A single line often inverts meaning once you see what it
answers, so neighbouring messages are always shown.
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Oct. 30, 2014 - Started the day with a 6:40 AM interview on WTOP. Another interesting day today. I was a panelist at the Washington Ideas Forum sponsored by The Atlantic magazine that took place at the Harmon Center for the Performing Arts on F and 6th Street, N.W. I was interviewed on stage by David Brooks, well-known columnist for the New York Times. The panel was broadcast live on C-SPAN as well as streamed online on their website. Of the people involved in this forum were Secretary of State John Kerry, Chris Matthews of NBC, and a large number of other notables. After that I went back to the NIH and hosted a whole group of network producers with full camera TV coverage on the process of donning and doffing for personal protective equipment. I demonstrated to them what we do in the process of taking care of patients with Ebola, in this case specifically Following the demonstration which was done by nurse specialist Kevin Barrett and hospital epidemiologist Tara Palmore, I did a long series of TV interviews with the cameras that were there during my step-by-step demonstration of the donning and doffing. Clips appeared on a variety of news outlets. An extraordinary situation occurred last night in which the state of Louisiana made an announcement that certain scientists and others who were planning to attend the annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene during the first week of November in New Orleans would not be allowed to attend the meeting. In essence they said that these people need to be quarantined if they came from a West African country or if they had taken care of the patient with Ebola within the last 21 days. This is an extension of the quarantine craziness that was started by Governors Christie and Cuomo. In essence, they are barring scientists from a meeting where their expertise and experience is most needed. Finally, I have been informed that I have been named in the civil action lawsuit against Pres. Obama, me, Thomas Friedman, Secretary Burwell, and DHH Secretary Jeh Johnson for promoting terrorism and discrimination. They are accusing us of colluding with president Obama who is a Muslim citizen of Kenya and trying to destroy African countries by introducing Ebola into society. You just cannot make this stuff up. Received a note today (dated Oct. 16, 2014) from Hilary Rodham Clinton saying that she was thinking of me and cheering me on saying that "The American people are fortunate to have your leadership at NIH as we face the challenge of Ebola".
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Oct. 31, 2014 - Jeff Drazen, Editor of NEJM, contacted me to put him in touch with some of the trusted AIDS activists with whom I have worked over the years to get them to write a piece in the NEJM on the similarities between the stigma of HIV/AIDS and the current "stigma" against HCWs (regarding the quarantine discussed above). I pointed him to Peter Staley and Gregg Gonsalves and they are willing to do this. Kaci Hickox still defying orders from the Governor of Maine to remain in quarantine. A court judge upheld her right to not be quarantined. I did an interview for yahoo.com and refused to get into the battle between Kaci and the State of Maine. HHS does not want me to do TV since the news is focused on Kaci and it would be better for me not to get into that battle.
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Nov. 1, 2014 - Things calming down. Reports of decreased infections in Liberia, particularly Monrovia. Not sure if this is real or if the infections are now occurring in remote areas without good reporting. Also, the issue of second waves in Guinea and Sierra Leone. CDC having to put much effort into investigating Person Under Investigation (PUIs). These are people who are from West Africa who get a fever or nausea or vomiting for any of a number of benign reasons. Since they are from West Africa, these are being investigated, sometimes using PPEs, which is an "abundance of caution", but a major investment (?waste) of effort. Cliff Lane is in Monrovia doing spade work for the hopefully upcoming RCT for the Ebola vaccine. Heard on Secretary's call this AM (8:30 AM on Saturday) that now WHO (likely MariePaule Kieny) wants WHO to be responsible for the DSMBs of all clinical trials in West Africa. This is an egregious attempt on the part of WHO to stay "relevant" in an area in which they have no expertise. It is "stunning" to me how they just want to insert themselves into things where they quite frankly are incompetent. They already have made it clear that they just want to distribute unproven interventions (vaccines and treatments) and even though we seem to be winning the argument, they keep coming back in insidious ways to try to derail the scientific clinical trials process. Amazing!!
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Nov. 2, 2014 - Quiet Sunday. Trying to catch up on piles on my desk. Election on Tuesday. Concern that the GOP will take the Senate, which means Obama is in trouble with both House and Senate in GOP control. Despite reports that the number of cases in Liberia are decreasing rapidly, new reports today indicate that the cases in Sierra Leone are sharply increasing. I have warned that Ebola comes in waves and that we should not be complacent and the WH should refrain from saying that things are "turning around".
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2014-11-03 00:00
Anthony S. Fauci
Nov. 3, 2014 - Ron Klain visited NIH today (He had visited CDC last week). He wanted to familiarize himself with what the various components of government were doing in Ebola. I made a presentation to him in the VRC, showed him the lab where Nancy Sullivan works and where she developed the ChAd3 Ebola vaccine. Then we took him over to the Clinical Center to see Julie Ledgerwood's vaccine clinic where the phase 1 trial took place. Then we showed him the SCSU and the room where we took care of Ron was impressed and wants me to come to the WH on Friday to give a shortened version of my presentation at a meeting where the POTUS is hosting certain Congressional leaders. Tom Frieden spontaneously called me up to thank me for being so supportive of him. I have been continually serving as a late night (by phone or e-mail) sounding board for him in his attempts to negotiate his having to deal with some many factions (ASPR, HHS, USAID, etc.) Last night I helped him out by strongly suggesting that he not listen to the modelers who tell him "exactly" how many news cases of Ebola to expect in the USA over a period of time. I warned him that the models are based on assumptions and multiple variables and can be very misleading and he should not "own" data that comes 7renzy calming onference with from models or else it will come back to bite him. I urged him to totally resist such predictions. He was very grateful for my advice.
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Nov. 4, 2014 - GOP takes control of the Senate in today's elections. Frenzy calming down. Little press interest - like shutting off the faucet.
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Nov. 5, 2014 - Preparing for Hearings of the Senate Full Appropriations Committee (Mikulski). Tom Frieden and I will testify together with Sylvia Burwell. POTUS publicly requests $6.18 Billion in "emergency" funds for Ebola. We will dwefend this at Hearing on Nov. 12.
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Nov. 6, 2014 - Still calm. No Ebola Press. Did Hearing prep by teleconference with Sylvia.
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Nov. 7-11, 2014 - Still calm. Mostly preparing for Senate Appropriations Hearing on Nov. 12. POTUS asking for $6.18 Billion in emergency funding for Ebola (Domestic and International). NIH portion is $238 million. Went to EEOB on Nov. 10 to rehearse for Hearing with Ron Klain. Nov. 11 - very good meeting in Building 10, 4th Floor Medical Board Room with clinical investigators who took care of Ebola patients at Emory, Nebraska, NIH. Also, DoD and HHS present with presentation of individual clinical data from the USA patients. It became clear to me that it is impossible to determine if any of the experimental drugs given to the patients (ZMapp, Brincidofovir, favipiravir, convalescent sera, TKM-Ebola) helped or did harm (likely did some harm. Decision was to develop a clinical protocol for future USA patients and also to be used as prototype for Africa. Protocol should be RCt with standard medical care (fluid and electrolyte replacement) as the control arm. The data also suggested to me that if you keep patients alive with medical care, that the body's immune system will almost always clear the virus (likely without experimental drugs).