A single line often inverts meaning once you see what it
answers, so neighbouring messages are always shown.
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December 13, 2012 - travel to New York City to give the keynote lecture at the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DND1) symposium run by Medicins Sans Frontiere (MSF, aka Doctors Without Borders) entitled "Lives in the Balance: Delivering Medical Innovations for Neglected Patients and Populations" I spoke on the research issues related to neglected infectious diseases. My talk was very well received it took place at Mount Sinai Hospital on Madison Avenue and 99th St. The evening before I had dinner with my daughter Jennifer at Café Vida on Amsterdam Avenue and 97th Street. That evening when I got home I discussed the newly formed Office of Global Health Diplomacy with Eric Goosby. He wanted to give me a heads-up about the fact that Secretary Clinton would make an announcement the following day about the formation of this new office and that she would appoint Eric Goosby as the director of the new office while simultaneously maintaining his position as the director of PEPFAR. In typical manner, Eric is such a good person and friend that he wanted to keep me in the loop.
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December 14, 2012 - attended Lessons and Carols at the National Cathedral in Washington DC at 7:00 to 9:00 PM. This is a tradition which our family has done for all the years that are children attended the National Cathedral School. It was lovely and nostalgic. Megan and Ali attended with Chris and me. Jenny was still in NYC and would come down for Christmas in a few days.
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December 15, 2012 - had dinner with Wayne and Catherine Reynolds at the Adour Restaurant at the St. Regis Hotel on Connecticut Avenue in Washington DC. As usual Wayne and Catherine put together a very interesting group for dinner. This time it included my friend Rick Atkinson the Pulitzer Prize winning author as well as Buzzy Krongaard and his flakey wife Cheryl. Buzzie was formally the Executive Director of the CIA. We were joking about the smash TV Showtime hit series called "Homeland" starring Claire Danes as Carrie Mathieson (a bipolar CIA agent tracking terrorists) and Damien Lewis as Sarg. Nicholas Brody (a marine turned reluctant terrorist, turned back to good). Buzzie was saying that the CIA could never act domestically the way it was portrayed in the series. That would have to be FBI. Other guests included Francis Collins, Congressman John Dingell and his wife Debbie and others.
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December 17, 2012 - We had an "international consultation" on the problem of gain of function research on H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) (see above discussions). The meeting took over two days from December 17 to December 18 and was conducted at the Natcher Auditorium at the National Institutes of Health. This is a continuing issue and a source of great discussion about what experiments should or should not be funded by the National Institutes of Health on this topic. I gave the opening keynote which everyone felt very clearly defined the issues. We will now finalize the draft of "Framework" for addressing the issue of what grants and contracts we should or should not fund that relate to a gain of function regarding respiratory transmissibility in mammals of the HPAI H5N1 influenza. I am trying to get myself out of this argument which has consumed a considerable amount of my time over the past 14 months.
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2012-12-30 00:00
Anthony S. Fauci
Dec. 30, 2012 - Interesting and potentially bad news regarding Sec. Hillary Clinton. A couple of weeks ago she reportedly fell and had a "concussion" that kept her out of the public eye for ~ 3 weeks. Report today that she was admitted to NY Presbyterian lso, Hospital for a "clot" and is supposed to be receiving anticoagulation. Her staff are being very close-to-the-vest about his. Cannot figure out if she just has thrombophlebitis or if she had a pulmonary embolus. Certainly could not have had a subdural hematoma since one would never anticoagulant under these circumstances. Turned out she had a venous thrombosis of a skull vein, not involving the brain
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Jan. 3, 2013 - A lot of influenza activity exploding throughout the country with H3N2 that matches the vaccine. Early start and big spike with widespread activity throughout the country. Appeared on Fox Local News this evening.
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Jan. 7, 2013 - Interesting telephone call with Paul Stoffels today. Paul is CEO of Johnson and Johnson that owns Janssen Pharmacueticals as well as Crucell. He is excited about the Dan Barouch HIV candidate using Adenovirus 26/35 + MVA boost and wants to develop it as an HIV vaccine. He wants to partner with me and NIAID in this endeavor. This is relevant to the meeting tomorrow night in Building 31
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Jan. 8, 2013 - Flu activity accelerating. Appearing on WUSA - Channel 9 today. Also, appeared this evening on Wolf Blitzer "Situation Room" regarding the flu epidemic. Went very well This evening meeting of the P5 vaccine consortium in Building 31, 7A-24. Successful meeting involving all of the players from Gates Foundation (Trevar Mundell, Stefano bertozzi, Peggy Johnston, Nina Russell), the Army (Nelson Michael, Jerome Kim), HVTN (Larry Corey, Peter Gilbert, etc.) See pdf for full contingent. image.pdf Main purpose of the meeting was to re-group and summarize where we are in the planning of the P5 (Pox Protein Public Private Partnership) for HIV vaccine). Presentation by Larry Corey, Gepi Pantaleo, Peter Gilbert, Julie McElrath, Glenda Gray (RSA) on the NYVAC +/- DNA + protein approach; and by Dan Barouch, Hanneke Schuitemaker (Crucell) on the Adenovirus (Ad 26/35 + protein + adjuvant) approach. One of the problems is that Novartis, who is supposed to supply the envelope protein for the Corey trial will be about 1 year late in delivering the protein. Many of us are angry with them about this since they have not been forthcoming. Also, the correlates of immunity from the RV144 (Thai) trial indicate that protection might be related to response against the V2 loop of the envelope and specifically against residue 169 in this region. Problem is that the envelope used in both proposed trials will not even address this. The envelope that grows well in cell cultures will be used. Balance of empiric with scientific. Gepi Pantaleo, Larry Corey and I went to dinner in Bethesda at Grapeseed Restaurant after the meeting (5:30 to 7:45 PM) to reflect and commiserate. It will be largely my responsibility to decide go-no go from Phase 1 (starts in mid-end of 2014) to Phase IIa/b (2015 - 2016), the latter costing over $100 million and so this will be an important decision based on a combination of science and best guess. Stay tuned. his AM to talk
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Jan. 9, 2013 - Appeared on C-SPAN (TV) and on WTOP radio early this AM to talk about the erupting influenza epidemic.