A single line often inverts meaning once you see what it
answers, so neighbouring messages are always shown.
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June 16-17, 2009 - Gave Keynote Address at the Pacific Health Summit in Seattle on TB research. It went over extremely well. Many people said that the talk was "historic" and "transforming". I gave a passionate plea for pushing research on TB into the 21st Century and making it transforming and not just incremental. Patty Conrad came with me to Seattle to help out with the press and she enjoyed the trip greatly. Her first trip with me in 2 years since she began working at NIAID.
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June 22, 2009 - Back to the West Wing of the White House for the first time since the Obama Administration began. Met in the Situation Room in meeting jointly run by Laura Petrou (COS for Sec. Sebelius) and Heidi Avery (HSC) to discuss planning for response (vaccine program) to H1N1 Swine flu.
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June 30, 2009 - Had an interesting day of H1N1 flu "stuff". Harvey Fineberg and I constituted a panel that discussed the lesson of the Swine Flu affair in 1976 and its relationship to what is going on today with the swine H1N1 2009. Sponsored by CSIS (Center for Strategic and International Studies) and Kaiser with Steve Morrison and Jennifer Kates presiding. Held in Room B339 in Rayburn Building. Standing room only crowd. Went quite well. Later in the afternoon, went to the Roosevelt Room of the White House to have a similar discussion of lessons learned from 1976. Present were John Brennan (HSC), Sec. Sebelius - (finally got a chance to chat with her and she congratulated me on my honorary doctorate from Harvard a few weeks ago, Apparently, she was in the audience at Commencement since her son graduated from the Business School); Jane Lute (Deputy Sec. - DHS), Arne Duncan (Sec. Educ.), Peggy Hamburg (FDA), Ann Schuchat (CDC), David Senser (former director of CDC who was fired in 1977), Harvey Fineberg, David Matthews (Sec. HEW during 1976), David Hamburg, Walter Dowdle (old friend from CDC), Peter Orszag (Director, OMB). President Obama joined the group for about 30 minutes. He clearly recognized me and greeted me warmly. The entire discussion went from 3:30 to 5:10 PM. Warm, humid summer day in DC
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July 2, 2009 - Another flu panel, this time at the AAAS at 12th and H Street, N.W. Chaired by Harvey Fineberg. Other panelists were Anne Schuchat, Ken Bernard and Ken Cole (US Navy). Good crowd, good discussion. War DC Summer day. Took taxi back to NIH because of horrific delays on Metro's Red Line related to tragic crash that occurred last week where 9 people died.
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2009-07-09 00:00
Anthony S. Fauci
July 9, 2009 - Participated as a major speaker at the "Flu Summit" held at NIH run by HHS. Speakers were Sec. Sebelius, Janet Napolitano, Arne Duncan (Education), John Brennan (HSC). Pres. Obama called in from the G-8 conference in L'Aquila, Italy with a "Buon Giorno". Much press at the conference. Still much activity going on. Weather has been spectacular for July here in DC - very unusual - no humidity - cool in the AM.
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July 10, 2009 - Important meeting at the Pooks Hill Marriott to discuss the transformation of our AIDS clinical trials network into a network that would be "pluripotential" in that we would study a host of other diseases within the infrastructure, i.e. TB, malaria, NTDs, flu, etc. There is obviously some resistance to this, but it is the way to go. Getting prepared for trip on July 16 - 22 to Cape Town for the IAS meeting where I have several speaking roles (see below).
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July 14, 2009 - Senator Carl Levin called me to ask my advice about the qualifications and temperament of Tara O'Toole who has been nominated by Pres. Obama as an Assistant Secretary in the Dept. of Homeland Security. He is Chair of the Senate Homeland Security Committee responsible for approving her nomination. He has heard concerns that she is somewhat of a zealot for Biodefense. I explained that I knew her and that although she is a bit out there in thinking that there is Al Qaeda is every corner, she still is quite competent and I would recommend that he approve her.
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July 15, 2009 - Went with Patty Conrad to the book signing of D.A. Henderson's book on the history of smallpox eradication sponsored by Tommy Thompson of Aikin Gump (his law firm). Tommy was very moved that I was there and introduced me when I came in as "the person who discovered the AIDS virus" (ha!). When I corrected him he said, "Well, Tony is the world's greatest scientist". Nice party. Some of Tommy's old crew was there: Stewart Simonson, Kevin Keane, Bill Pierce, Ladd Wiley, etc. Patty and I went out to dinner at McCormick and Schmick's on 19th Street afterwards.
