A single line often inverts meaning once you see what it
answers, so neighbouring messages are always shown.
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Sept 25-27, 2006 - Trip to San Francisco for International Assoc. of Physicians for AIDS Care (IAPAC) and ICAAC meetings and to speak at The Commonwealth Club. I gave talks on HIV/AIDS - the next 10 years (ICAAC); the decade of HAART (IAPAC) and emerging diseases (Commonwealth Club). The talks and the trip was a roaring success. Great weather, spent Sunday with Bob and Colleen Grady and Matthew and my family (minus Jenny in Brazil). Great hotel in SF - the "W" across the corner from the Mosconi Center
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Oct. 10, 2006 - Attended the swearing in ceremony for Mark Dybul as the U.S. AIDS Coordinator with the Rank of Ambassador at the State Department (Benjamin Franklin Room). Presiding was Secretary Condi Rice with Laura Bush present. I was given a "seat of honor" in the first row - sat next to Michael Gerson (former speech-writer for Pres. Bush). During her remarks, Condi specifically mentioned me - telling the story of how this all started (PEPFAR) years ago when the POTUS had his staff including Condi in the Oval Office and the POTUS was told by Tony Fauci, who is here with us today, that a lot of progress has been made in the treatment of HIV disease so that we could have a global impact. The day was a beautiful Fall day - bright sun and 75 F.
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Oct. 19, 2006 - A lot of political maneuvering regarding the election of the next Director-General of WHO Kristen Silverberg (now at State as Assistant Secretary) asked me about it at a dinner at Mark Dybul's house the day before his swearing in (see above). The 2 candidates that I prefer are either Margaret Chan (Hong Kong) or Julio Frenk (Minister of Health of Mexico). Shigeru Omi from Japan, Bernard Kouchner from France (MSF), and Pascoal Mocumbi (Mozambique) are also among the contenders. Christopher Murray from Harvard called me today to push for Julio Frenk since he feels that he is the one who understands best the connection between science and public health. He knows that the White House has been and will contact me for my opinion and so that is why he called.
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Oct. 20, 2006 - Served on a Panel at the Annual meeting of the White House Fellows Foundation and Association held at the Chamber of Commerce. Subject was "Community Engagement and Preparedness" relating to terrorist and natural disaster threats. On panel with me was Lee Hamliton, former co-chair of the 9/11 Commission and Patricia McGinnis, President and CEO of the Council for Excellence in Government. Had nice conversation with Lee Hamilton who is the Director of the Woodrow Wilson Center in DC (he has been a friend for a few years). Lee has been asked by President Bush to join with James Baker to come up with some alternative approaches to settling the quagmire in Iraq, i.e. a mid-course correction.
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2006-10-21 00:00
Anthony S. Fauci
Oct. 21, 2006 - Went to NIAF annual dinner at the Hilton Hotel with Chris. Usual celebrity show. Many friendly interactions with media (David Gregory of NBC; Sam Donaldson of ABC; etc). Hilarious impersonation of George W. Bush by comedian. I received this award in 1994. Major awardee tonight was Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.
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Oct. 22, 2006 - Went to the Grand Opening of the House of Sweden (Swedish Embassy plus offices and art shows) on Georgetown Waterfront (right next to Sequoia restaurant). King Carl Gustav and Queen Sofia were greeting everyone. Amazingly beautiful structure with views of the canal and the Potomac. Crisp Fall night with bright stars. Of note, Queen Sofia asked specifically to speak with me after the greeting line finished since she had been told of my work with HIV/AIDS. She is committed to helping Russia with its problem of HIV since she feels that the Russians would be more amenable to getting help from the Swedes than from the USA. She wanted to talk about how we (she and I ) could work together on this. Had good discussion with Kristen Silverberg about the problems the Administration is having.
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Nov. 28, 2006 - Attended and spoke at the Aspen Symposium in DuPont Circle (DC). It was an unusual gathering of Iranian scientists meeting with various US officials, particularly in the Dept. of State and HHS. I was a main speaker and exchanged information with Iranians on HIV/AIDS, TB, and other diseases in Iran. It was surprisingly frank and open given the tense relations between USA and Iran surrounding the Iranian nuclear program. If fact, the Iranians who came to the USA were a bit nervous about the political fall-out for them. I dealt with Kamiar Alaei and his brother Arash Alaei on ID issues in Iran. Also present was Dr. Abolhassan Nadim, the Chair of the Iranian Epidemiological Association.
