A single line often inverts meaning once you see what it
answers, so neighbouring messages are always shown.
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May 4, 2004 - White House (West Wing) - Me with Gary Edson and Patti Stonecifer regarding the HIV Vaccine Enterprise and the upcoming G-8 meeting in Sea Island, GA. We have come to an agreement that if the POTUS presenting the Enterprise proposal to the G-8, Gates will soundly applaud the effort and work with us to get it going. The USG will not promise an new money over and above the $500+ million that we already spend on HIV vaccine research (this is about 5/6 of the world's total of $640 million). However, we will challenge the other G-8 countries to endorse the Enterprise strategic plan and align current and future resources with the plan.
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May 12, 2004 - Big White House day! The President visited the NIH for a "No Child Left Behind - Read First" ceremony. It was held at NIH since the NICHD had some activities in this area. Ceremony held in Natcher Auditorium. I sat in second row and the POTUS recognized me from the stage and greeted me individually noting that I was in the audience. After his talk, he came down to "work the rails" and chatted with me for about a minute on International AIDS. He mentioned that he had just met with the Health Minister of Angola. He was as usual very complementary to me. In the afternoon had a meeting in the WH with Kristen Silverberg, Allan Gilbert, Randy Tobias, Joe O'Neill, Mark McClellan, Lester Crawford and many others about fixed dose combination ARVs (FDCs) and the PEPFAR. We have developed a plan and a roll-out strategy. After the meeting, went to Indian Treaty Room and had a going away reception for Richard Falkenrath of the Homeland Security Council (HSC). Had nice chats with John Gordon (chief of HSC), Tom Ridge, Josh Bolten, Carol Kuntz, Clay Johnson and many others.
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May 19, 2004 - Good day! Project BioShield legislation passed the Semate by a 99-0 vote. The White House asked me to attend a press conference with Sens. Frist, Gregg, and Kennedy as well as Secretary Thompson at the Capitol. We briefed the press and I answered several questions. TGT called me the "father" of the BioShield Bill.
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May 27, 2004 - Went to a nice retirement celebration at the White House (Indian Treaty Room of EEOB) for Gen. John Gordon (Director of the Homeland Security Council). I have developed a very nice relationship with John over the past year or so and he was very glad to see me there. Attending were Andy Card, Condoleezza Rice, Karl Rove, Harriet Meiers, among others. Getting ready to go on June 8-10 to Savannah, GA for the G-8 conference at Sea Island. The White House (Gary Edson et al) wants me there to answer press questions regarding the HIV Vaccine Enterprise Proposal that the President will make to the G-8. Gary asked me to get Peter Piot (Director of UNAIDS) to write an editorial praising the proposal at about the time that it is announced. I am working on this.
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2004-06-02 00:00
Anthony S. Fauci
June 2, 2004 - Testified before the House Commerce Committee on Science chaired by Mr. Bilirakis for the NIH Priority Setting in anticipation of reauthorization of NIH. Testified with Elias Z., Andy VonEschenbach and Nora Volkow. Tough questions, but the Hearing went well. Immediately went to brief an IOM Panel on Biodefense. They were very flattering of me and the work that we have done.
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June 3, 2004 - Busy day. Went to Ali's Lower School Graduation and rushed to testify at House Select Committee on Homeland Security chaired by Chris Cox with Jim Turner as ranking minority. Chris Hayes and Joe Barton were there. Many tough questions since the Presidential race is heating up and the Dems want to give the impression that the Administration is not doing enough on Biodefense even though we have accomplished a lot. I did very well. Immediately after the Hearing I rushed to DHHS and briefed Sec. Thompson on the G-8 meeting and the HIV Vaccine Enterprise. Then I rushed to the White House for a meeting called in the West Wing by Kristen Silverberg on the POTUS proposal (maybe) to facilitate vaccine development by addressing liability, intellectual property, tax benefits, and monopoly issues. After WH rushed to go to Jenny's Sports Banquet. She received MVP for the Diving Team.
