A single line often inverts meaning once you see what it
answers, so neighbouring messages are always shown.
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June 11 - 17, 2006 - Went to Tuscana with Chris and the girls for a few days and then went on to Genoa for the annual review of the Gaslini Institute. Wonderful time had by all. Stayed in an amazing converted farm house (to a villa) owned by a friend of Jim Huskey's from the Embassy in Florence. The weather was amazing - warm and totally sunny during the day and cold at night requiring a fire in the fire-place and blankets in bed. Sunsets over the Tuscan hills with a glass of chianti was incredible.
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June 20, 2006 - Did a one hour face to face briefing of VP Cheny in his West Wing office on pandemic flu. Also present was Carl Kuntz, David Addington (new chief of staff replacing Scooter Libby and Scott Diechman (new health person for the VP). As usual, it was a lively briefing. It is clear and Carol told me that the VP has said this that the VP very much looks forward to being briefed by me. The day was a typical hot sunny 90 degree day in DC.
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July 26, 2006 - Has been a busy few weeks with relatively mundane institute issues. Weather has been very hot - ~95+ degrees. Two days ago David Stout and Jean-Paul Garnier from Glaxo-Smith Kline called and briefed me on the great success of their H5N1 clinical trial using their proprietory adjuvant ASO3. They got terrific results with 3.8 micrograms X2 with adjuvant giving predictably protective responses in >80% of people compared to the Sanofi study (see above) that gave predictably protective responses at 90 micrograms X2 without adjuvant in only about 50% of people. I spent the greater part of July 26 with the press (mostly print - NY Times, Washington Post, USA Today, AP, Phil Inquirer, Bloomberg, Baltimore Sun, etc) as well as CNN (Christy Feig). This is an important advance in trying to prepare for a pandemic flu since it seemingly overcomes the obstacle of a prohibitive requirement of high dose.
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July 27, 2006 - Went to NYC to participate in the Pandemic Flu Summit at City Hall. Part of Secretary Leavitt's program of visiting every state and some additional cities within states to talk about pandemic influenza preparedness. Mayor Michael Bloomberg hosted us. Secretary Leavitt spoke about the history of the 1918 pandemic in Utah and said that he came from a small town. When it came to my turn to talk about the science of pandemic flu, I told the Mayor and the audience that I came from a small town called "Bensonhurst" and I brought the house down. I mentioned that my father was born a few blocks away on Elizabeth Street and Grand Street in Little Italy. The day was sweltering hot and sunny. I got an exciting ride back to LaGuardia by an attractive young security woman named April who works in the regional office of the Inspector General of HHS. She got me through traffic with sirens and blinking lights to catch my 3:30 PM Delta Shuttle in order to get to DC in time to pay respects at the retirement party of Carol Kuntz at the White House. In her office in private, I gave her a gift of a statuette of Dr. Joseph Kinyoun with the inscription: "To Carol R. Kuntz With appreciation from your friends at NIAID" She burst into tears.
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2006-08-15 00:00
Anthony S. Fauci
August 15-16, 2006 - Things have been fairly uneventful since last entry (July 27). I was one of the featured panelists at the 16th International AIDS Conference in Toronto on August 16. The session was "25 Years of AIDS - Reflecting Back and Looking Forward". Each of us gave a 7 minute presentation followed by a panel discussion. I spoke on the "Scientific Response". Also presenting was Peter Piot of UNAIDS, H. Broadbent (AIDS patient), Gregg Gonsalves, and E. Madraa (African Community person). Session Moderated by Richard Horton, Editor of Lancet, and chaired by Mark Wainberg and Helene Gayle (organizers of the conference). There were 30,000 people at the conference and about 6000-7000 people in the audience for our session. Of note, a group of USA activist wanted to protest the fact that the USG was spending $90 million dollars on prevention this year and they thought that all that the USG was doing was purchasing the Orasure quicktest for HIV. In fact, they were incorrect and a good part of the $ was going for actual prevention education. The group was very nice and almost apologized for disrupting my session. They stormed on stage with the usual chanting and signs that said "George, listen to Tony" and "This is only a test!" (referring to the Orasure test). They disrupted me for the agreed-upon 2 minutes and then let me give my talk. I started the talk by saying "Thank you for the kind introduction" and the audience laughed. The talk was very well received. The major theme of the meeting was "Time to Deliver", but the real theme was prevention. The meeting was opened by Bill Clinton and Bill and Melinda Gates. I did a lot of press during the meeting and after I returned (Diane Rehm Show).
