Nov. 25, 2003 - Briefed the Vice President today with Scooter Libby, Stewart Simonson, Carol Kuntz and Jorge Tavel in attendence. I spoke about Nuclear/Radiological countermeasures and our need for a strategic plan and the need for someone (us - DHHS/NIH) to take the lead in this since the effort is fragmented and DoD has been neglecting this area since the end of the Cold War. I also gave him a progress report on our microbial biodefense program. He loved both presentations and related to Carol, (who told me) that the briefing was "very impressive, very impressive, in fact great!" I am still having trouble with Zerhouni who is infuriated that the VP's people are "excluding him" from these briefings. In fact, they merely maintain that the VP does not like crowds and he does not like the chain of command to be present on briefings to him. Zerhouni cannot accept that. I am trying to explain this to Zerhouni, but he is just plain angry.
-
Nov. 28, 2003 - Significant Influenza A activity already with a variant strain (Fujian) that is not contained in current vaccine. This is quite early for heavy burden of influenza cases. 4 deaths of children in Colorado. Concern mounting that we will have a very bad year. I have been on CNN (X2) CNBC and Good Morning America over the past 2 days to talk about this.