A single line often inverts meaning once you see what it
answers, so neighbouring messages are always shown.
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Feb. 26, 2008 - My picture and a story concerning me (in part) appeared in the Science Section of the New York Times today. It was related to the interview that I gave in Toronto last summer to 2 small children with the theme of explaining HIV/AIDS to little children. The filmakers were the children's parents.
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Mar. 3, 2008 - Participated in a State Department function for Jenna Bush on the occasion of celebrating her new book "Ana's Story: A Journey of Hope". Took place in the main auditorium of the State department. I was the main speaker and spoke on "The Global Effects of HIV/AIDS and the origins of PEPFAR". Other speakers were Kristen Silverberg, Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs, and Karl Zinmeister, Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council. Got a chance to chat a fair amount with Jenna Bush as we waited together for the affair to begin. She is a very nice person who said that she was "in awe" of me because of all of the amazing things that I have accomplished over the years. She worked for UNICEF for a year in Jamaica and also spent time in Panama doing AIDS work. Very nice person; has a smile exactly like her father. I gave a history of the origins of PEPFAR and a short summary of HIV/AIDS. I showed the MMWRs from June 4 and July 5, 1981. When Jenna got up to speak, she remarked to the audience how impressed she was with me and my work over so many years and when I showed the 1981 slide, she was floored by the fact that I was involved in AIDS then and that was the year that she was born.
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Mar. 5, 2008 - Meeting in White House (EEOB 445) led by Bob Kadlec of HSC.. Was "Top Secret" meeting on anthrax threat with emphasis on drug resistant and even vaccine resistant anthrax. Based on supposed intelligence that Al Qaeda has been "talking about" anthrax and based on supposed documents captured from Al Qaeda. We were briefed by 2 CIA young women who provided the same vague, soft and even embarrassingly bad intelligence that I have been briefed on several times before by CIA. One gets a very bad impression of the quality of our intelligence based on meetings such as this. Also present were Julie Gerberding, Art Friedlander, Ben Petro, Gerry Parker and a whole bunch of CIA, Counter-terrorist people, Defense intelligence people, etc. Subject was how do we protect against drug resistant anthrax and vaccine resistant anthrax.
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Mar. 8, 2008 - Busy and nice social evening. Dropped in briefly to the NCS Annual Spring Festival "Casino Night" at the Athletic Center. Said hello to the usual suspects and then went to the Newseum at 555 Pennsylvania Avenue to celebrate the 65th Birthday of Gerry Sigal. Beautiful setting with bay window view of the Capitol Dome. Great food, drink and dancing. Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame at our table. Elias and Nadia Zerhouni were dancing away with us on the dance floor. DC was beautiful with crisp cold weather (upper 20s) and clear sky.
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2008-03-10 00:00
Anthony S. Fauci
Mar. 10, 2008 - Another in a long string of Global Health initiative meetings at the White House (EEOB 374) led by Dan Price (see above) with Gary Edson, Mark Dybul, Patrick Marcham, Mike Magan, Paul Brown, Dana DeRuiter. Mainly discussed Dan plans for the upcoming G-8 meeting in Japan (he is USG Sherpa). Issues are NTDs, heath workforce, HIV, Malaria, and TB. I was there representing the malaria and TB initiatives (see above). Apparently Josh Bolten is enthusiastic about both, but HHS is not supporting it since their priority in a bad budget year is pandemic flu and biodefense. Nonetheless, I am still going to these meetings and pushing the TB and Malaria agenda . I can do this since Dan Price (with Josh Bolten's approval) is including me in the process even though the HHS is against it.
