A single line often inverts meaning once you see what it
answers, so neighbouring messages are always shown.
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Nov. 8, 2007 - Testified before the House Commerce and Energy Committee (Joe Barton, Chair). MOL, Julie, me, Bill Raub. Topic = pandemic flu. Somewhat different twist. Much discussion about funding. Some Republicans such as Barton feel that we should not have an emergency supplement, but that we should have offsets. This is contrary to what House Appropriations Chairman Jerry Lewis said at the Appropriations Hearing (see above). He feels that it should be new money.
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Nov. 14, 2007 - Attended 60th Anniversary Gala for Meet the Press (invited by Tim Russert. Held at 555 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. in the new Newseum Building. Another affair of all the glitterati of the Washington, D.C. press and politicians - John McLaughlin, David Gregory, Norah O'Donnell, Fred Fielding, Ben Bradlee, Mike Gerson, Sen. Kennedy, Kerry, Former Sen. McGovern, Tom Ricks (Washington Post), Al Hunt, Dana Perino, Dana Priest, etc. etc. Elegant affair, good food, plenty of cheer.
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Nov. 30, 2007 - Chris an I attended a Holiday Dinner Party at the White House hosted by the President and First Lady. I had been at several Holiday receptions at the White House around Christmas Time, but this was the first time that I attended a Holiday Dinner. There were about 75 - 100 people in attendance. Wonderful affair! The POTUS and First Lady circulated freely with guests as we had cocktails in the foyer adjourning the East Room. Spent several minutes talking with the POTUS and First Lady separately. He and she had just finished an AIDS event in Mount Airy to commemorate World AIDS Day (Dec. 1 - tomorrow). The POTUS had a large 50 foot red AIDS Ribbon hung from the front portico of the White House and he was excited about pointing it out to me. The POTUS in his usual generous way with me kept introducing me to people at the reception as one of the world's greatest scientist who will get us an AIDS vaccine. Again, as usual, he was very warm and friendly with me. Dinner was elegant - pumpkin soup, lamb, fine wines and champagne. The evening was crystal clear and cold (around 40 F). After dinner we had Christmas carols by the Army Choir and a trumpet and piano medley of Holiday Songs by 2 young black men from New Orleans (?names). Nov. 30 - Dec. 9, 2007 - Pre-Iowa caucus heating up with Obama closing the gap with Hillary Clinton who is front-runner. Romney and Giuliani neck in neck on the Republican side. Despite the fact that election is 1 year away, election politics is dominating the news. The "surge" in troops in Iraq appears to be working in cutting down the violence, but this is still a tenuous situation. Latest NIE states that Iran (contrary to what was previously thought) has halted their nuclear weapons programs. Life in DC as active and political as ever.
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Dec. 9, 2007 - Invited by Catherine and Wayne Reynolds to attend a small private dinner with Chris at Café Milano's restaurant for Holiday Cheer. Amazing night. About 15 people in the private Placido Domingo Room of Café Milano. Attending among others was VP and Mrs. Cheney, Bill Marriott, Sen. Thad Cochrane and his girlfriend, Elias and Nadia Zerhouni, Chris Wallace (Fox News), Alma Wildenhorn, John and Debbie Dingell, Mike and Meryl Chertoff, among others. Spent nice time speaking with the VP about Stephen Hayes's book "Cheney" that I just finished 2 days ago. We had fun since we discussed the parts of his earlier years from the book such as his sports in high school. Also discussed with Lynne Cheney the part about her giving him an ultimatum of shaping up in school or she would leave him as his girlfriend. He had flunked out of Yale twice.
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2007-12-11 00:00
Anthony S. Fauci
Dec. 11, 2007 - Another exciting Washington social night. First visited home of Ellen and Gerry Sigal at 2909 - 44th Street, N.W. just 2 blocks from our house. Occasion was book signing party for Valeria Plame Wilson to celebrate publishing of her new book "Fair Game" about her outting as a covert CIA agent. Chris and I have gotten to know her and her husband Joe Wilson over the past year, mostly through the Sigal's. Interesting irony (see previous notes) that I am friends with Joe and Valerie at the same time as I am friends with Scooter Libby. Had to leave party early to go to Italian Ambassador Giovanni Castellenata's residence. On way out as I apologized to Joe for leaving early, he joked "As long as you are not going to a party at the VP's house". In fact, that is exactly what I am doing on Thursday (see below). Function at Italian Ambassador's house was fun. Party to honor the visit of Italian President Enrico Napolitano. Usual DC glitterati were there - Mike and Meryl Chertoff, Colin Powell, Lee Hamilton, Frank Balducci (author), D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty and wife Michelle, former head of Italian CIA Carrado Cantatore (had nice conversation with him about Italian covert ops in Iraq - i.e. Italian Special Forces are still operating there even as Italian troops pull out), Sen. Pat Leahy, etc. I sat next to my good friend Cecilia Piccione (Chief-of-Staff to the Ambassador).