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August 28-29, 2006 - Went to Amsterdam for the AIDS Vaccine 2006 Annual Meeting. Invited by Joep Lange. On the evening of Aug. 28 I was part of a "Town Hall" - type meeting in Amsterdam where we discussed "Viral Threats" The panel consisted of Ab Osterhaus of the University of Rotterdam, Marie-Paul Kieny from WHO, Jaap Goudsmit from Crucell. It was moderated by a Dutch TV anchor. I gave the Opening Ceremony Keynote lecture on the evening of Aug. 28 and provided a "provocative" talk on "An AIDS Vaccine: Will It Ever Fit the Classical Paradigm?" It was extremely well-received by an audience of about 1000. Others that took part in the Opening Ceremony were Job Cohen (Mayor of Amsterdam), Hans Hoogervorst (Dutch Minister of Health), Princess Mabel van Oranje-Nassau (Director, EU Affairs, Open Society Institute), Jean-Francois Rischard, Former VP of the World Bank, and David Salisbury (Director of Immunization, UK Department of Health). We had a beautiful boat ride down the Amstel River to the Maritime Museum followed by dinner with all of the speakers and Joep Lange at the Amstel Hotel. Charming evening, but the weather was raining and cool.
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Sept. 3, 2006 - Had a most interesting dinner over Ellen and Gerry Sigal's house in DC. Guest were Sherry Lansing (Hollywood producer - "Fatal Attraction", Black Rain" and former actress) and her husband, Billy Friedken (Multiple Academy Award winning Producer, Director and Writer - "Exorcist", "The French Connection", etc. ) He is now producing (successfully) operas all over the world. Also there were Joe Wilson, the ambassador involved in the big Washington issue of the Administration "misleading" the American public about WMDs in Iraq and his wife Valerie Plame , the CIA secret agent that was "outted" by Robert Novack's column and for which Scooter Libby has been indicted for perjury. It was a most interesting discussion. Valerie and Joe seemed like very nice people despite being trashed by the Administration. Valerie insisted that she was still under cover despite the fact that it is reported that she had a desk job when she was outted. Joe, as he has said on TV multiple times, feels that the WH officials are all a "bunch of liars". Also present were Washington power-lawyer (Watergate, Whitewater, 9/11 Commission) Richard Ben-Veniste and his wife Donna.
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Sept. 12, 2006 - Went to farewell reception at the Atrium of the Equinox Restaurant in DC for Michael Gerson (former speechwriter and current Assistant to the President). Reception given by DATA (Bono's group) Saw old friends their such as Erin Chapman Thornton and Jamie Drummond from DATA. Mike is going to do a regular column for the Washington Post and Newsweek. Later in the evening went to an "Alliance for Aging Research" dinner and awards night at the Four Seasons Hotel in Georgetown at the invitation of Allan Fox of FoxKiser Law Firm (old friend - formerly of Jacob Javits and Ted Kennedy staff). Dinner honored Sens. Orin Hatch and Evan Bayh. During Hatch's remarks, he specifically mentioned that he and I were dear friends and that I am one of the great heroes in medicine and public health.
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Sept. 13, 2006 - I played a major role in the 90th Birthday Party for Dr. C. Everett (Chick) Koop at the Cosmos Club. I delivered remarks. The 2 MCs were Hilary Clinton and Orin Hatch. My friendship with Sen. Clinton grows as she continues to be very kind and warm towards me. I roasted Chick a bit, and the audience loved it (see my written remarks). tion of the next