A single line often inverts meaning once you see what it
answers, so neighbouring messages are always shown.
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Nov. 27, 2014 (Thanksgiving) - Again, still interest in the NEJM paper. Did BBC TV via phone plus my photo, CNN International via phone plus my photo. Also did NewsHour with Judy Woodruff. WETA picked me up with an Uber car and promised to take me to the studio in Arlington, do interview, and get me back in time for Thanksgiving visit and dinner at 4:00 PM at Joanne and Jim's house. They did it on time.
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Nov. 30, 2014 - Did CNN International discussing Ebola vaccine
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Dec. 1, 2014 - World AIDS Day. Went to White House and gave main lecture at the WAD ceremonies in the South Court Auditorium. My talk went over so well that they started clapping at the final sequence of slides of the maps of USA and the world becoming free of AIDS even before my talk ended. Also speaking were Susan Rice, Secretary of State John Kerry (shouted out to me), Secretary Burwell (many shout outs to me), Gayle Smith (also praised me), Bishop Yvette Flunder (gave moving sermon/speech). Then panel with Debbie Birx, Mark Dybul, Greg Millett, Helene Gayle - chaired by Sylvia Burwell. Came back to NIH to do walk-through for the POTUS visit to NIH tomorrow. Did CNN International and NPR Morning Edition radio with Scott Horsley.
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Dec. 2, 2014 - Today was most extraordinary day. Began with a presentation that I made together with Debbie Birx (PEPFAR) at the Russell Senate office building. We made a dual presentation in celebration of world AIDS Day to a group of Senate and House staffers. It went over very well. I rushed back to the NIH in time to do an interview with Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC about the successful phase 1 Ebola vaccine trial conducted here at NIH that was recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine. When I got back to NIH we began the preparation for the 4:00 PM visit by Pres. Obama. It was an extremely successful visit. I led him on a tool of the Vaccine Research Center, gave him a brief introduction of the history of the center, telling him the story about my conversation with Pres. Clinton in December of 1996 when Clinton promised me that he would have a vaccine center built for us on the NIH campus. Nancy Sullivan presented to him on the 2nd Floor of the VRC her work on the development of an Ebola vaccine. We then took him to the 5th floor where Mario Roederer showed him the intricacies of the FACS machine. The President was very relaxed, warm, and highly complementary of me and the NIH. Following the tour of the VRC, I rode with the president in the presidential limousine from the VR across campus to Building 10 where he addressed an overflow crowd of the entire NIH community in Masur auditorium. He thanked me specifically several times during the talk and he thanked various components of the NIH community for their work on Ebola and other important diseases. He specifically gave a shout out to the VRC people, the people who conducted the phase 1 trial, and to the nurses and staff who took care of in October. During his talk to the NIH community, the president gave me many compliments and shout outs. In particular he joked about how had told me how to use FaceTime. In addition, he joked that "Tony and I were findly reminiscing about SARS and H1N1". He then said after a big laugh "that's what these guys do for fun". The President mentioned my name multiple times during the talk. It was a great day for NIH. Following the visit, I rushed downtown to the Mellon Auditorium on 13th St. and Constitution Avenue to participate in the dinner given by the Friends of the Global Fight, chaired by Mike Gerson (Washington Post). On the panel with me were Mark Dybul and Deborah Birx. I ran into many people who I know and like at the dinner. These include Peter Staley who I am very fond of from our many experiences over the years in the activist days. Peter looked bright and alert but rather thin and drawn likely due to his many years of being on antiretroviral therapy. They showed a short clip of his icon speech at the International AID Meeting in San Francisco in 1990 when he said that someday people will speak of the deadly plague and how some stood up to confront it. I cry every time I hear that speech. In 1990, I gave a speech at the meeting right after Peter. Former Sen. Chris Dodd gave me several shout outs about the work that I have done over decades, calling me a national hero. Nancy Pelosi gave a talk in which he mentioned several times our extraordinary relationship over the years in fighting HIV AIDS. All this praise was quite moving and gave me an added perspective about the many years (decades) that I have been involved in this struggle. All in all it was a great evening. The following day the story with my picture (with the POTUS, Nancy Sullivan, and Sylvia Burwell) were in the Washington Post and New York Times as well as on the Evening News programs.