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Dec. 2, 2006 - Annual Christmas Party at Sam and Jan-Smith Donaldson's House in McLean. Have been going to these parties for at least the past 10 - 15 years. The usual interesting and warm crowd was there. This party is probably the most friendly of all of the D.C. "glitterati" parties, mostly because of the warmth and friendliness of Sam and Jan as well as the fact that the same people come every year +/- whoever is hot at that time in the news. Over the years, we have run into virtually everyone who is "known" in DC. Some highlights from this year. Nice conversation with Colin Powell about AIDS in African-Americans. The recent UNAIDS numbers are out showing that of the new infections in the USA, among men, 50% are in Blacks and among women 65% are in Blacks. On Nov. 30, I was supposed to be on the CNN Paula Zahn Show speaking about this, but at the last minute, their producer (Marie....) cancelled because she said that they have a guest who is really the "face of AIDS, since she got infected from her boyfriend by heterosexual sex". Turns out the guest is Regan Hoffman, the editor of POZ Magazine. Regan is a beautiful, blond, blue-eyed WASP from Connecticut who clearly accidentally got infected from her white boyfriend who was almost certainly bisexual. For every one of these, there are 10,000 poor black girls in an inner city area who got infected from their drug-user boyfriends. So there they were: beautiful, blond, blue-eyed and wealthy Paula Zahn speaking on TV with beautiful, blond, blue-eyed (likely also wealthy) Regan Hoffman smiling and saying how grateful she is that she has all the opportunities for treatment. Her only "concern" is that the mother of her new boyfriend was concerned that she was infected; but now all is well because the boy's mother is an "educated person". I had watched this on TV and almost vomited. This was as far from the reality of what the "face of AIDS" is than I could ever imagine. On Nov. 29 at a big HIV Prevention Meeting at the Mandarin Hotel in DC chaired by John Bartlett of Hopkins and Ken Mayer of brown, one of the themes and the points that I made in the press conference is that AIDS in the USA was assuming the face of a young black woman. My good friend Phill Wilson (CEO of the Black AIDS Institute in LA) gave an eloquent talk on this subject and he should have been with me on CNN instead of my getting bumped by Regan. I was pissed because that one 5-10 minute segment on Paula Zahn likely undid by 100-fold the points that I and Phill were trying to make at the conference. I had mentioned this to my CNN Producer friend Christy Feig and she was also appalled and has since brought it up to the CNN Board. In any event, at Sam's Party, I was still pissed and discussed this with Powell who has been spending time on the lecture circuit talking about prostate cancer, particularly in black men. His comment was "What do you expect?.... It is CNN." He promised that he would bring up the issue of AIDS in Black America in his lectures. I have known Colin for years from the time that he was Secretary of State and I had briefed him on AIDS and went to the UN with him during an UNGASS years ago. Also, had discussions with my old friend Lee Hamilton who is co-chairing the Iraq Study Group that will be giving their report to the Congress and the President in a few days. It will be extremely critical of the execution of the Iraq War and rebuilding. Also discussions with - Antonin Scalia, George Will (ABC), Nina Tottenberg (NPR), Bob Shieffer (CBS), Bill Plante (White House correspondent) and many others.
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Dec. 4, 2006 - Things mostly quiet on the NIH front. Big problems in Iraq that are dominating the news with insurgency and civil war. Bush is having a very hard time. Democrats have taken control of House and Senate, mostly by voter protest of the war in Iraq. Had World AIDS Day with usual press interest. Secretary Leavitt wanted me to go to China with him from Dec. 6 to 13; I first said yes, but then backed out since I really do not want to travel during this busy period and the purpose of the trip was secondary to my interest and involvement, i.e. economic and trade considerations with only a side order of health. Jenny Fauci doing great in Brazil. She loves it and will return on Dec. 23. I am getting more and more involved in Global Health issues such as malaria, health care work force support in developing nations through the DDCF, XDR tuberculosis, etc. Have given many talks over the past few weeks on these issues.