A single line often inverts meaning once you see what it
answers, so neighbouring messages are always shown.
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Feb. 25, 2012 - Went to a (now commonplace for me) dinner at Café Milano hosted by Catherine and Wayne Reynolds in honor of Gov. Jerry brown (D-CA) and his wife Anne. Brown in DC for Governor's Convention. Sat next to Anne and got major insight into the Gov. He was known as Governor "Moonbeam" in the 70s during the hippy years when he dated Linda Ronstadt. However, he is an amazing person in that he just tells the truth without an obvious ideology. Anne told me that Pres. Obama completely shuns even other Democrats such as Democratic Governors. Obama has never once asked Jerry for any advice about anything. It was a lively evening talking about the Republican Primaries and the ridiculousness of it with Romney vs Paul vs Gingrich vs Santorum. Other usual notables at dinner. Chris and Kathleen Matthews, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. I sat next to his wife Mary who is extremely conservative and not too bright (scary), Also there was Bob Barnett and his wife. NPR Nina Totenberg and husband David, Peter Agre, etc.
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Feb. 27, 2012 - Briefed the senior, but sub-Interagency Policy Committee on the Geneva meeting. Chaired by Laura Holgate from NSS (National Security Staff). Also present were Brian Kamoi (NSS - he has lost about 90 lbs. and looks great); Sally Howard (Chief-of-Staff to Sec. Sebelius); Kevin..... from Commerce; a bunch of representatives from the various US Government departments. Tom Countryman from State Department is really a jerk, pompous and uninformed. I alleviated the anxieties of the group regarding the studies by clarifying the difference between transmission and virulence in the Fouchier study. I strongly suggest that we reconvene the NSABB to allow them to see the new data and hear the clarification of the old data.
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Feb. 28, 2012 - Ron Fouchier flew in from Rotterdam to be on a panel tomorrow AM (Feb. 29) organized by American Society of Microbiology (ASM) to discuss this issue. Invited Ron over my house for dinner (rigatoni and sausage with tomato sauce) with Cliff Lane and Hugh Auchincloss to discuss the approach for tomorrow. Ron related to me that the NSABB never gave him a chance to explain his experiments and that he met them via teleconference. Clearly they were hostile to him and when his interview was over, Mike Osterholm started speaking before Ron signed off and Mike said (without knowing that Ron was still on the line) that Ron was a "liar". Ron stayed on the line in secret and described what sounded like a major ad hominem to Ron. After intense discussion with me before and during the dinner, Ron Finally got it that he has to be very clear tomorrow that the ferrets who got infected by aerosol transmission did not get very ill (flu-like sxs at worst), all recovered and NONE died. Only animals who got 1 million infectious doses of H5N1 directly inserted into the trachea died. It is clear that everyone NSABB, all the pundits who commented (Laurie Garret, Tom Ingelsby, Richard Ebright, D.A. Henderson, etc.) and the press thought that after aerosol transmission, the ferrets died. We had long discussions about future experiments and upcoming issues. Later in the dinner, Bruce Alberts (Editor of Science) flew in from San Francisco, called my cell phone to let me know he arrived, and I invited him over for the remainder of the dinner.
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Feb. 29, 2012 - ASM panel at 7:15 to 8:15 at Omni-Shoreham in D.C. Standing room only, fed live on Website with many reporters tuned in. Paul Keim chaired panel that included Ron Fouchier, me, Bruce Alberts, and Mike Osterholm. Everything was clarified and most people asked the question that I have been asking all along - how could this pervasive misunderstanding have occurred. It was clear, but no one wanted to embarrass anyone, that the NSABB missed this major point. March 1 and 2, 2012 - Much press coverage going on trying to decide what went wrong. Jon Cohen from Science is coming close to figuring it out. However, when he asked several members of NSABB to answer some questions, it become clear that they are being defensive and saying that it is the mere fact of making the virus "transmissible" that prompted them to recommend against publication, even if it was not clear that the aerosol-transmitted virus did not kill the ferrets. We are going to reconvene the NSABB ASAP to review the revised manuscripts from Ron and Yoshi to that they can see the additional and clarified data. I am afraid that they will not change their minds because they need to save face that they actually dropped the ball badly. I believe that Mike Osterholm and to some extent David Relman aggressively persuaded the others to vote not to publish. HOWEVER, I believe if the other members of NSABB knew that the aerosol transmission did not result in death of the ferrets, they would not have been convinced by the histrionics of Mike who told the press that this was equivalent to "thermonuclear war" if this virus gets out.
