A single line often inverts meaning once you see what it
answers, so neighbouring messages are always shown.
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February 5, 2014 - went to the NIH FDA leadership Council meeting at the new FDA headquarters in Silver Spring. I presented the NIAID strategic approach towards antimicrobial resistance research. The FDA presentation was made by Dr. Peter Lurie. In attendance were Dr. Francis Collins, Dr. Peggy Hamburg, members of the FDA, as well as members of the NIH. This is an initiative in which we will be engaging industry in trying to get expedited approval for antibiotics against resistant organisms.
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February 7, 2014 - went to the American Society of Microbiology annual Public and Scientific Affairs Board meeting at their headquarters on 1752 - N Street, NW., Washington, DC. I do this every year and update the group on activities of NIH and NIAID. As usua,l my presentation was extremely well received by the group. These are people who are great supporters of me and my role as the director of and NIAID.
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February 12, 2014 -- attended another one of the extraordinary functions given by Kathryn and Wayne Reynolds Founders of the Academy of Achievement. It was a blacktie affair honoring Penny Pritzker in an event sponsored not only by the Academy of Achievement, but also by Debbie and John Dingell, Elaine Chao, former secretary of Labor under Pres. George W Bush, as well as the ambassador of United Arab Emirates. It was the typical extraordinary dinner with the AAA list of Washington DC. I had the opportunity to discuss in some detail with Colin Powell the possibility of my writing my book. He gave me some advice about whether or not to have someone who could assist me on the book versus writing the book by myself. At my table I sat down next to Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall who is the Special Assistant to Pres. Obama for national security affairs. In addition I sat down next to Linda Daschle wife of former Sen. Thomas Daschle whom I know every well from continually running into him on the C & O Canal when Christine and I and sometimes one or more of our dughters run along the canal. Tom is a regular on that trail and we run into him very often. Also at the dinner were a number of notables including Wolf Blitzer, Senator Markey and Holly Petraeus, wife of Gen. David Petraeus, Sen. Bill Frist, fomer Assistant Attorney General under Clinto -- Jamie Gorelick, former Israel Prime Minister, Defense Minister and war hero Ehud Barak, and many, many others. Traditionally, at the end of these elegant dinners, Wayne and Catherine Reynolds surprise us with a mystery guest who provides entertainment. Tonight, the guest was the one and only Carole King who was one of my favorite songwriters and entertainers of all time. Carole sang a repertoire of her songs from her "Tapestry" album which, again, is among the best albums that I have ever listened to. Her performance literally brought me to tears. I had the opportunity to talk to Carole after her performance. Notably, she is from Brooklyn New York. We discussed our common Brooklyn heritage. I told her what I did vis-a-vis HIV/AIDS research, and she was extraordinarily gracious and thanking me for all of my good work. All in all another wonderful evening with the Reynolds group. Of note, it began to snow as well we leaving the dinner and it turned into one of the worst snow storms (10 inches in DC) that we have had in years. We got home OK, but the USG was closed the following day.
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Feb. 18, 2014 -- Received autographed "collector's" copy of Colin Powell's Book "It Worked For Me". He thanked me for being a great doctor and a good friend.
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2014-02-19 00:00
Anthony S. Fauci
Feb. 19, 2014 -- Gave major lecture on Emerging IDs at Georgetown. After lecture, John Monahan is still trying to get me to consider with Jack DeGioia the possibility of coming to GT and getting involved with a Global Health Institute. This could be something for me a few years from now.
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Feb. 21, 2014 -- Met here at NIH with John Bartrum of the House Appropriations Subcomunittee Staff. John is really a "mortal enemy" of Francis since John is trying to micromanage NIH from the Subcommittee and Francis has offended him in the past by doing things without giving him and the Committee a heads-up -- ex: dissolving NCRR; starting NCTAS, etc. John used to be Chief Budget Officer at NIH under Elias Zerhouni and then for a while under Francis. John loves me and I have no problem with the visit; 3 like this out in NEHM. however, Francis shunned him. Issue is that John wrote into the report language of the NIH appropriations that we should have a "strategic plan" and Francis refuses to do a top down plan. Francis is completely correct on this, but he should compromise and agree on a "communications plan" since that is all the Committee wants is a document to refer constituents to when they inquire about what NIH is doing and why.
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Feb. 24, 2014 - Did the "Nifty-Fifty" talk at Montgomery-Blair High School in Silver Spring. Great group of kids with many questions and interest. I spoke on my career in public service at NIH. Sen. Mikulshy visited NIH and gave "pep talk" about the budget.
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Feb. 25, 2014 - Went to NYC for the day to the DDCF Board meeting. Always like this - seeing Nan Koehane, Jim Gill, Ed Henry, Peter Nadoscy, John Zuccotti et al. Someday, I might even be able to take the honorarium
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Feb. 26, 2014 - Dinner with Larry Corey at Cesco Osteria in Bethesda. Extremely cold streak of weather in DC over past few weeks. We spoke of Larry concern about DAIDS, the vaccine program, esp. Mary Marovich, whom he feels is a poor substitute for Peggy Johnston. I am also hearing this from Gepi. They worry that Mary and her staff have no leadership and cannot make decisions. Feel that they do not represent me well as did Peggy.