A single line often inverts meaning once you see what it
answers, so neighbouring messages are always shown.
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August 1, 2014 - Samaratan's Purse (Charity Organization in Liberia) has decided to fly Kent Bartley and Nancy Whitebol (infected health workers) from Liberia to Emory Univerity in Atlanta. Emory has a CDC-designated Unit to take care of Ebola. They are on their way. Public blogs quite concerned about danger of this transporting to USA> I think that it sis dangerous for the patient's health for them to fly. I am assuring public anyway that it is safe, even though for the patient's sake, I would not have transferred them. Media frenzy continues. Tait Sye decided to give to Tom Frieden and the CDC all 6 of the Sunday Morning TV requests that came to me. We objected strongly (Courtney Billet and John Burklow), but to no avail. Tait is an asshole. He thinks there should be only one government voice on Sunday moming TV. Francis Collins called. Tait and e-mailed him with an excoriating response telling that he essentially did not know what he was doing. I did multiple print media today in addition to Fox National News, MSNBC, and China TV. They have now initiated daily (including weekends) calls with Secretary Burwell and also intra-NIH calls with Francis Collins. Questionable ethics in Samaritan's purse getting monoclonal antibodies from MAPP Biopharmaceuticals for their persons. We are funding the development of these antibodies (ZMAPP) but the company owns them. I will appear on CNN Special with Sanjay Gupta this evening at 4:30 PM War raging in Gaza. We also had meeting here at NIH is Medical Board room of the Clinical Research Center with a number of African Leaders including President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania and president Denis Sassou-Nguesso of the Republic of Congo and Minister of Health of Kenya James Macharia among other African ambassadors and staff. I presented an update on Ebola (which they were obviously interested in given the current media attention) as well as HIV, Malaria, etc. Good meeting. This is associated with the large African Leadership Summit that President Obama is hosting in DC this week. Obviously, people are asking (ignorant) whether it is safe to bring Africans to the USA now.
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August 3, 2014 -- Indeed Tait gave Frieden all of the Sunday AM shows. CNN repeated the clip of me on the Sanjay Gupta Special today (Sunday) at 7:30 AM. I appeared on MSNBC live at 3:00 PM and will do CBS Evening News Tonight. Also did Channel 9 Local News at 6:00 PM (taped). Questions arising about supply of antibodies and whether to use experimental therapies (all pre-clinical so far) in humasn via Emergency Use Authorizations and Compassionate use.
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August 4, 2014 -- Media frenzy continues regarding Ebola. Reports say that the ZMapp cocktail of 3 monoclonal antibodies given to Dr. Brantley resulted in "miraculous" improvement. Sanjay Gupta and I sparred (friendly) a bit about this on CNN since I said immediate (20 minutes after infusion) effect would be most unusual for an antibody. Did much, much media today: CBS This Morming with Charlie Rose (Live from in front of Building 31); CNN New Day with Sanjay Gupta; MSNBC with Chick Todd; WTOP Radio; NPR "Here and Now"; BBC radio; MSNBC; Hearst TV. Tonight I do MSNBC again at 8:15 PM from Nebraska Avenue and BBC Radio at 10:15 PM. Much discussion from the media about the role of "NIH scientists" in getting the ZMapp to Brantley. They are referring to Lisa Hensley. We needed to clear up her role in that CDC (Kevin DeCock) asked her to point Samaritan's Purse in the direction of the people who had the antibody. There was some feeling that there was some "government conspiracy". I will discipline Lisa when she returns from Liberia because she got out of her lane by getting involved in the procurement of the antibody. I am exhausted from media.
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August 5, 2014 - Media, particularly CNN and Sanjay Gupta still pursuing the issue of an NIH scientist (Lisa Hensley) who they claim actively pursued and obtained the zMapp antibodies for the 2 American patients. Lisa returns today and we must get the truth. She claims that she just steered Samaritan's Purse (SP) people to the individuals/groups that had interventions and SP decided to obtain the zMapp from Gary Kobinger (Canada) who apparently brought a dose to Sierra Leone. As it turns out, Lisa got on a helicopter provided by the State Department to pick up the zMapp from Sierra Leone and bring it back to Liberia. When she got to SL, she found out that SP had already obtained a helicopter themselves and had already picked up the zMapp and brought it to the patients in Liberia. I find out today that the helicopter that Lisa flew in was a CIA helicopter! The State department will deny any role in this since the CIA is not supposed to be operating out of the Embassy. However, the Embassy certainly "tried to" facilitate the transport of zMapp. I will straighten all of this out and get to the truth after we question Lisa. Getting exhausted by media. Today I did: CNN Squawk Box; MSNBC; CTV News; CNN with Sanjay Gupta; Fox News; Reuters TV; CNN International; Al Jazeera; BBC TV; Fox News with Lou Dobbs; CNN Anderson Cooper; MSNBC with Larry O'Donnell.