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Mar. 19, 2008 - A most amazing and unique evening. Michael Gerson (former Bush speech-writer and advisor) and current Washington Post columnist (see other discussions above) invited Chris and me to his house for a private dinner with President and Laura Bush. Other guests were Fred and Barbara Barnes (Fred is Executive Editor of The Weekly Standard , Bill and Hara Haley (Bill is pastor of a DC Church and is interested in AIDS in Africa), and Mike and his wife Dawn. Dinner was at Mike's home at 2412 Crest Street, Alexandria. It was somewhat surreal, but incredibly enjoyable. The occasion was just that Mike is good friends with the POTUS and when he had breakfast with the POTUS a few weeks ago he asked the POTUS if he would like to have dinner over his house some time with a few friends. The POTUS gladly accepted and said that he almost never goes out to private dinners at people's homes because no one ever asks him, likely because they would reasonably assume that he would not accept. Evening started at 7:00 PM. We had to get their earlier (^:45 PM) since the secret service closed the roads (395) to make way for the motorcade. We had about 45 minutes of cocktail hour (POTUS had non-alcoholic beer). Very friendly chatting about a variety of subjects. My long-time impressions of the POTUS held true that he is a very warm, funny and considerate, self-effacing person. Laura was great also. Laura and the POTUS specifically thanked me for saying such nice things about him and Laura at Jenna Bush's event at the State Department (see Mar. 3 above). POTUS said that Jenna saw him and Laura that night and told them how kind I was to them in explaining the POTUS role in PEPFAR. He sounded very sincere in thanking me for "making my daughter proud of me". Dinner was terrific with nice wines, tomato soup, steak/potatoes, salad with bacon, and fruit dessert. At dinner we discussed frankly a wide variety of topics including: War in Iraq; his recent trip to Africa; his dealing with various Heads of State; the upcoming Summer Olympics in Beijing and why he really must attend despite the current misbehavior of China in brutally suppressing the Tibetan call for freedom. He told a great story of when former Prince and now King of Saudi Arabia visited him at his ranch in Crawford and negotiations about the Israel/Palestine problem came up. They reached an impasse since the POTUS thought that the Prince was being frankly anti-Semitic and the discussions stalled. The POTUS would not yield on one point and the Prince announced that he was leaving. POTUS sent in Colin Powell to convince him not to but Colin cane back and told POTUS "Boss, I am getting nowhere with him; you have to step in". The POTUS visited the Prince, perceived the "chilly" atmosphere in the room and said before we discuss anything, let me tell you what my religion has done for me. The prince agreed and then the POTUS asked the Prince to talk about what the Prince's religion means to him. This warmed up the chill and POTUS took him out on his pickup truck to tour the ranch alone. As they were talking about the problem, a turkey hen jumped up in front of the truck and just stayed in the road. The POTUS said that he had never seen a turkey on the road before. POTUS explained what a turkey was and how Ben Franklin almost got the turkey to be the National bird, but the bald eagle won out. The Prince said that in his country god often speaks to people through birds and this is clearly a sign from god. After that, the negotiations flourished and POTUS and the king have been the best of friends. The conversation also included discussions about us and our families. The POTUS and Laura were very interested in Jenny's thesis on women in the criminal justice system. I explained what she was doing and how she decided on this topic. He seemed very connected and empathetic to the problems of young girls getting caught up in the system. He also expressed concern that black leaders are not speaking up more about black men abandoning their children after they have them leading to the incredible statistics of outof-wedlock pregnancies among blacks. POTUS also thinks that the Dems will go into the convention with Obama ahead and that it will be a behind closed doors brokered convention. He said, "if it is a behind closed doors convention, there is no chance that Obama will out-maneuver the Clinton machine. She will be the nominee, split the party and McCain will win. After dinner we all went over an Photo album of the POTUS and First Lady's recent visit to Africa. The President left at about 9:25 PM in a 6 to 8 car motorcade. All in all it was an incredibly memorable evening. Earlier in the day I briefed Ms. Sandra Roelofs, the First Lady of Georgia. She is Dutch and a nursing student. She was interested is speaking to me because she had heard about my AIDS work. We spoke of TB, AIDS and other IDs. She had earlier in the day had lunch with Laura and Jenna Bush. Actually, Laura mentioned this to me at Gerson's house.
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Mar. 25, 2008 - I organized and ran what might be an historic meeting today on the future of HIV Vaccine Research. Ever since the disappointing results from the STEP trial (Merck ad5 prime-boost - see above), there has been increasing pressure within ourselves and in the scientific and certain activist communities to re-evaluate whether we should turn the knob of support more towards basic discovery as opposed to clinical trials of vaccine candidates for an HIV vaccine. On Nov. 16, 2007 I received a letter from a group of basic scientist/animal model HIV researchers asking to meet with me following the failed STEP trial in which vaccinated people with pre-existing Ad5 titers actually seemed to have an increased risk of HIV acquisition compared to placebo. They felt that we were wasting money on vaccine trials which they claimed had no basis to predict success based on animal model data. They were particularly concerned about going ahead with Gary Nobel's VRC trial -PAVE 100 that tested 3 DNA primes followed by an Ad5 boost. However, others point out that the animal model has not been validated in the human and so unfortunately, we are really flying blind. In any event, in a manner