A single line often inverts meaning once you see what it
answers, so neighbouring messages are always shown.
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May 2, 2010 - Annual McLaughlin (now together with Reuters) Sunday Brunch after the WH Correspondents' ball. Hel at the usual Rooftop of the Hay-Adams Hotel. Met with and spoke with Dennis Quaid who is an advocate of eliminating "Hospital errors". His child was the victim of a medication error involving a heparin line through which the infant was given 10,000 times the dose of heparin.
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May 5, 2010 - At his request, had meeting in my office with J. Craig Venter. He wanted to brief me and get my advice on how to handle the rollout of his upcoming Science paper on Synthetic Biology. He has made a major advance in synthesizing from the sequence in a computer the 1.1 million base pairs of Mycoplasma mycoides and inserted it into a Mycoplasma capricolum bacteria. The synthetic mycoides then began to code for the proteins of the bacterial cell wall so that after several replications there was a bacteria with a synthetic genome and all of the protein coded for by the synthetic genome, thus a synthetic cell. I advised him to be very transparent at this and present it to the NAS, the OSTP, among others. He has lined up some embargoed press in anticipation of the release next week of the paper on May 13. He very much wanted me to do heavy press with him likely to add a greater degree of credibility to it as well as because I explain science so well. From today until the House Hearing on May 27, HHS and the White House completely muzzled me for ridiculous reasons. Despite the fact that John Holdren submitted my name to the WH as the best person to do TV, radio and print, the WH muzzled all government comment on this. They were "afraid to elevate it publicly by having well-known government figures speak about it since they did not want flack from the "right" that the government was involved in "creating" life. Unbelievable!! Rick Weiss who is communications director for OSTP is extremely distraught about the muzzling. Of note, this has happened to me throughout the H1N1 flu pandemic. Apparently, besides Jenny Backus, more importantly, David Pfeiffer at the White House is now behind the muzzling.
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May 6, 2010 - We have been pushing the issue of more resources and activity on Neglected tropical Diseases (NTDs) here at NIAID. Peter Hotez from GW has been a leader in this field. Recently, Zeke Emanuel at OMB has been pushing it as part of the POTUS Global Health Initiative (GHI). Zeke called a meeting of all of the players in the field including me, Hotez, Eric Goosby, Raj Shah (Head of USAID), Raj's assistant Amy Batson and many others to discuss the future agenda. The meeting involved research, policy, implementation. NIAID will sponsor a purely scientific meeting later in the year (Dec., 2010).
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May 7, 2010 - "Big Think" meeting at the Natcher Building of Outside consultants to discuss 3 of Francis's pillars: 1) high throughput technology; 2) Translational Research; 3) Research involved in enhancing health care reform. All day. Francis Collins clearly is trying to steer the NIH towards his themes. "Everybody wants to be somebody." The meeting was geared to figure out how to spend Common Fund Money and how to move more towards translational research. Actually a good meeting. Francis is smart, very hard working, but it is all about Francis.
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2010-05-13 00:00
Anthony S. Fauci
May 13, 2010 - Gave Keynote at the NIAF Public policy Forum at the Rayburn Building. Typical of similar Italian functions. Again, continual activity at WH with MCM and Heidi.
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May 14, 2010 - Phenomenal reception/dinner at the Academy of Achievement on 16th Street, N.W. hosted by Wayne and Catherine Reynolds. Usual stars of DC were there: Eric Holder, media people, Gen. James Jones, Bob Barnett, etc., etc. It was a Tribute to Hal David, master lyricists and team member with Burt Bacharach. "Mystery" entertainers were B.J. Thomas singing "Raindrops keep falling on my head" and the amazing Dionne Warwick. I helped Dionne a few months ago by referring her friend to a neurologist for MS. We had a pleasant conversation after her performance.
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May 18, 2010 - Science Management Working Group (SMRG) meeting in Building 31 to discuss the clinical center issues and the proposition to open it to the extramural community in exchange for the inflationary increases being paid for out of the total NIH budget instead of just the IRP budget. Still pending what the decision will be. That night had dinner at Assaggi in Bethesda with Mark Harrington, Gregg Gonsalves and David Barr to discuss the underfunding of PEPFAR and what to do about it. In this regard, big issue looming among the international and national AIDS advocacy community about the POTUS GHI that includes PEPFAR, but funds PEPFAR at almost level instead of the expected increases by the community. POTUS wants to expand GHI beyond just PEPFAR and include, child health, maternal health, women's health, NTDs, etc. Thus, PEPFAR is somewhat competing with others for a limited pot of money. Many African health officials such as Peter Mugyenyi are openly complaining about this and getting agitated. Obama is looking in the eyes of the activists as anti-AIDS, which he is not. However, it is clear that AIDS is not his highest priority. Earlier in the day I appeared on the Diane Rehm show on just this topic of shortfunding of PEPFAR. On with me was Stephen Lewis (former UN envoy at large for HIV and Peter Mugyenyi and Eric Goosby. Lewis as usual was sanctimonious.
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May 21, 2010 - Waxman's House Energy and Commerce committee want me to testify on May 27 with Craig Venter and others on synthetic biology and the science paper that just came out. White House is balking. I spoke with staffers Naomi Seiler and Steve Cha. Both really want me to testify.
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May 25, 2010 - Received the Joel A. Toubin Award for Advocacy on Behalf of HIV Infected People from the Whitman Walker Clinic at the Embassy of Sweden at 2900 K street on the Georgetown Waterfront. Amazingly beautiful day. Reception on the rooftop with panoramic views of the Potomac, Watergate, the Key bridge, etc. Check out my speech