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2014-08-06 00:00
Anthony S. Fauci
August 6, 2014 - Some of the events that occurred today are very important. Lisa Hensley, an NIAID employee (Ph. D) is a NIAID scientist who reports to Peter Jahrling at Fort Detrick. She was in Liberia to give technical assistance. She had informed Cliff that her role in Samantha's Purse (SP) getting the zMapp antibodies for Dr. Brantley and Nancy Writebol was only peripheral and facilitating. Lisa has been called back by Cliff and returned from Liberia last night and Cliff Lane gathered a considerable amount of information from her. It appears that she has been much more active in assisting the people from SP in procuring the zMapp antibodies from Gary Kobinger of the Canadian Health Agency. In addition to just pointing the SP people in the right direction, she was actively involved in organizing an attempt to procure the antibodies and deliver them to the patients. The CDC was actively involved also in the person of Kevin DeCock who put Lisa in contact with SP. In addition, the United States Embassy in Monrovia, Liberia was very actively involved in this process. With regard to the latter the embassy provided a UN helicopter to take Lisa and the military attaché from the embassy to the border of Sierra Leone and Liberia to pick up the package of monoclonal antibodies. However, SP had already chartered their own helicopter and picked up the material themselves. Nonetheless, our prior determination and announcement to the media that the NIH as well as the federal government played only a minor role in the procurement of these antibodies is technically not correct. When I found out about this, I felt it was very important to alert HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell. I briefed her on the fact that the original statement from the Department of Health and Human Services regarding the role of NIH was not technically correct. She agreed and indicated that we would have to let the White House know particularly the General Counsel. The reason why this is important is that technically speaking SP has broken the law by bringing in a drug from Sierra Leone to Liberia without the permission of the health officials of Liberia. In addition, there is also the issue of ethics in procuring a drug for one individual when there is very short supply. And so the question is asked how can one get drug for American doctors and health workers when hundreds of Africans are dying from the disease. We will have to face this issue in the press even though technically speaking NIH did not procure the drug. The appearance is that we at least assisted the SP in getting it. It is important to emphasize that Lisa Hensley was acting on her own accord without asking permission from any of her superiors and so she was really not representing the NIH. It appears now that this was what Sanjay Gupta of CNN was talking about when he told me by phone that he had e-mails that indicated that an NIH person was actively involved in procuring zMapp antibodies for SP and that the US Embassy was also involved and that he could not show me the e-mails since the person who gave them to him had a lawqyer who advised against it. I believe that the secret party who gave Sanjay the e-mails is SP who are now afraid that they have broken the law and are trying to say that the USG helped them and so how could it be wrong. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. Billy Fischer from UNC visited NIH to help the Clinical Center get ready for the possibility of admitting Ebola patients since the CDC is sending 50 people to West Africa and there is the possibility that they may get infected and might need care. Billy spent time in Sierra Leone directly taking care of patients. He was great! Again, much press today → CBS Morning Show with Charlie Rose and Norah O'Donnell; NBC Channel 4 Local News; CNN with Jake Tapper. August 7. 2014 - Re-visit of part of the African Delegation that is visiting DC. Francis Collins and I and other IC Directors briefed them in Medical Board Room of the Clinicial Center at 11:15 AM. Present were Mali President Kweita and Zambia Vice president Guy Scott and his wife Charlotte. I presented information about NIAID activities relevant to their countries (Mali - malaria; Zambia - HIV, TB). Media frenzy continues with Gaza war and Ebola. Ebola dialogue now focusing on the ethics of distribution of scarce interventions during medical crisis. Triggered by the availability of zMapp for the 2 American patients. Press today CNN New Day; MSNBC with Ronan Farrow; CNN International; Sirius Radio (Fox) with Marc Siegel VYC Brian Lehrer
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August 8, 2014 - Frenzy continues. Press includes WTOP Radio, WNYC Brian Lehrer Radio, Fox Business TV, NPR Los Angeles. Gaza + Ebola - now ISIS is taking over Iraq and the USA in now bombing their advance to a Kurdish city where American diplomats are holed up. The USA wants to avoid another Benghazi. Because of this the White House is not allowing any government people to go on Sunday AM TV and so I had to cancel invitation from This Week with George Stephanopoulos and "Face the Nation". White House is in the controlling the message mode.
