A single line often inverts meaning once you see what it
answers, so neighbouring messages are always shown.
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July 14, 2005 - Lots of stuff going on. Had more Congressional Hearings. Today had Hearing on success or failure of Project BioShield. Testified before House Government Reform Committee chaired by Tom Davis (R-VA) and Henry Waxman as Minority. Also, Chris Shays there and Congressman Issa, Davis, Issa, Cummings. I testified with Stewart Simonson, and Joe Vitko (DHS). Interesting issues around current BioShield (BS) legislation. The original Bill for BS was strong and contained indefinite authority to purchase for stockpile as well as other strong incentives for industry. Remember when I went around to the House and Senate at the behest of the VP to push BS, several Senators and Members, particularly Sen. Byrd tried to neuter the Bill since they did not want to give big Pharma too much. Now we have a Hearing where the Congress is chiding us since we have not gotten enough products through BioShield. The reason is that the big companies do not see any major advantage since they have no liability protection, no tax incentives and no patent advantages, and not a big pot of money. This is an amazing irony. Went to White House for a regularly scheduled (have not been reporting on these) PCC on Pandemic Flu Preparedness. Co-Chaired by Rajeev Venkayya (HSC) and Lance Leggitt (DPC). Reps were there from every cabinet department, CIA, etc. I presented that we actually had a vaccine sine the results of the dosing shows a clear dose-response curve for the prime-boost. We tested 7.5, 15, 45, and 90 ugm and clearly 90 gave a good protective response after 1 dose and an amazing response after 2 doses. Now we have to figure out the right dose sparing (adjuvant) strategy and/or the right combination of prime/boost. On the way out of the WH, ran into Bob Woodward. Of note, I had just read his new book "Secret Man" about Deep Throat Mark Felt. I congratulated Bob on the book and discussed it a bit. Reauthorization language for the NIH has been circulating for comment. It is incredible. It give all of the power to the NIH Director by eliminating individual appropriations and by creating an IC within the NIH to "carry out" research. Importantly and I must put this in the book. Chairman Barton has threatened to a group of constituency groups who had come to him objecting about the bill that if any NIH IC Director publicly opposes the Bill, he will open an investigation of that IC until the person begs for the legislation. This is after they had "asked for comments". This is a clear case of blackmail and in my mind is unethical, and possibly illegal. I was told this over the phone by his Committee Staffer Cheryl Jaeger.
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July 14-22, 2005 - Looks like the Reauthorization Bill is getting some opposition from constituents; however, Barton is trying to ramrod it through. Zerhouni testified at House Hearing. It is still unclear how specifically he orchestrated this. My sense is that Zerhouni inadvertently created this monster in that he declared the NIH "broken" when he came in as Director. All he wanted was a little more power and some money to "be somebody". However, Barton seized on this to "be somebody" by radically changing the NIH. Zerhouni may now be left with unintended consequences of his early attempts at getting a bit more power.
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July 25 - 29, 2005 - One of the most extraordinary weeks that I have experiences (see below)
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July 25, 2005 - Briefed Secretary Leavitt on briefing that I will give tomorrow to VP Cheney on Biodefense countermeasure development. Leavitt will accompany me to the White House. Real good team at the DHHS with Leavitt and Chief-of-Staff Rich McKeown. They are very good people. NPR played the piece on "This I Believe" that I had pre-taped for them. I have received many verbal and e-mail comments from far and wide about how moved people were by the piece.
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2005-07-26 00:00
Anthony S. Fauci
July 26, 2005 - Briefed VP Cheney on Biodefense Countermeasure update for 1 hour. I was the primary and only briefer. Present were Sec. Leavitt, Scooter Libby, Carol Kuntz, Bruce Miller (Carol's Deputy), Stewart Simonson. We discussed progress since my last briefing of the VP as well as some of the problems that we are facing with BioShield 1. The Bill does not go as far as we had originally planned and the big companies are still not incentivized enough. We are left dealing with smaller companies like VaxGen, Acambis, and others when we really want to engage the Merck's and Glaxo-Smith Kline's. The VP loved the briefing and resonated very well with me and the group. While waiting in the upper West Wing Lobby to go into see the VP, I ran into Sens. Ted Kennedy and John McCain. Kennedy and I have evolved into a very warm and comfortable relationship over the years. This is only the 3rd time that I had met McCain, but I never really had a chance to talk to him before. Had nice conversation about the books that they are writing. Ted is writing a book about his dog.