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2014-12-03 00:00
Anthony S. Fauci
Dec. 3, 2014 - At his request, went to the Rayburn Office Building office of Chairman Timothy Murphy (R-PA). Murphy was upset with me at a recent Hearing (see above) when he said that I was making condescending statements about quarantine and why we should not have quarantines. He invited me down to his office to discuss further at a 10:00 AM meeting. With him was Committee Staffer Alan Slobodin (of past outside activity investigation fame) and Murphy's Chief of Staff Susan Mosychuk and his legislative Director Brad Grantz. Murphy had also been giving Tom Frieden grief about the same issue. Meeting actually went well - cordial, respectful. The underlying theme was still the need in his mind for quarantining of all West African entrants to USA or better restrict travel of West Africans (3 countires0 to USA and provide an "air bridge" to bring in USA HCWs. Also, he was concerned that with the latest proposal for 32 additional Ebola-ready hospitals in the USA that we should quarantine the USA HCWs after seeing Ebola patients. He was OK with just direct, active monitoring of the NIH, Emory and Nebraska HCWs, but he felt that since the other 32 hospitals were less trained and so would likely have a greater chance of getting infected, then they should be quarantined since (as a former Clinical Psychologist) he feels that people deny sxs and so he does not trust them. He is against the part of the $6.18 billion supplemental request for Ebola on the grounds that we do not needs all the additional hospitals (I actually do not entirely disagree with him as I have expressed to our own people). The meeting ended cordially.
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Dec. 4, 2014 - Gave Ebola talk at the new FDA facility in White Oak. Quite a place! Huge! They loved the talk. Also, new infectious diseases issue. The H3N2 component of the 2014-2015 influenza vaccine is mismatched to the early circulating ve strain of H3N2, which is predominant over H1N1 and B, the latter of which match the vaccines. The match for H3N2 is only 48%. I was on WTOP explaining this. Could be a bad influenza winter.
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December 5, 2014 - I participated with Ron Klain at a Georgetown University event chaired by Pres. Jack DiGoia in Gaston Hall at the Healey Building. We discussed various aspects of the Ebola outbreak. I have grown to become truly fond and respectful of Ron Klain since he assumed the position as the Ebola Response Coordinator for the USG. He will be leaving the USG employment and will return to his position as CEO of Case Holdings and General Counsel for Revolution, L.C. Also did some press with the London Times print and Bloomberg TV today. Had a call with Jack Whitescarver. I am concerned with him since he does not appear well. His hematocrit is low and he is short of breath. I believe he is having a slow gastrointestinal bleed and is likely experiencing mild to moderate congestive heart failure.
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December 6, 2014 - I participated at the PRIM&R conference in Baltimore where I gave the keynote address on ethical considerations in HIV/AIDS. This was on a Saturday morning. Christine is a major player in this organization and spent the weekend there. I drove to Baltimore on Friday night and had dinner with Chris at the Baltimore Hilton Hotel Bar (lots of fun) and stayed with her in her hotel room that night. The following morning (Sat. Dec. 6) gave my talk to an audience of around 2500 people and got a standing ovation. Drove back to DC and had dinner with Alec Whyte at Matisse restaurant. Caught up on stuff. Always great to see Alec
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December 8, 2014 - I am getting particularly concerned with what I feel is noncollegial behavior on the part of the UK, particularly Dame Sally Davies (Chief Health Officer of UK) as well as the Oxford group personified by Adrian Hill and Jeremy Ferrar who are bad mouthing our randomized controlled trial idea behind our backs. However, this is the stuff that we deal with all the time. I am also getting concerned that the incidence of infection of Ebola in Liberia is so low that this may have an issue with our conduct of the randomized controlled trial in Liberia. Cliff will leave Dec. 10 for Liberia for the third time in 5 weeks. We have to consider the possibility of doing a trial also in Sierra Leone. Had contentious IC Director meeting concerning the issue of presenting reports (that I believe are flawed) to the Advisory Committee to the Director (ACD) on the Intramural research Program (IRP) and the AIDS Portfolio. Issue is that some outside group (ACD) want to homogenize the IRP to make it "trans-NIH" as opposed to being directed to the mandate of the IC in question. I am totally against this since this flies in the face of the NIAID mandate of being a "strike force" for emerging IDs such as AIDS, SARS, and dy Ebola. People like Eric Green (NHGRI) disagree with me. I do not like or trust Eric as I believe that he resents me because he is intimidated by my accomplishments and notoriety. That is life. Also, the "elephant" in the room with the distribution of the AIDS money by OAR that no one wants to address is that NIDA is spending about $180 million on drug abuse issues when ~7% of USA cases are drug abuse and one can stop this with needle exchange. I feel they should get some money, but not that much when we do not have enough to conduct vaccine trials that could end the pandemic.