A single line often inverts meaning once you see what it
answers, so neighbouring messages are always shown.
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Nov. 19, 2008 -- Tom Daschle named as DHHS Secretary. I will soon be approached for NIH Director job. Am struggling with this, but my commitment to HIV/AIDS and Global Health, particularly with the new exciting issues of "treatment as prevention" and the challenges of an AIDS vaccine , not to mention malaria and TB keep me engrossed in what I am doing.
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Nov. 20, 2008 -- NIAID sponsors the Annual Kinyoun Lecture. This year's speaker was Ralph Steinman who won the Basic Medical Research Lasker Award in 2007 at the time that I won the Lasker Public Service Award.
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Nov. 20, 2008 -- See below -- soon to appear in US News and World Report America's Best Leaders: Anthony Fauci, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
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Nov. 21, 2008 - Went to dinner party at Ellen and Gerry Sigal's home. Present were Chris Grady, Ellen, Gerry, Richard and Donna Benveniste, Bill and Melody Wilson, Larry and Carla Silverstein, Neera Tanden and husband Dan. Neera is on the Obama transition team and I am sure that Ellen in her quest to get me to become NIH Director set this up for us to meet. I am very reluctant to take the job and soon I will likely have to tell the Obama people "no" if they ask. Prior to the Sigal dinner party I gave remarks at the opening reception for the TAG Workshop on Eliminating Viral Persistence and Eradicating HIV infection. This is becoming a very hot issue that I have been pushing in the sense of a "functional" cure.
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2008-11-22 00:00
Anthony S. Fauci
Nov. 22, 2008 - Was invited by former President George H.W. Bush to attend the christening of the new aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush at Norfolk , VA on Jan. 10, 2009. Nov.24, 2008 - Breakfast and panel discussion at the National Press Club in association with my (and others) receiving the recognition of America's Best Leaders 2008 (24 Leaders Who are Making a Difference) by U.S. News & World Report and the Center for Public Leadership of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. David Gergon MC'd the affair and C-SPAN-2 covered it. We also all appeared in the
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Nov. 25, 2008 - Received a call from Aaron Pickrell who is running the Obama transition team for HHS and sub-agencies. He said that my name is actively being discussed for NIH director and he wanted to know if I was interested. I was frank and honest with him saying that I wanted to remain as NIAID Director, but I want to be part of the Obama team and perhaps we could work out something informal (without title) or more formal (?Special Assistant or Special Advisor to the POTUS) for issues on Global AIDS, Emerging infections, and Biodefense. He said that he would run this up the ladder and see how people react. My real desire is to stay where I am but to be called upon as I have been for 20+ years on issues mentioned above. I do not want to give up my solid base of scientific credibility. I hear that Francis Collins is aggressively campaigning for the job of NIH Director - not surprising.
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Nov. 29, 2008 - Had brunch with small group of people at Richard and Donna BenVeniste's house. He is a great guy with whom Chris and I have developed a nice friendship. He asked about the NIH Director job and suggested without my implying that I should tell the Obama people that I want to do both NIAID Director and NIH Director. This is what I agreed upon with Tommy Thompson 6 years ago, but the WH (Clay Johnson) blocked it and said that I could take one or the other. I picked NIAID Director. I actually do not think that doing both jobs would work, mainly because people would jump on the "appearance" of conflict every time that I made a decision that they did not like or if their grant did not get funded, and on and on. Also at the brunch was Carl Feldbaum, the IG of the DoD during the Carter Administration and his son Harley who is at Hopkins School of Public Health and is very interested in "Health Diplomacy". He has been an admirer of mine for years as a student. I hope to help him and perhaps advise him on career choices.
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Nov. 30, 2008 - Sunday AM (pouring rain). I had backed out of the Redskins- NY Giants game with Gene Elrod because my daughters were home for Thanksgiving weekend. Got a call from Jay Lefkowitz who is writing a brief history of PEPFAR for a trade journal (forgot which one). He wanted to do a historical fact check with me about the timing of meetings that we had with Josh Bolton, Gary Edson, Kristen Silverberg in the WH. His version of events was strikingly close to my historical memory. During the conversation he asked about the NIH Director job and we reminisced about the Bush years. Interesting fact that he dropped. He related that he was having a conversation with Bush during the time of the NIH Director decision and Bush said, "why not just appoint Tony Fauci". Jay agreed. Jay now casually mentioned that Karl Rove was against my candidacy. He did not say why. I could be that he was against the "dual" appointment or perhaps he was influenced by Sen. Brownback's concern about my stance on fetal tissue and stem cell research. I guess that I will never know.
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Dec. 1-8, 2008 issue of U.S. News & World Report. Other winners who were present were: David Baltimore, Regina Benjamin, Benjamin Carson, Manuel Diaz (Mayor of Miami), Marian Wright Edelman, Fiona Anne Harrison, Freeman A. Hrabowski (Pres. U of MD, Baltimore County, Dave Levin (Founder of KIPP Foundation, Linda Rottenberg (CEO, Endeavor), Mike Feinberg (C0-founder of KIPP), Maria Zuber (MIT). Awardees who were not there: Lance Armstrong, Jeffrey Bezos (CEO, Amazon.com), Terence Blanchard and Herbie Hancock (Thelonius Monk Institute of Jazz), Robert Gates (Secretary of DoD), Amory Lovins, Anne Mulcahy (CEO Xerox), Indra Nooyi (CEO, PepsiCo.) Junior Officers DoD, Jeffrey Sachs, Steven Spielberg, Michael Tilson Thomas Music Director, SF Symphony. David Gergon asked each of us what we would recommend to President-Elect Obama as an area that he should pay attention to. I stressed the need for support of biomedical research and also the importance and moral obligation that we have towards promoting Global Health and its potential for "Health Diplomacy".