A single line often inverts meaning once you see what it
answers, so neighbouring messages are always shown.
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April 27, 2007 - Went to the National Cathedral this AM to see Megan receive the honor as one of 12 NCS girls to be inducted into the "Cum Laude Society" . It was a beautiful ceremony at the Cathedral. Found out during the evening as I was on the way to a Nats Baseball game (call from Greg Folkers) with Bob Seder, Stewart Simonson, and Gary Nabel that Randy Tobias just abruptly resigned effective immediately. There is a woman who runs an "escort service and sexual fantasy service" who is being charged with running a prostitution ring. She is a bit bizarre and is using as a defense that if her girls did prostitution, then they did it on their own. For some unexplainable reason, she released the cell phone numbers of the clients of her girls and Randy's number was on the list. ABC News confronted Randy and he stated that he merely used the girls to get massages and had no sex, but he resigned anyway. My impression is that unlike Attorney General Alberto Gonzales who will not resign and keeps embarrassing the POTUS with his incompetence in handling the firing of the Federal Attorneys, Randy does not want to cause more bad press for the POTUS. Irony is that Randy runs the AID Programs which require recipients of Federal Funds to condemn prostitution. This is probably the reason that he resigned, i.e. the appearance of hypocracy. April 28-May 6, 2007 - Just a very busy time for me preparing for the Board of Scientific Counsellors Review of my Lab (LIR) to take place on June 4. Weather turned absolutely beautiful - typical DC Spring with sunny skies and balmy temperatures. Have been following over the past several weeks the St. Alban's baseball team. They are having their best year in decades. Danny Hultzen (pitcher/first base) is clearly the best pitcher in the league and one of the best hitters.
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May 7, 2007 - Went to the British Embassy for a Garden Party in honor of the visit to the USA of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip. Everyone who is anyone in DC was there. Spent time speaking with Sen. Joe Lieberman, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader of House Steny Hoyer, Columnist David Brooks, CNN's Judy Woodruff, Fox News Chief Editor Britt Hume, Former Mayor of Baltimore Schmoke, Harvey Fineberg of IOM, etc. Spoke with Prince Philip who showed an astounding lack of understanding of what is biomedical research. He asked me what I did and I explained. He said "Of medical stuff; that is statistics, i.e. numbers". I explained that we actually do research to answer questions. He insisted that it was all about statistics of diseases. I said that the statistics inform us of the extent of the problems, but then we do basic and clinical research to diagnosed, prevent and treat diseases. He then said, "Oh yes, like I said, it is all about numbers". I hope that he was just jet-lagged.
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May 10-14, 2007 - Had one of the most intensely busy weeks in recent memory with preparations (rehearsals) for my upcoming Board of Scientific Counselors review of LIR, NIH Budget Retreat, NIH Roadmap Retreat, Commencement Address at Penn State, Major talk in Miami to AAI, NIAID National Advisory Council Meeting, and Senate srsity College of Extremely busy: Appropriations Hearing Testimony - all in 5 working days. It was exhilarating in a strange sort of way. Almost like being on call as an intern and having 5 admissions in a row. After a while, it does not make any difference how many they send you. Weather has been spectacularly beautiful - typical Washington Spring weather. Sunny, dry, warm in day, cool at night.
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May 19, 2007 - Gave Commencement Address at Penn State University College of Science
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2007-05-24 00:00
Anthony S. Fauci
May 24, 2007 - Went to Sons of Italy Annual NELA (National Education Leadership Awards) dinner at the Washington Grand Hyatt Hotel on 10th and H Streets. I took Megan with me and she really enjoyed it. Sitting at our table was Nancy Pelosi and Rosa DeLauro. Megan got to meet and speak with them as well as Hilary Clinton, Geraldine Ferraro, Italian Ambassador Castellenata among others. Megan was amazed as Sen. Clinton was on her way out after having presented Geraldine Ferraro with an Award and we thought that we would not have the opportunity to introduce her to Megan. Hilary walked past me, caught my eye and gave a big smile, and threw her arms around me in greeting. Megan could not believe it. I introduced Megan and Clinton asked about her school and her plans for next year. May 24 - June 17, 2007 - Extremely busy: Sometime since last entry (May 24) I was informed by Jack Marberger (Science Advisor to the POTUS) that I would be receiving the National Medal of Science in a White House ceremony in July. I am humbled. Also, Scooter Libby convicted by seemingly vengeful and self-absorbed Judge Reggie Walton and sentenced to 30 months - amazingly excessive! Also, Walton published all of the letters written on Scooter's behalf including mine. Other letter writers were Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld, General Pace, Henry Kissinger, etc. Science magazine (Jon Cohen) wrote a small piece about my writing a letter. He originally thought that I would be in trouble since I did it on Government Stationary. Sorry John - I got clearance by OGC - Ethics Division since the CFR says that I can do this. Typical Jon, good person that he is, he is still trying to get me on something - the instincts of a reporter!
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June 3, 2007 - Gave Commencement address to Megan's NCS graduating class. It was a thrill giving it from the main pulpit at the National Cathedral. It was extremely well received; got many, many personal comments and e-mails. Please see text of speech in my files. Megan won many awards - Science Award, Community Service Award, Major Award voted by students as best all-around student, Major Award voted by faculty as best all-around student (first time at NCS that same student got both)
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June 4, 2007 - Underwent Board of Scientific Counselors 4 year review of my laboratory - Laboratory of Immunoregulation. I received the highest possible score (Outstanding). I had been preparing for this review for almost 1 year since I wanted to nail it given that I am Director of NIAID and my review would be carefully scrutinized.
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June 6, 2007 - Major, major world publicity regarding patient who had Extensively Drug resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) and traveled by plane to a number of countries in Europe despite somewhat bungled instructions by Georgia (he is from Atlanta) Health Officials and the CDC to not travel. The CDC looking real clumsy on this and the media continue to go after Julie Gerberding (Director, CDC) about this and other issues. I believe that she is being treated unfairly by the press and the Congress. In any event, I appeared with Julie and a customs official (Speaker crossed the border from Canada to New York after secretly flying from Prague to Montreal) at a Senate Appropriations Committee Hearing (Tom Harkin, Chair) on the subject. I was there to discuss the science of TB. Julie got slammed by the Committee and Speaker was on the next panel and said that the CDC was lying. What a mess. I was on major media appearances for the next week - Nightline, NBC News, 20/20 (about Heimlich and malaria treatment for HIV), NPR Morning Edition, WTOP Radio, CNN American Morning, etc)
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June 18, 2007 - Informed by Don Koshland of the Lasker Foundation that I will be awarded the Lasker Award for Public Service in September ($150,000.00) - amazing. Thus, in 2007 I have won the Kober Medal for Physician Scientist, the National Medal of Science for Basic and Clinical Research and now the Lasker Award for Public Service. I have a lot to be thankful for! Ironically, had dinner over Ellen and Gerry Sigal's house last night with Joe Wilson, Bill Wilson and Melody (Confidante of the Kennedy's), Richard and Donna Ben-Veniste, Judge Judy who is trying the crazy $54 million "lost pants in the Dry Cleaners case and her husband Greg. I mentioned to Ellen that if Joe was pissed at me because I wrote a letter for Scooter, then I would not come to the dinner. Joe was very gracious and insisted that I be there. We had a good discussion and he said that he understood why I wrote the letter. He, however, is filing a civil suit against VP Cheney, Karl Rove, and Scooter and so it is not over yet. Amazing how different are the perspectives of what happened between Scooter and Joe/Valerie. I am in the unusual situation of being friends with both parties.