A single line often inverts meaning once you see what it
answers, so neighbouring messages are always shown.
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June 17, 2008 - I will be attending his memorial service at the Kennedy Center tomorrow. Bono called me today to congratulate me on receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom. I caught him up on my family and mentioned that Megan was starting at Columbia in September. His daughter Jordan (JoJo) is also starting Columbia. He asked me to send him Megan's contact information since he is worried that his daughter will be lonely since she is coming directly from Ireland. Perhaps they will become friends.
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June 18, 2008 - Attended the memorial service for Tim Russert at the Kennedy Center. Extraordinary Washington affair with the total "A list" present. Hosted by Tom Brokaw. See book published in 2013 called "This Town" by Marc Liebovich for full details of the ceremony.
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June 19, 2008 - Extraordinary day at the White House for the Presidential Medal of Freedom Ceremonies. Crisp, clear blue sky, sunny and comfortable day. A lot of joy in the presentations (see my written file records of what was said about me by the POTUS). Very good media coverage. The presentations for everyone were very warm. Lots of wonderful pictures. Many guests (some of whom came for me) such as Justice Scalia, Sam Donaldson, Cuba Gooding, Judge Merrick Arlen, Gen. Richard Meyers,, etc. I had very warm interaction with the POTUS. When we approached him with my group of 10 (Chris, Jenny, Ali, Denise and Jack, Cliff Lane, Hugh Auchincloss, J.J. McGowan, Greg Folkers and Patty Conrad) to take a group Picture, the POTUS hugged me and put his lips to my ears and said, "I love you Tony, Thanks for all you do for our country and the world". The ceremony took place in the east Room and the reception took place in the Banquet room of the East Wing. After the ceremony we watched from the balcony as the POTUS took off in Marine One for a tour of the flood damage in Iowa. After the reception, Chris took off with Ali to fly to Chicago to bring home Megan from her year there. Jenny is home after graduation trying to decide what she will do next year.
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June 21 - 29, 2008 - Extraordinary trip to Greece with Chris, Jenny, Megan and Alison. I went first to Thessaloniki to deliver Keynote Address at the Immunocompromised Host Society Chaired by Steve Holland. Spoke on HIV/AIDS (of course). Then met family in Athens where I received an honorary doctorate at the University of Athens sponsored by Haralampous (Harry) Moutsopoulos, my old friend from NIH days 30 years ago. Absolutely fabulous time, elegant hotel (Grand Bretagne), wonderful food, elegant ceremony (very formal with old robes), sight-seeing at Acropolis, Agora, Old Olympic Stadium. Then spent 3 days on the island of Santorini (Ali picked the place) in a beautiful, but understated beachfront Hotel with Harry and his wife Foteini. Santorini is a volcanic island of indescribable beauty. Perfect weather - no clouds at all for 1 week in Greece. Great hospitality, especially from Harris Roussos, an old and dear friend of Harry's who runs the biggest hospital in Athens and who owns an elegant home in Santorini. They threw a "Greek-Style" party for us one night. Spent evenings eating <s working with elegant meals at mountain cliff restaurant or on the beach. Visited Oia, Fira - stayed at Kamara Beach. One of the best vacations (albeit brief) that I have ever experienced.
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2008-07-03 00:00
Anthony S. Fauci
July 3, 2008 - Gave lecture at the Ideas Festival at Aspen, CO on HIV/AIDS in 2025: Will we have a vaccine and a cure by then?". Usual ambiance of Aspen with nice dinner on the night of July 2 catered by the famous Alice Waters of Chez Panisse in Berkley, CA and narrated by Corby Kummer, renowned food critic of The Atlantic (also the person who lent us his apartment in Boston for Jenny's graduation (see above). Met usual celebrities at dinner. Spoke with Chris Jennings (Clinton's Health person who is now with the Obama Campaign since Obama won the primary. He wants to get me involved as a person to advice the campaign informally about what they are on track with certain issues.
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July 6, 2008 - Wonderful day. Chris Hultzen arranged to have Danny and Joe Hultzen and their friend Austin do "batting practice" with me at STA field. Danny pitched to me and it was terrific. I hit several line drives to outfield, but the distance was poor, nothing like the fence shots that Danny and the others were hitting. It is clear that my power is no where near Danny's and the others. I pitched to Danny and he hit some over the right field fence.
