A single line often inverts meaning once you see what it
answers, so neighbouring messages are always shown.
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Sept. 23, 2005 - Had very interesting and enjoyable evening at a reception at the home of Mark and Nicole Wallace in honor of Kristin Silverberg in celebration of her confirmation (a couple of months ago) as Assistant Secretary for International organizations in DoS as well as her birthday. Present among many others were a number of White House personnel such as Michael Gerson, Josh Bolten, Michael Allen, Randy Tobias (DoS), etc. Interesting part of the evening were the in depth and intense discussions that I had with Josh Bolten and Mike Gerson about the difficulties in funding the POTUS's planned programs over the next few years given the fact that Hurricane Katrina will cost over $100 Billion and Hurricane Rita is still percolating in the Gulf of Mexico. Important dilemmas - Do you let the deficit explode? Do you cut domestic programs (difficult to do since the amount would be trivial compared to what is needed)? Do you defund the war in Iraq (impossible)? Do you abandon all or (as I suggested) part of the Tax Cut program? Very enjoyable and interesting evening. The Wallace's live on 4434 - Hawthorne Street, which is 2 blocks from my house. Christine Grady accompanied me.
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Sept. 28, 2005 - Sec. Leavitt, Julie Gerberding, Bruce Gellin, General Gordon (CIA) and I briefed a groups of Senators on H5N1 influenza pandemic potential in a "top secret" briefing at the Capitol. Among the Senators were: Ted Kennedy, Barrack Obama, Tom Harkin, Durbin, Reid, Patrick Leahy, Max Baucus as well as others. Typical Washington phenomenon ensued - two days later they proposed an amendment to a Defense Bill for $4 billion dollars for H5N1 preparedness emphasizing buying Tamiflu instead of the balanced Vaccine/Therapy approach that we had suggested. In addition, they knew (we told them) that we were preparing a big ($7-9 Billion) supplemental request for the HHS FY2006 budget for vaccines/drugs. It was clear that they wanted to trump the Administration since the bill was proposed by Democrats as well as Frist, who is clearly positioning himself to run for President in 2008. I love it!!
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Sept. 30, 2005 - Appeared again (many times now) on the Lou Dobbs CNN Show to discuss bird flu. He obviously respects me very much. Of note, lately the DHHS people in OC (Bill Hall, Suzy DeFrancis Christina Pearson, and mostly Patti Conrad- I am not sure who is the culprit) have been hijacking the media requests for me when we ask for permission (routine) to accept. Usually these are "rubber stamp"; however they are trying to insert the secretary on shows that specifically ask for me. I feel that this is fine since the Secretary should trump everyone. However, they are lying about it since they are telling us that when they offer up the Secretary, the shows are glad to have the Secretary instead of me. However, I heard directly from Wolf Blitzer of CNN that he had specifically asked for me. The DHHS people called him up and said that I could not do it since I had a prior commitment and they suggest that the Secretary take my place. We had made it perfectly clear to the DHHS people that I was totally free and able to do it. They are really acting poorly. Why do not they just say that they want to insert the Secretary and not lie about it and give the networks the choice of me versus the Secretary. I guess I have no recourse. At the end of the day it will backfire on them.
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Oct. 6, 2005 - A fever pitch is on about the Pandemic Influenza preparedness related to the heightened awareness of the potential, the fact that new cases were seen over the past few weeks in Indonesia, the POTUS giving a speech before the UN General Assembly about the need for international preparedness, the meeting of Sec. Leavitt and I and others with CEO's off pharmaceutical companies, and a series of briefings that Leavitt, Bruce Gellin and I have been giving to members of Congress and Senators. Many media appearances by me despite the above steering to Leavitt. Leavitt himself has been terrific. We are quite a team with the media and the briefings. Today, Leavitt and I briefed the POTUS in the Oval Office at 1:00 PM. Hot sticky day for October. The POTUS had the usual extremely attentive and warm receptions for me. He joked that he had mentioned my name at a press conference that he held yesterday and he does that whenever he wants to appear smart. He just mentions my name and people assume that he knows what he is talking about. We had a few laughs about other things also. At the briefing were the usual cast of characters including: the VP, Andy Card, Josh Bolten Scooter Libby, Dan Bartlett, Scott McClellan, Fran Townsend, Tevi Troy, Rajeev Venkayya, Candi Wolff, etc. We briefed him in preparation for the meeting that is will have tomorrow in the Roosevelt room with the CEOs of Pharma to encourage them to help us prepare for pandemic flu.
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2005-10-07 00:00
Anthony S. Fauci
Oct. 7, 2005 - More media appearances, NBC, CNN, German TV, BBC, etc. Leavitt and I helped POTUS in the Roosevelt room talk with the CEOs regarding how we can engage them in building a vaccine production capacity. The POTUS heard from them what I had told him the previous day, i.e. that we much revitalize the production capacity not just for H5N1, but we must create a sustainable market and capacity for seasonal flu that will then provide a major head start in the event of a pandemic flu. CEOs present were: David Mott of MedImmune, David Williams of Sanofi-Pasteur, JP Garnier of GSK, Dick Clarke of Merck and Howard Pien of Chiron. Again, the POTUS was very interactive with me when he came in and left. He concentrated heavily on the CEOs during the meeting. Afterwards, Scott McClellan had Leavitt and I give a press conference in front of the White House. Multiple cameras, etc. I will leave for SE Asia tomorrow with Leavitt to visit Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Viet Nam, and Indonesia.