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July 16 - 21, 2009 Trip to Cape Town, South Africa to the International AIDS Society (IAS) Conference on Pathogenesis, treatment and Prevention held at the Cape Town Convention Center from Sunday, Sept. 19 to Wed, Sept 22. I left USA on Thursday, July 16 and arrived in Cape Town on Friday evening. Came DC with fuel stop at Dakar, then to Johannesburg and on to cape Town. Exhausting 20 hour trip. Stayed at Cullinan Hotel (Southern Sun) On Saturday AM, July 18 gave the Keynote Address at the HIV/TB research Meeting at the Desmond Tutu HIV Center of the University of cape Town. Lecture extremely well received. I spoke of the same critical needs for TB (together with HIV) research that I spoke about a few weeks before at the Pacific Health Summit in Seattle. During the afternoon of July 18 drove down to Cape Point with Gray Handley. Clearly Cape Town and the Western Cape is one of the most beautiful cities/areas in the world. It look so much like the California coast from San Francisco down to Monterrey/Carmel. Weather was stunningly beautiful with crisp clear skies and temperatures about 65-70. This is most unusual at this time of years since this is SA's winter. In the evening of July 18, met with Julio Montaner (Pres. IAS) and co-chair of meeting and Craig Mc Clure (Exec. Director of IAS) and Robin Gorna upcoming President of IAS to discuss the possibility of holding the 2012 IAS meeting in Washington, D.C. They know that I am pushing to have the immigration ban lifted in time to make the decision to have the meeting in DC. The ban has been lifted by law and is now in public comment for final lifting by HHS. Also, they wanted me to help get Michelle Obama or the POTUS to open the meeting in 2012. Night of July 18, went to terrific dinner at a vineyard (Stillness Manor) hosted in my honor by Linda-Gail Bekker. Linda Gail turned out to be fantastic as a major player in the Cape Town (and all of SA) AIDS clinical trials network that NIAID supports. Met with many South Africans to whom I told the story of PEPFAR. Only a few of them actually knew how it started: John Hargrove, Robin Wood (Linda-Gail's husband), Brian Williams, Brian Brink, Des Martin, among others. Sunday, July 19, took tour of Robben Island with Gray Handley. It was an incredibly moving experience. The tour guide was a person who was imprisoned there for 5 1⁄2 years. I saw Nelson Mandela's cell, the quarry where he worked at hard labor and the place where he planted his garden in the exercise courtyard of the prison. That evening, I attended the opening ceremony of the IAS Conference. Monday, July 20. Visited the Township of Gugulethu and participated in the launching of the SAAVI102/HVTN 073 vaccine trial, which is a collaboration between the NIAID and the South Africans on a DNA prime MVA boost vaccine. The South Africans involved are Linda-Gail in CT and Glenda Gray in Durban (KwaZulu-Natal) Collaboration also with VRC (Gary Nabel). Big ceremony at the launching with the Minister of Science and technology (Dr. Pandor - woman), Anthony (Tony) Mbewu - head of SA MRC, and Minister of Health Matsoaledi. I was very moved by the terrible conditions of poverty in the Township of Gugulethu, but was equally impressed with what was being accomplished by the roll-out of PEPFATR by Linda-Gail in this setting. The extraordinary overlap and burden of disease with TB here and in Masiphumelele (see below) was staggering. 30% of patients on the PEPFAR program were diagnosed and were on treatment for TB when they entered program. Another 20% were diagnosed with TB when they got there and another 10% developed TB during the time that they were there. In the early afternoon (1:00 PM I gave the Plenary Keynote at the meeting on the subject of "US Sponsored HIV/AIDS Research and Prevention: Science and Policy". Following my talk was a talk by Eric Goosby, the new head of the Office of Global AIDS Coordinator (OGAC). The session was devoted to AIDS science and policy in the new Obama administration. My talk was very well received. I emphasized the science but also stressed that the needle exchange ban would soon be over as would be the immigration constraints, as would be abstinence only. I clearly stated that abstinence only does not work. The crowd loved it. That night had reception at the Consul-General's (Alberta Mayberry) home (amazingly beautiful view of CT from her terrace. All the implementers of PEPFAR were there from USAID, CDC, and South Africans. I gave a short speech sincerely thanking them for their work, and told them the story of PEPFAR. Eric Goosby also gave a speech July 22 tion program. I Tuesday, July 21. I visited with Linda-Gail the Township of Masiphumelele. Again, I was deeply moved by the poverty and physical nature of the place. Like Gugulethu, there were small huts made of corrugated tin and cardboard thast were stuck to each other in a "wall-to-wall" fashion for acres and acres. One could barely walk between the huts. Again, the work that the South African health personnel were doing was inspiring. The same numbers and problems with HIV and TB as in Gugulethu. Tuesday night we flew back to DC and arrived early (6:00 AM) on Wednesday, July 22