A single line often inverts meaning once you see what it
answers, so neighbouring messages are always shown.
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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.
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2008-10-06 00:00
Anthony S. Fauci
Oct. 6, 2008 - Big news today. Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology given to Francoise Barre-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier for HIV and to Harald Zur Hausen for HPV discovery.. This is a big slight to Gallo, likely because of the controversy from the 1980s. The Committee could have given the 3 (limit) to HIV and save HPV for another year; yet they combined them and thus Gallo was out since it is clear from the 1983 Science paper that Montagnier and Barre-Sinoussi discovered the virus first, although Gallo proved cause effect one year later and discovered TCGF (IL-2) that allowed everyone to grow T cells in culture and hence grow the virus. Gave the after dinner address at the Woodrow Wilson Internal Center for Scholars Dinner for their Board of Trustees, Councilors, and Scholars at the Ronald Reagan Building in DC. Cool, crisp night. I was invited by Lee Hamilton. Many notable people there including Sam and Jan Donaldson, Marvin Kalb, Robin Cook, etc. I spoke on HIV/AIDS: An Historical Perspective. Talk extremely well received.
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Oct. 11 - 16, 2008 - Traveled to Cape Town, South Africa to deliver a keynote address at the 2008 AIDS Vaccine Meeting on "An HIV Vaccine: Science and Policy". The talk was very well received. I spoke of the particular challenges of HIV vaccinology compared with "classical" vaccinology. Weather was beautiful and the city was in my mind a cross between San Francisco and Rio de Janeiro. We took a drive on Monday AM, Oct. 13 around the countryside to vineyards and around the historical parts of the city. Most disturbing to me was the conditions that I saw at the "townships" a few miles outside of the city. Particularly disturbing was Khayelitsha township that seemed to go on for miles with huts that were made of corrugated tin roofs and plywood and other soft material. The huts were smack next to each other with very little room between them to even walk outside. Apparently they have electricity in some huts and common water sources and latrines, but I cannot imagine anyone living there. The black South Africans say that it is not as bad as it looks and they are gradually trying to phase them out and replace them with regular housing. I cannot judge since this is the first time that I have seen them, but I would flatten the whole thing now and build high-rises. Problem is that hundreds of thousands of people live there and you cannot just displace them now without a facility to put them in. I have some concern at this point that the Vaccine Enterprise in the person of Allan Bernstein is looking for ways to change the direction of HIV vaccine research even though he has been in the field only for months. He is a very good guy, but I repeat my usual statement of "everybody wants to be somebody" and "beware of people who do not have real day jobs". They tend to try and change things that they do not yet even understand. Oct. 17 -- 25, 2008 -- The polls are starting to swing heavily towards Barack Obama. He may indeed be our next President.
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Oct. 20, 2008 -- Attended funeral of Paul Rogers ("Mr. Health") at the National Cathedral. Sad day. He was a great advocate for biomedical research. I got to know him well over the past 24 years together with his wife Becky. We went to many functions together over the years.
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Oct. 22, 2008 -- Participated in the dedication of the new NBAAC facility of DHS at Fort Detrick. Since NIAID is a partner in that "Biodefense Campus", it was important that I be there for the ceremony. Met with Gen George Weightman (he of the Walter Reed Arny Hospital scandal -- bad conditions for wounded veterans of Iraq war -- Was not his fault, but he got caught holding the bag) who is the US Army Commander. Cliff Lane gave me tour of our facility in Ft. Detrick -- designed to do sophisticated imaging studies on non-human primates.
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Oct. 26, 2008 -- Received Maxwell Finland Award from the IDSA and gave the ICAAC Award Lecture at the Annual ICAAC\IDSA meeting at the DC Convention Center on "Global Health and infectious Diseases: A Look to the Future". It was amazing. There were 11,000 people in the audience! Clearly the largest crowd that I have ever spoken to live even counting all of the Keynotes lectures that I have given at many International AIDS Meetings. Lecture very well received. Next day (Oct. 27) went with Chris to the IDSA and ICAAC president's reception at the American Portrait Gallery on 8" Street and F Street, N.W. beautiful crisp (55 F) clear Fall days for both occasions.