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2012-03-05 00:00
Anthony S. Fauci
March 5, 2012 - It is starting to become clear that the NSABB are saying that the basis for their recommendation is the fact that the virus was made transmissible and the decision had little or nothing to do with whether or not the virus was lethal via aerosol transmission. I just cannot believe this. I believe that most of the NSABB group did not know enough about flu to know the importance of this distinction. They now are embarrassed that they missed this and are likely covering their asses. Interesting that the N.Y. Times (Phil Boffey) editor wrote another Sunday editorial yesterday (May 4, 2012) criticizing the process and implying that "the NIH, whose reputation is at stake....." is somehow at fault. He clearly is taking the side of the NSABB calling them fiercely independent. He wrote me an e-mail prior to the Sunday editorial giving me a "headsup". He implied in his e-mail that I was trying to have him retract his prior editorial based on information from Geneva. He is totally missing the point. I do not want him to retract anything nor do I want to influence the NSABB to change their minds. I merely want them to reconvene so that they can have all of the information that was presented in Geneva and at the ASM meeting on Feb. 29, 2012 in Washington. Things that they almost certainly did not know at the time of their December, 2011 recommendation: 1) aerosol transmitted H5N1 does not kill ferrets; 2) engineered H5N1 is poorly transmissible, i.e. it takes 3 to 5 days after exposure to transmit to 75% of ferrets compared to 2009 N1N1 that transmits in 100% of animals within 1 day; 3) pre-infecting ferrets with either seasonal H1N1 or H3N2 and letting them recover and then instilling 1 million infectious doses of H5N1 into their tracheas completely protects the ferrets from disease and death. If they still feel after they hear this that the papers should be redacted, then so be it. I believe that they are incorrect and were driven by the hysteria of Mike Osterholm, the know-it-all of David Relman and the lack of understanding of the rest of the NSABB.
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Mar. 8, 2012 - Went to special premier showing of the movie "Game Changer" about Sarah Palin starring Julianne Moore, Ed Harris and Woody Harrelson. All the usual DC glitterati were there, both political and media. Tammy Haddad was responsible for my invite. Went with Chris.
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Mar. 9, 2012 - PCAST meeting at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Presented on a panel with Paul Keim (Chair of NSABB), Bruce Alberts (Science editorin-chief), Peter Palese (Mt. Sinai) regarding the H1N1 manuscript controversy. Chaired by John Holdren and Eric Lander. Reviewed the pros and cons of publication. I gave presentation similar to my ASM presentation on Feb. 29.
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Mar. 12, 2012 - Gave my yearly talk to the Zuckerman Fellows on "A Career in Public Service". Very engaged group; was told by conveners that the fellows loved the talk and found it the best among many talks by White House people, and other government officials. Usual cocktail reception and dinner at the home of Ron and Beth Dozoretz. Mingled with the usual DC glitterati - Andrea Mitchell and Alan Greenspan, Mort Zuckerman, David Gergen, Chris Matthews, etc.
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Mar. 20, 2012 - House Appropriations Subcommittee Hearings - Rayburn Building. Unusual situation that the Hearing was confined to a discussion about NCATS. Only official witnesses were Francis Collins and Tom Insel (Director NIMH) who was there in his capacity as Acting Director of NCATS. Harold Varmus and I were there as "token" attendees for rest of NIH. It was a disgrace that the Hearing was only NCATS. Chairman Dennis Reyberg is not the brightest bulb on the porch.