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August 8, 2014 - (Saturday) - Having daily Secretary and NIH (Collins) call. Issue is that we are trying to expedite going into phase 1 trials of interventions that have only been in pre-clinical. These include zMapp, the Canadian VSV vaccine, the VRC ChimpAd3 vaccine. Emory is making "side deals" with Mapp for zMapp and Canada for VSV to get pre-exposure prophylaxis for doctors at Emory. Potential problem is an "optics" problem in that USG is helping Westerners get interventions that Africans cannot get. This is all getting very intense and similar to the Anthrax issues from 2001. Sylvia is starting to see more clearly what I can do regarding leadership on the phone calls.
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August 11, 2014 - The frenzy around Ebola still continues with the major issue being the ethics of getting experimental drugs to the two Americans, and most recently to a Spanish priest who was flown from West Africa to Madrid and who received the experimental zMapp cocktail of monoclonal antibodies. The media are pushing the story of favoritism towards the West and developed nations as opposed to the Africans who are suffering from the disease. They fail to understand that there is no evidence that zMapp actually works, and the fact is that there are only three doses left in the possession of the company that owns it, i.e. MAPP Biopharmaceuticals. Of note, the President of Liberia has contacted the White House to see if the United States can expedite either transfer of two sick Liberian doctors to the United States for care and/or obtain doses of zMapp for them. It is interesting that Larry Zeitlin, the CEO of MAPP Biopharmaceuticals, has contacted Cliff Lane telling Cliff that he wants to get rid of the three doses of zMapp that he has in his possession because of the pressure on him to distribute it to a number of people in Africa who need it. He does not want to be put in this ethically difficult position. He wants to give it to either WHO or MSF. However, he does not want the US government to react negatively to this. He wants to make sure that we do not criticize his giving the doses to another entity, thereby making them responsible for its distribution. We have been having a daily conference call including this past weekend on Saturday and Sunday with Sec. Sylvia Burwell to keep up with the rapidly evolving E bola situation. During that call yesterday (Sunday), Secretary Burwell suggested that since we helped the American doctors to get doses of zMapp that we might suggest to Larry Zeitlin that he give the doses to the Liberians. This would accomplish two goals: 1) it would allow President Obama to respond to the Liberian president, and; 2) it which show the world that we do not just favor Westerners, but that we are helping to make drugs available to Africans. We had a conference call yesterday (Sunday) with Canadian health authorities to inquire about the availability of their experimental VSV Ebola vaccine. On the call were our HHS team with me, Cliff Lane, Hilary Marston, Nicki Lurie, Dawn O'Connell (Sec. Burwell's Chief-of-Staff), Tom Frieden and CDC folks, Robin Robinson, Leslie Dasch (Counsellor to Burwell). On the Canadian side there was Gregory Taylor (Deputy Chief Public Health Officer), Judith Bosse (Assistant Deputy Minister, Infectious Diseases prevention and Control Branch), Theresa Tam (Branch Head, Health Security Infrastructure branch) and Supriya Sharma (Assoc. Assist. Deputy Minister, health Products and Food Branch). The Canadians are still in preclinical studies and have not yet gone into humans. There is an ongoing disagreement between me and Tom Frieden. Tom wants to give the vaccine to health workers in Africa even before it has gone into a phase 1 trial (I believe that he has been speaking with his CDC people who are preparing to go to Africa and are understandably concerned about their risk). I do not believe that Tom understands the clinical trial process since he says that we are "ethically obliged" to allow the healthcare workers to make the decision themselves about whether they are willing to take a potentially unsafe, potentially ineffective vaccine. If this were a drug to be given to a desperately ill patient, then that is one thing about going directly from preclinical to human treatment. However, this is a vaccine to be given to a healthy person. On the call with the Canadians, I pointed out our experience with the HIV vaccine which was effective in monkeys, but in humans it actually significantly increased the risk of acquisition of HIV infection. In order to expedite things Cliff Lane will organize a quick phase 1 trial at the NIH Clinical Center to test the safety of the Canadian vaccine. Once again, I have been all over the press. Last night I was on CNN with Jim Sciutto as well as on CNN International. Today I will do the Diane Rehm Show.
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August 12, 2014 - We are having a daily (including Saturday and Sunday) conference call with Secretary Burwell and a separate call among NIHers with Francis Collins. Press interest in dying down somewhat (I was only on Colombian (Bogotá) radio and Czech Radio only. The issues are centering now around the ethics of using experimental drugs (we actually have none available) and vaccines (getting ready to go into Phase 1 with the NIH (VRC) Chimp Ad3 vector with Ebola env gene inserts) prior to proof of safety and efficacy. The Canadians also have 2 VSV Ebola vaccines. There is no more ZMapp left - 2 courses went to Brantley and Rightbol, 1course went to the Spanish priest who died, and 2 courses were sent to Liberia to treat 2 Liberian doctors who contracted Ebola caring for patients (President of Liberia appealed to President Obama. The USG put Liberia in touch with Larry Zeitlin and MAPP Biopharmaceuticals.