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Dec. 13, 2007 - Two issues today: Went down to White House with Mark Dybul to visit Dan Price (new SHERPA for the upcoming G-8 meeting in July, 2008). Dan, at the suggestion of Gary Edson, was looking for some bold initiatives for finish off the legacy of the POTUS over the next 11-12 months. Gary mentioned to Dan how I had developed the PEPFAR program. We discussed various options. I brought up several such as elimination of TB and malaria, and aggressively addressing neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). Mark had the great idea of using the PEPFAR infrastructure that has been built up over the past 4 years to deliver the meds for NTDs. The bulk of the costs for attacking NTDs is the delivery systems since the drugs are free (ivermectim) or very cheap. In addition, Mark suggested major tax breaks for private sector corporations that donate their expertise such as computer programming, etc. Mark and I were charged with putting together a proposal. This matches nicely with what HHS, NSC, and HSC are asking me to do with putting a bold program together for TB together with CDC, FDA, USAID, and DHS. After talking to Dan, we walked over to Josh Bolten's office and described briefly the plan to him. He likes it a lot and urged us to go forward. Seems strikingly similar situation to what we did with PEPFAR 5 years ago. This evening I went to the Christmas Party at the Vice President's mansion. Chris is in Boston having given a lecture and ran into a big snow storm. She is stranded in Boston and will have to take a train home that will get her in during the middle of the night. I took Ali to the VP party and she had an exciting time meeting the VP and such notables as David Addington (Chief-of-Staff to the VP), Joel Bagnol (HSC), Bruce Miller (VP's Staff, Carol Kuntz, etc.
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Dec. 14 - 19, 2007 - Series of the usual (now becoming enjoyable since I remember names after seeing them so often) holiday parties, mostly centered around NCS/STA. Weather unusually mild. Looking forward to Jenny and Megan coming home
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Dec. 20, 2007 - Meeting (pre-PCC) at EEOB run by Mike Magan of NSC and Bob Kadlec of HSC to flesh out possibility of putting together a major POTUS initiative on "Control or Elimination of Tuberculosis" to announce at the State of the Union Address in Jan. 2008. After having various agencies present a totality of a program that would cost billions, it was decided that since there really will not be any new money, or if there was, it would be very little, we should focus on the well-circumscribed topic of TB Vaccine research. I was tasked to do this and to write language for the State of the Union Address. In my proposal, I presented the case that this would cost relatively little. NIH spends $150 million in 2007 on TB research ($120 M is NIAID). Of this $20 million is on TB Vaccine Research - this is about 25% of world's TB vaccine research spending with Gates spending about 45% (they spend most of their TB money on vaccine). The Global Plan to Stop TB - 2006-2015 calls for $184 million in 2009 (the FY that we are talking about). If we tripled our spending by adding $40 million to the $20 million, this would give $60 million. Right before the meeting Rajeev Venkayya (who left HSC and will be joining Gates) called and e-mailed me saying that he has arranged a call between Secr. Leavitt and Tachi Yamada from Gates to agree that Bill Gates, Jr. will commit to a significant increase in Gates funding for TB if the USG puts up more money. I have submitted a proposal for a $40 million increase for FY 2009 and I have included language for the Address. Let us hope that this flies. Then I will have had impact on PEPFAR, the President's Malaria Initiative (PMI) and now the TB initiative.
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Dec. 22, 2007 - Has breakfast at Panera in Chevy Chase with Terry Lierman who is now Chief-of -Staff to House leader Steny Hoyer (an old friend). We discussed the usual politics and I mentioned that the only job that I would take in a new administration is Secretary of HHS. Terry said that everyone knows in the democratic party that I am most qualified, but that I have "a Bush problem" in that I am too closely associated over the years with the Bush's. Such is Life; I am not at all upset about this since who knows what will happen and besides, I do not covet the job.