A single line often inverts meaning once you see what it
answers, so neighbouring messages are always shown.
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Sept. 21, 2009 - More good news. Pediatric H1N1 clinical trials showed good responses at 8 to 10 days with 1 dose of 15 ugs in kids 9 to 17 and lesser response in kids younger - just like seasonal flu vaccine. I led a press briefing.
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Sept. 24, 2009 - Roll-out of the Thai trial results. 31.2% efficacy; p - 0.039. 16,000 in randomized trial in relatively low risk heterosexuals in Thailand. 74 infections in placebo, 51 infections in vaccines. Press ate it up. The usual suspects who wrote the 2004 Science letter criticizing my decision to fund the trial made comments either for attribution or "anonymously" that they were not impressed and probably thought that it was a fluke (John Moore, Ronald Desrosiers, etc.) I was very reserved in putting it into perspective as this not at all being the "end game", but an important start since this was the first time in over 2 decades that we have gotten even the slightest positive signal in any HIV/AIDS vaccine. The lack of major immune parameters, i.e. neutralizing abs and CTLs tell me what I suspected all along that we are probably not looking at the right measures of immunity. Of note the vaccine had no effect on viral load of those that did get infected. Since this was not H1N1 and since Jenny Backus probably does not even know what HIV is, I was given blanket clearance for the Press. I had the most media exposure that I have had since the anthrax situation. Front page or prominent coverage in all major print media (NY Times, Wash Post, AP, Reuters, etc. Also, prominent appearances on every TV outlet - NBC Nightly News with Bob Bazell, CBS Evening News; ABC World News Tonight, Wolf Blitzer Situation Room on CNN; Fox News; Canadian TV; BBC; Bloomberg; World News with Katty Kay; Radio - NPR - All Things Considered; WTOP
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Sept. 29, 2009 - Bono/U2 concert at FedEx stadium. Logistic disaster for me. I was invited by Bono to attend the concert and be present at a reception in the "Round Room" of the FedEx stadium before he was scheduled to go on at 8:30 PM. I was very busy in the office preparing for the visit to the NIH the next day of Sec. Sebelius and President Obama. By the time Chris and I drove to the stadium we got caught in 2 hours of traffic and a disaster trying to get parking in the stadium lots. I missed the reception, did not see Bono. He probably thought that I did not show and so he did not do what he has done several times with concerts and appearances which is to point me out in the audience and praise me. Too bad, but that is the way it goes sometime.
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Sept. 30, 2009 - Wonderful day at NIH. POTUS came in the AM with the Secretary, Bill Corr (Deputy Secretary) and Francis. Marston Linehan and I showed him a lab in the new CRC. First Marston spoke about the genetics of renal cancer and then Francis spoke about the cancer genome atlas. I then spoke to the POTUS about the history of HIV research here in the Clinical Center. I spoke about how I admitted the first AIDS patients in 1981 and how they all died. I then spoke about the major advances in antiretroviral drug development and testing that has transformed the treatment and survival of HIVinfected individuals. I spoke about the recent results of the Thai HIV vaccine trial. He was very engaging, pleasant, funny but serious about the subject. He definitely now has fixed in his mind who I am. When I told him that I had been here since 1968, he joked that this must mean that I came when I was 11 years old. I had the opportunity of walking him back to his limo to drive around the corner to the entrance to Masur Auditorium. We had a very nice conversation. He knew that I was from NYC. I told him that my father went to Columbia and Megan is a 2TM4 year student at Columbia. He said "Ah, I knew there was something that I really liked about you". I told him about Jenny teaching in Crown Heights and he said that this was terrific. All around, he is an extraordinarily engaging person. I rode in the motorcade to Masur Auditorium with Sec. Sebelius. Obama gave a great speech in the Masur Auditorium. He explicitly mentioned me in his speech referring to what I had told him regarding progress in HIV/AIDS. The audience went wild over him. After he left, to return to the White House, I brought Sec. Sebelius to a patient ward 5SE and had a patient presented to her by Joe Kovacs. It was good to give her a chance to see a hospital ward and a patient. After this we took Sebelius to the Medical Board Room and various IC Directors made short presentations to Sebelius: Richard Hodes and Betsy Nabel on comparative effectiveness research (CER); me on HIV/AIDS; Tom Insel on Autism; Griff Rodgers and Betsy Nabel on obesity. All in all it was a great day for NIH. Obama is an extremely engaging person.
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2009-10-07 00:00
Anthony S. Fauci
Oct. 7, 2009 -- Went to White House to see Francis Collins receive National Medal of Science. When Obama came into the room, I was in the last row (first one he passed), he came over to me and shook my hand. Clearly he now recognizes me as ASF at NIH. Still major press exposure re: HIN1. I am daily on TV, NPR, print papers. The "ban" on me is clearly lifted as Jenny et al are now very comfortable with my talking about anything. Oct. 7 -- 10, 2009 -- Not unexpectedly, the people who are against the Thai trial are making a big stink (anonymously, of course) by leaking to the press that the original announcement on Sept. 24 of the 31% VE with a p value of 0.039 using a mITT analysis was not the correct analysis since the per protocol analysis is a 26% VE with a nonsignificant p value. Everyone knows that the ITT analysis is the gold standard. Nonetheless, these assholes are trying to invalidate the study by rumor milling the press. They got their information by unethically violating an embargo agreement that they had signed when the DoD (out of courtesy) briefed them on all of the data at the time of the Sept, 24 announcement. Clearly, the people involved are Doug Richman, Dennis Burton, Ron desrosiers, John Moore. I finally spoke to the press and had an article in the Sunday (Oct. 11) NY Times with ny picture explaining why it is much to do about nothing.
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Oct. 10, 2009 - Chris and I had a great dinner in the Placido Domingo room of Café Milano as guests of Kathryn and Wayne Reynolds on the occasional of Derek and Beverly Joubert's visit. They are award-winning film-makers for National Geographic who photograph and film lions, leopards, and cheetahs in the wild. Typical enjoyable Reynolds dinner with many famous guests including: Gen James Jones, Terry McAuliffe, Sam and Jan Donaldson, Tom Daschle, Brendan Sullivan, Fred Hiatt, Tom Friedman, Alexandra Cousteau (Jacques's granddaughter),
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Oct. 13, 2009 - Still extremely intensive media exposure with national media appearances a few times per week and heating up. Had dinner at Zeke Emanuel's home in DC with Chris. Corby Kummer was there as was Rahm Emanuel and his children. Other government people whose names I unfortunately forget.
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Oct. 14, 2009 - Flew to NYC to give Parker Memorial Lecture to the Dept. of Microbiology and Immunology at Columbia Medical School. Gave the a4B7 lecture that was very well received.
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Oct. 16, 2009 - Went to White House for top secret meeting and counterintelligence briefing by FBI and CIA. Apparently, Russians are monitoring the evolution of our Biodefense campus at Fort Detrick. As usual, a lot of soft stuff. I certainly would expect that they would be doing this since they suspect that we are doing offensive bioterrorism as opposed to defensive biodefense.