A single line often inverts meaning once you see what it
answers, so neighbouring messages are always shown.
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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
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2008-09-16 00:00
Anthony S. Fauci
Sept. 16, 2008 - Testified before Rep. Henry Waxman's House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in Rayburn House Building Room 2154. Topic = HIV prevention in light of the new numbers from CDC showing that the incidence in USA of HIV is worse than was previously calculated - 56, 300 versus 40,000. Other main witness was Julie Gerberding with Kevin Fenton of CDC and Tom Insel of NIH as backups. Hearing went very well - generally friendly. Maxine Waters gave Julie Gerberding a hard time about not acting with leadership in a "crisis". I stated that needle-exchange works and that abstinence only does not work. This may upset some ideologues in HHS or the WH. Mild Fall day - slightly cloudy.
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Sept. 23-30, 2008 - Major crisis on Wall Street and in the banking industry with big banks and financial institutions failing - Lehman Brothers (Bankrupt), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mack taken over by the government, AIG bailed out by the government; many buyouts and mergers, stock market plunged by 777 points in 1 day - largest drop ever. Congress trying to agree on a $700 Billion bailout package for financial institutions to restore the credit flow in the USA. Big problems!!
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Oct. 1, 2008 - On Sept. 23, 2008 Elias Zerhouni announced that he would step down as NIH Director at the end of October, right before the election to avoid any confusion about political issues and to call attention to the vacancy for the incoming transition. I was asked to be Acting Director and refused; Steve Katz was considered but was rejected by the WH because of the LA Times story on him and conflict of interest a few years ago. Betsy Nabel either withdrew her name or was not asked because of an issue of a COI of one of her recently hired Senior Advisors. Raynard Kington (current deputy NIH Director) should have been asked directly but was not. Not clear why the DHHS and/or the WH are uncomfortable with him. One version is that he is not well known in the Congress and among constituencies; anther more cynical version is that the WH has a problem with a gay man (he is married and has an adopted child). The WH and/or DHHS tried to then get me to agree to be publicly appointed as a "Senior Advisor" to the Acting Director to quell the concerns of the outside people and indicate that a strong, visible, experienced person such as me was "watching the store" even though Kington would be appointed as the official Acting Director. I told Elias and Jamie Burke (White House Liason Office) that this was impossible and no way would I do this. I told them explicitly that I did not want to do it in the first place; second - it was an insult to Kington and would undermine his authority; third - people would come directly to me and circumvent Kington's authority; fourth - it looks stupid. She actually agreed and so the decision was to appoint Kington cleanly and have me be available "behind the scenes with no announcements" to advise him if he needed advice.
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Oct. 2, 2008 - Gave Inaugural Ben Kean Lecture on Global Health at New York Presbyterian Hospital - Weill Cornell Medical Center. Great déjà vu feeling about my years there. Much adulation among house staff at lecture and morning report.
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Oct. 3 - 4, 2008 - Went to Parent's Weekend at Columbia for Megan. Jenny (living in Brooklyn) joined Chris and me for a couple of dinners with Meg. Went to ColumbiaReleased by Chairman Rand Paul Princeton football game. Great weekend. Jenny, Meg and I watched the Sarah Palin - Joe Biden debate. What an idiot Palin is!! Stock Market is tumbling badly. It is scary as it looks like it is crashing as a result of the bank credit crunch that is causing anxiety of Wall Street. When this settles, I will rethink the advisability of my even being invested in Wall Street as opposed to safe Money Market investment or T bills.