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July 17, 2008 - Made what some are saying is a "landmark decision not to proceed with the PAVE 100 HIV vaccine trial of the NIAID VRC product. This followed weeks and months of committee meetings and recommendation such as the AIDS Vaccine Research Subcommittee (AVRS) who voted to proceed and the Strategic Working Group (SWG) who voted not to proceed. The issue was that the Merck STEP trial failed and actually had some safety issues. The PAVE trial is somewhat different (3 DNA primes and an Ad5 boost containing env) from the STEP trial (3 Ad5s without env), yet the preliminary immunological data from PAVE 100 was in my mind (some such as Gary Nabel disagreed) not much better than those of STEP. I received many e-mails from people arguing for and against. The decision was mine alone and I decided to reject the proposed PAVE trial of 2400 people since it was powered to do immunological correlates on a subgroup who might seem to benefit even if the endpoint of the entire group was not "effective", i.e. decrease in viral set point after infection. I argue that if the trial failed, I am not interested in the immunological correlates in a subgroup since this has no statistical value. There was much activity in the Press about my decision and the feedback was overwhelming that I had made the right choice. I encouraged Larry Corey of HVTN and Scott Hammer the PI of PAVE to come back to me with a "leaner, meaner" protocol that is less expensive, fewer people, less samples to ask if the product works. If it does, then we will go back and do immune correlates.
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July 30, 2008 - Christine, Meg and Ali left for Rwanda to spend 2 weeks working with Paul Farmer in his Clinic. More later.
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July 30, 2008 - Invited to the White House (East Room) to witness and celebrate the signing by the POTUS of the reauthorization of PEPFAR at $48 Billion. The law is officially H.R. 5501 - The Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde United States Global leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria reauthorization Act of 2008. The usual cast of HIV-related characters was there. It felt good to see the attention, success and promise of a project that I developed. Now we need to make sure that this reauthorization ultimately turns into an appropriation. July 31 - Sept. 15, 2008 - Busy summer with little time with family. Chris and girls went to beach while I stayed for duties at work. Chris, Megan and Ali went to Rwanda to work with Paul Farmer for 2 1⁄2 weeks. I did not go since I had to give Keynote Lecture at the IAS Meeting in Mexico City (August 3-8). I focused on a discussion of whether we will ever have a "cure" or a vaccine for HIV. It stirred much discussion and was well received. We moved Megan into her dorm at Columbia last week in August. It was great fun. I have a very good feeling about Columbia and hope Megan has a good experience. Jenny has taken a job teaching in a Charter School in the Brownsville Section of Brooklyn (adjacent to Bedford-Stuyvesant). She is living in Prospect Heights-Crown Heights. After my childhood growing up in Brooklyn, I never would have imagined that my 22 year old daughter would be living in the toughest section of Brooklyn. She loves teaching the children. Amazing political season in Washington, D.C. Sarah Palin has been chosen as John McCain's running mate and this has shifted the momentum (amazingly so) to the Republicans since she has energized the far-right conservative base. I may be prejudging, but she seems to be totally unqualified to be Vice-President (or President) of the USA. On Sept. 14, went to a great BBQ party at Sam Donaldson's home in McLean, VA. All the usual suspects were there with whom I have become friends with over the years and we talked election year politics: Colin and Alma Powell, Lee Hamilton, Bob Barnett, Fred and Marlene Maleck, John and Debbie Dingel, Bill and Janet Cohen, Wayne and Catherine Reynolds, Steve and Alice Rosenberg, Ben and Candy Carson, Birch and Kitty Bayh, and many others. On the evening of Sept. 15 Chris and I attended one of the spectacularly elegant reception/dinner parties hosted by Wayne and Catherine Reynolds at the Eisenhower Theater of the Kennedy center to celebrate the re-opening (after upgrading) of the Theater. Again, all the usual suspects of Washington glitterati were there - most people from Sam Donaldson's party the night before as well as many other media, government and military people: Gens. Jim Walston, Wesley Clark, James Jones, Colin Powell; the Eisenhower grandchildren (Anne and Susan); journalists (Chris Wallace, Wolf Blitzer) and on and on. Really a very relaxed evening with spectacular entertainment. The reception was in the foyer outside the Theater and the dinner was right on the Theater Stage with performances by dance troupes, Jane Alexander, the entire original cast of "Mame" right within a foot or two of the dinner tables. Wayne and Catherine do it again! in