similar to how I handled the AIDS activists >20 years ago in that same room (31/7A-24), I listened and suggested that we have HIV Vaccine Summit to discuss the direction of AIDS research. Hence the meeting today. Just a few days ago, a group called AIDS healthcare Foundation stated that we should stop ALL HIV vaccine research and put the money towards proven prevention activities. We had the Summit today and it was enormously successful. I played an active leadership role in the process as opposed to just listening. The meeting was chaired by Warner Greene and Adel Mahmoud and there were 3 panels: 1) basic discovery chaired by Jim Hoxie and Dennis Burton; 2) animal models chaired by David Watkins and Malcolm Martin; and 3) Clinical Research chaired by Scott Hammer and Julie Overbaugh. Great press coverage. I concluded at end of meeting that we would indeed turn the knob more towards basic discovery research and promised an immediate $10 Million for a broad RFA to come from moneys saved from truncating some of the clinical trial activity such as a tighter PAVE 100. Recall that our budget has been flat for the past 5 years and so there is no extra money coming in. Below is an article from the NY Times by Larry Altman from Mar. 26 that summarized the Mar. 25 meeting:
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Mar. 26, 2008 - Rave reviews coming in regarding "my leadership" during the Summit. Went down to White House (NEOB 5235) to brief OSTP WH Science Advisor Jack Marburger and his staff together with staff from FLOTUS on the HIV vaccine situation, particularly given all of the publicity. I had appeared on NBC News, VOA, Bloomberg TV as well as articles in Washington Post, NY Times (see above) and WSJ. Now we need to follow-up with RFA's etc. April 1 and 2, 2008 - Visited Princeton University to Deliver the Inaugural Adel Mahmoud Lectureship and to participate in a Panel discussion with Bill Frist, Andrew McGuire, and Beatrice Hahn at a Symposium on "No Country Left Behind: Transforming Global Health given by the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Bill Frist spent some time telling the audience that if it were not for me PEPFAR would not have happened. Had dinner at a Princeton mansion, went to Adel Mahmoud's and Sally Hodder's home (where I stayed overnight - beautiful modern Salvatore Dali-like home) for after dinner cocktails with some of the Princeton Faculty. Was very impressed with the commitment to teaching students that I saw among the faculty as well as the competency and popularity of Shirley Tilghman (President). Next day taught a class in the Dept. of Molecular Biology run by Leon Rosenberg and Adel Mahmoud. Spoke about the evolution of my career. Students were great. On evening of April 2, had long interview with Meredith Wadman of Nature who is doing a story on PEPFAR and wanted a bit of the history. April 3 - June 10, 2008 - Very busy and eventful times. Had virtually no time to enter events into diary. We try to summarize. The Democratic primary loomed hot and heavy with Hillary refusing to concede despite the fact that numerically it was impossible for her to pull ahead of Barack Obama. Finally after the Oregon (Obama) and South Dakota (Clinton) primary, she begrudgingly conceded on June 6. April 21 - Participated with Sec. Leavitt in a "Georgetown Conversations" function at the home of April and John Delaney in Potomac, MD. This series is sponsored by Meryl Chertoff (Mike Chertoff's wife) and Larry Gostin. Bring together a bunch of prominent people in an elegant home and make brief statement, followed by Qs and As and then dinner. Very enjoyable. April 26 - Went to Chicago for the AAP Annual Meeting to induct Bob Seder into the AAP (I sponsored him). Saw Megan and had a nice brunch and then went to L.A. for the Milken Institute's Annual Global Conference where I participated in 2 stimulating Panel Discussions on Global Health. Greg Simon (Al Gore's former Chief-of-Staff) got me involved. Met a lot of political financial backers at the meeting. Had dinner at the L.A. mansion (Sunset Boulevard) of Lynda and Stewart Resnick and gave dinner remarks. May 2 - Went to Sommerville, NJ to a Merck retreat to help them decide what they are going to do with their HIV vaccine program following the disappointing results of the STEP study. Many players in the field were there: David Baltimore, Dennis Burton, David Ho, Ron Desrosiers, Jerry Sadoff, a bunch of Merck people. Decision is that although they want to stay intellectually involved and make reagents available to others, they are really going to suspend further studies. May 13 -- Very sad day! May 19 -- Went to Paris to the Institut Pasteur to give a lecture at the Symposium commemorating "25 Years of HIV", i.e. the discovery by Montagnier. Gave initial lecture on our recent paper in Nature Immunology on the new receptor for HIV -- a4B7. Had good time in Paris seeing old friends. Had dinner in the Eiffel Tower with the whole group -- sat next to Alice Daubry -- Director of the Institut Pasteur. May 30 -- AIDS Vaccine Research Subcommittee (AVRS) meeting in Bethesda to discuss decision of whether to proceed with the PAVE 100 study of the VRC. The AVRS voted 23 to 3 to go ahead. Decision will come soon. June 1 -- Gave Commencement Address at UMASS and also saw Jenny in Boston with her friend Endria Dickinson. Had good time.
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June 4, 2008 -- Jenny's graduation from Harvard. J.K. Rowlings gave a great commencement address. Wonderful time despite very cold (for June -- 52 degrees) and raining for 2 days. Jenny graduated magna cum laude. Had nice dinner at Artu in the North End. June 10 -- Big honor. Was invited by President of the U.N. General Assembly Dr. Srgjan Kerim to deliver a Keynote Address at the 2008 U.N. General Assembly High-Level Meeting on HIV AIDS. Addresses were by Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, Pres. Kerim, Peter Piot, PWA Ms. Ratri Suksma from Malaysia. This was followed by several Heads of State (El Salvador, Togo, Mozambique, Burkina Faso, and Central African Republic). Jenny was in NYC interviewing for jobs and she was there for the presentations. She was excited by it. Have a great photo of me at the podium of the UN General Assembly giving my speech.