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October 8 - 18, 2005 - Trip to SE Asia as part of delegation of Secretary of HHS Michael Leavitt. Countries visited - Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Viet Nam, and Indonesia. Purpose of the trip was fact-finding in association with the threat of an H5N1 pandemic influenza. Delegation included Michael Leavitt, Paula Dobriansky (Under Secertary of State for Global Affairs), Jong-Wook Lee (Director-General, WHO), Kent R. Hill (Acting Assistant Adm. For Global Affairs, USAID), James Butler (Deputy Under Secretary of Agriculture for Farm and Foreign Agriculture Service), Suzy DeFrancis (Assistant Sec. for Public Affairs, DHHS), Julie Gerberding, Margaret Chan (Assistant Director general and Rep of WHO for Pandemic Influenza), H.E. Changchui (Assistant Dir.-Gen., Food and Agriculture Organization - FAO-), Alejandro Thiermann Pres. World Organization for Animal Health - OIE ), Kenneth Bernard (Advisor to WHO Dir. Gen.), William Steiger, Kerry Weems (Deputy Chief-of-Staff, DHHS), Vaughan Turekan (Special Assistant to Paula Dobriansky), Allyson Bell (Director, Scheduling and Advance, DHHS), Jay Hodes and Michael Lonetto (Security). Please see files for details of whom I met and when. I will list some of my impressions below. Major impression of the trip was the consistencies as well as the variabilities of the 5 countries visited. Thailand was certainly the most advanced. They were taking very seriously cleaning up and keeping clean the commercial poultry industry. They export chicken (mostly parts pre-cooked) all over the world. The problem is with the small farmers who have variable number of chickens in their back yards. The most disturbing yet very interesting was Cambodia due to a society that was still trying to recover from the Khmer Rouge genocide. It is a beautiful people; very Left IAD sensual looking. Men almost effeminate. The sexuality of both men and woman stood out. (This was also seen to some extent in Thailand.) The Institut Pasteur in Phnom Penh is the best science they have there. I was very impressed with Laos. I expected a stark, Communist-style society. It was very warm and friendly. People seemed to look upon us as if we were normally there. They did not stare, nor did they smille too much. They were "very normal" looking. Bill Steiger and I had a terrific time running around the track in the National Stadium. The Laotian National Track team was practicing there at dusk and we ran until it got dark. Viet Nam was amazing. Hanoi was a vibrant, bustling exciting-appearing city. The most amazing experience was trying to walk across the street with the motor scooters and cars going very fast and literally messing into each other from multiple different directions. It was incredible that they did not hit each other continually. The word from the CDC folks who were with us was that you needed to just cross the street and not look or speed up or slow down. Just cross at the same pace and the scooters and cars will avoid you. It was scary. Haiphong was a different story. It was more stark and gray. The Vietnamese women are incredibly beautiful. We stayed at the Hanoi Hilton - beautiful hotel, run by Vietnamese, but very western. It seems incredible now given the energy, beauty and talent of these people that we could ever had been at war with them for so many years. Interestingly, they seemed to love Americans. It appeared to be very genuine. Indonesia was similar to what I imagine Hong Kong to be. Many skyscapers in an Asian country. The polluted stench in the air was similar to (but not quite as bad as) Delhi.
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Oct. 8, 2005 (Saturday)- Left IAD
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Oct. 9, 2005 - Arrive Bangkok via Tokyo on commercial flight. Met by Ambassador Ralph (Skip) Boyce and Health Attaché Jordan Tappero. Skip was terrific and we hit it off very well during the trip. He knows Jim Huskey from prior DoS activities. He was in Beijing with Jim during the Tianman Square incident. Stayed at Conrad Hotel. Settled in at hotel. Extremely hot and muggy. This was just at end of rainy season and we expected rain, but got very little throughout the trip. However, I can remember the heat. Visited with deputy Prime Minister in the ornate, but beautiful Government House. Of note, the Deputy PM mentioned how happy he was that Thailand offered assistance to USA during the Katrina Hurricane disaster. Also met with Health Minister Suchai Charoenratanakul and Prat Boonyawongvirat Acting permanent Secretary. Our CDC is not entirely satisfied with the performance of the health ministry. The Thais seemed to be fixated on whether and how much Tamiflu the USA will give them for their stockpile. We celebrated the 25th Anniversary of the Thai MOPH - US HHS/CDC (TUC) Collaboration. Had multiple meetings and luncheons with United Nations reps and NGOs. Here and elsewhere, we had numerous Press Conferences. Suzy DeFrancis (Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs) clearly did not want Julie or I in the spotlight (see above comments). She literally kept the press away from us so that they would concentrate on the Secretary. The Secretary was cool about everything; Suzy was the problem. Had a great reception at Skip Boyce's house. Typical Ambassador's house and party.
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Oct. 11, 2005 - Next day we toured a typical commercial poultry farm - Charoen Pokphand Foods PCL.. Much press. We all suited up with protective gear (booties, caps, gowns, etc.). The commercial farms are very careful about bird flu and are meticulous in preventing infections. There was no history of infection in these flocks - all infections in backyard and small farm flocks. We visited a small poultry farm and saw the differences between commercial and small farms. Had lunch at airport restaurant and took off for Phnom Penh, Cambodia Arrived at Cambodia and checked into Raffles Hotel in Phnom Penh. Got a "Country Briefing" from U.S. Ambassador Joseph Adamo Mussomeli. He is a very good guy - relaxed and friendly, but very competent. That afternoon and evening we met with the Cambodian Minister of Health - Nuth Sokhom and signed a memorandum of understanding. Had a reception at the Raffles Hotel and then to bed.