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July 27, 2005 - Busy, Busy day. Briefed VP Cheney again for 1 hour, this time with Sec Leavitt on Pandemic Influenza. Also, present were Carol Kuntz, Julie Gerberding, Scooter Libby, Bruce Miller, Rajeev Venkayya, and some others. This is a prep for Sec. Leavitt's upcoming briefing of the POTUS on July 29. I will accompany him there also. Carol was not too pleased with the briefing. She confided in me that HHS does not seem to be as prepared and definitive as she wants (excluding me, she said). We (HHS team) worked on the briefing afterwards to make it better. Also, appeared on Diane Rehm Show (Susan Page substituting for Diane) to discuss Pandemic Flu.
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July 28, 2005 - Even busier day today. Spent 3 hours in White House Situation Room with Julie Gerberding, Carol Kuntz, Kristen Silverberg, Bruce Gellin, Michael Jackson (Deputy at DHS), Alex Azar, Tom Reilly (OMB), Joel Kaplan (OMB), Tevi Troy (NSC), Ken....., and others to sharpen and focus the presentation of Sec. Leavitt for the POTUS for the following day. Then Julie and I testified before the House Committee on Homeland Security, Subcommittee on Prevention of Nuclear and Biological Attack. Chaired by John Linder, minority - Jim Langevin. Also present were Chris Shays, Jane Harmon, Ed Markey, Normal Dicks, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Donna Christensen, Bennie Thompson, Ron Simmons, Bobby Jindal, Michael McCall, Jim Gibbons. Good Hearing for me, but only fair for John Vitko (DHS). Also testifying were Julie Gerberding and Gen. Eric Schoomaker. One of several Hearings on BioD. Norton gave Julie some flack (she always gets on Julie). After the Hearing we (Julie and I) went back to HHS and spent the next 2 hours again briefing Sec. Leavitt for the POTUS briefing. At the briefing were Leavitt, Rick McKeown, Alex Azar, Natalie Kochnour, Bill Raub, Bruce Gellin, Stewart Simonson. We are getting close to having it right.
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July 29, 2005 - Another amazing day. Spent a couple of hours together with Julie Gerberding and Bruce Gellin at DHHS again pre-briefing Sec. Leavitt for the visit with the POTUS. Then went to White House and briefed the POTUS for 1 hour on Pandemic Flu in the Roosevelt Room. The POTUS was very engaged and went back and forth in an animated and interested way with Julie and me and the Secretary. He vowed to do whatever is necessary to stop the onset of a Pandemic Influenza. He turned to Josh Bolten (OMB Director) and indicated that no expense should be spared. He essentially gave us a mandate to take care of this problem in no uncertain terms. Present at the briefing were: VP Cheney, Karl Rove, John Bolten, Andy Card, Harriet Meiers, Fran Townsend, Kristen Silverberg, Dan Bartlett, Scott McClellan, Mike Chertoff, Tevi Troy, Julie Gerberding, Sec Leavitt, and others. In the late afternoon, I showed around the NIH Michael Gerson who was with Miss America Nicole Johnson Baker and her husband Scott Baker. He was visiting the NIH to look around and get a feel for the place. We presented an HIV-infected IL-2 patient (Terry Brown) and discussed our IL-2 work. Then we went across the street and discussed malaria with Tom Wellums. Mike Gerson is very interested in domestic AIDS. He will get back to me to work on this since he wants to put an initiative of this sort into the 2006 State of the Union Address. Very successful meeting.
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August 7, 2005 - Major Sunday news day with front page article in NY Times predominantly quoting me) regarding the successful preliminary data from the NIAIDfunded H5N1 vaccine trial that showed safety and an immune response that would be predictive of protection. This is obviously very good news in our comprehensive plan for pandemic influenza preparedness. This article in the Times kicked off a very positive media frenzy with front page articles in virtually every newspaper (it was on the Times web page the night before and so other papers picked it up) including Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, Wall Street Journal (Web), AP, Reuters, etc, etc. I appeared on ABC Nightly News on Sunday night, NPR's All Things Considered" on Sunday, CNN American Morning on Monday AM. Very positive "ink" weekend".