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June 8-10, 2004 - Went to Savannah, GA (Sea Island) for the G8 Summit hosted by the USA. I was part of a White House Team that served as Presidential Surrogates to brief the Press before, during and after the President's proposals of initiatives to the G8 leaders gathered in Sea Island (UK - Tony Blair, France - Jacques Chirac, Germany - Gerhard Schroder, Italy - Berlusconi, Japan, Canada - , Russia - Putin, and USA). The other surrogates on the Team were: Elliott Abrams (Special Assist. To the president and Senior Director for Near-East and North African Affairs at NSC); Andrew Card (WH Chief of Staff); John R. Bolton (Under Secretary of State, Arms Control and International Security); James L. Connaughton (Chairman, Council on Environmental Quality); Glyn T. Davies (G8 Political Director); Kristen Forbes (Member, Council of Economic Advisors); Jendayi E. Fraser (Special Assistant to the president and Senior Director for African Affairs at NSC); Robert Joseph (Special Assistant to the president and Senior Director for Proliferation Strategy, Counterproliferation and Homeland Defense); Alan P. Larson (Under Secretary of State, Economic, Business, and Agricultural Affairs); Constance Berry Newman (Assistant Administrator for Africa of USAID); Randall Quarles (Assistant Secretary of Treasury for International Affairs); Condoleezza Rice (National Security Advisor to the President); Frances Fragos Townsend (Assistant to the President and Homeland Security Advisor); Dan Bartlett (White House Communications Director); Scott McClellan (Assistant to the president and White House Press Secretary); Gordon Johndroe (Laura Bush's Press Secretary); and Jim Wilkinson (Deputy National Security Advisor for Communications at NSC). My job was to brief the press at formal and informal briefings on the Health Issues which were mainly the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise (see above), the Polio Eradication Initiative, and to a much lesser extent, the Famine Initiative. I also briefed on the progress of PEPFAR the Global Fund for AIDS, Malaria and TB and the issues on Fixed Dose Combination (FDC) and co-packaged antiHIV drugs. The weather was beautiful and we stayed at the Westin Resort Hotel on Hutchinson Island in Savannah. All I did was work and did not get off the compound. The security to get on and off the compound was as tight as I have seen anywhere except for Iraq. The Press center was adjacent to the Hotel. I spent most of the time in the White House press unit with White House staff led by Pamela Stevens, Paul Morrell, Jim Wilkinson, Barry Bennett (Deputy of Communications, G8 Summit Planning Organization, Colby Cooper, Dana Perino, M.C. Koch, Jana..?, Corey..? and others. It was exciting to be there and I ran into virtually all of my reporter friends on the White House Press Corps including among others, David Gregory, Terry Moran, Norah O'Donnell, Ann Compton, Bill Plant, John Roberts. I had a great interview with an AP reporter Scott Lindlaw, whom I had not met before. The initiatives were very well received. However, as I have seen before, unpredictable events shape everything. Former President Ronald Reagan and died a few days before and the press was totally saturated with Reagan history and funeral news to the point that the G8 issues were literally pushed from the front page. I appeared on TV only one time on CNN and that was for an interview with Anderson Cooper on my impressions of Reagan's legacy on AIDS, particularly during the early years when he did not even mention AIDS publicly. I stated on camera that the criticism of this silence on the part of the activists was certainly justified; however, the activists are being too harsh (Larry Kramer wrote a piece calling him worse than Hitler) since many things occurred behind the scenes that were good. For Example he allowed me to go out and be proactive and speak on behalf of the gay constituents. Also, Surgeon General Koop was allowed to mail his report to every household in the USA. I also got some press with interview in foreign TV such as VOA, Al Jazeera, Canada National TV, BBC, etc. Also, a few mentions of my briefings in WSJ, and many papers that picked up the major AP story by Scott Lindlaw. Otherwise, there was much less press for the G8 in general and for me than would have occurred had not Reagan died.
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June 18, 2004 - Attended a farewell party at the White House for Gary Edson. He is leaving NSC to work in the campaign. His main job will be to prepare the POTUS for the debates with Kerry. I was the only non-WH person at the reception that was hosted by Condi Rice and Steve Hadley of NSC. In her praising of Gary for his work, she mentioned 2 accomplishments among many: 1) the millennium account, and 2) the PEPFAR. When she spoke of the PEPFAR, she caught my eye and said, "Oh Tony Fauci is here; they were the team that did this. Tony was the brains and Gary was the brawn".
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July 9, 2004 - 2 meetings in West Wing. First was a top secret briefing of Fran Townsend, the new Director of the Homeland Sceurity Council. She replaced Gen. John Gordon who retired in June (see above). Present at the briefing were Ken Bernard, Bob Kadlec, Larry Kerr, Kate Spitler (CIA) and some others. Purpose was to brief Fran on the experiments that were being proposed regarding genetically engineered monkeypox virus to duplicate what was shown in the mousepox model where inserting the IL-4 gene into mousepox made it lethal and elusive for both vaccine and therapy. Debate was whether to do experiments and whether to classify them. Purpose of doing experiments was to determine whether the mousepox work also applied to the monkeypox. In addition, if it did, then we needed to develop countermeasurs such as anti-IL-4 drugs. Fran was extremely complimentary to me saying that above all people, she wanted to know what my opinion was and she wanted me to explain the details and implications of the experiments. Next meeting was in the office of Faryar Shirzad (replaced Gary Edson on NSC; see above). Present was Martina Strong. Purpose was to plan the Fall meeting of the G-8 Vaccine Enterprise as promised by the POTUS. We discussed what the format of the meeting should be and what level of representation from G-8 countries should be there. I suggested at least a top scientist from each country and then for formality, we should have the Ministers of Health there after the strategic plan had been finalized.