A single line often inverts meaning once you see what it
answers, so neighbouring messages are always shown.
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April 30, 2015 - testified before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee with Francis Collins, Gary Gibbons, Tom Insel, Jon Lorsch, and Doug Lowy. Committee now chaired by Roy Blount (R-MO). Hearing went well. Concomitantly with Hearing has been the drafting and revising of the 21 Century Cures Act developed by Fred Upton (RMN) and Diane DeGette (D-CO). Clearly, Francis Collins (who denies it) had a lot to do with this since it authorizes (and appropriates - weird for an authorization committee) $2 billion per year for 5 years to NIH Director to ONLY be spent on Precision Medicine, young investigators, and "other research" TBD. This is a bad idea to earmark that much money in the NIH budget. (ws s Corner. Big 2 weeks giving
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May 2, 2015 - Went to Children's Inn Gala at the Ritz-Carlton at Tyson's Corner. Big shout out for me by the MC for my Ebola and other work.
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May 5, 2015 - Dedicated Building 4 today as the Lowell Weicker Building. I gave the main laudatio and Lowell loved it as did his wife Claudia, who I knew from the old days when she was his staffer. He divorced his wife to marry Claudia. Nice ceremony attended by Sen. Tom Harkin, Rep. Dave Obey, Tim Schriver. Was visited today by Harry Jaffe the National Editor at The Washingtonian. Harry wants very much for me to write a book. Says he has been following my career and that I have a "couple of books in me". He wants to help as an editor, co-writer and/or agent. He has written several books himself, including the best seller "Dream City" about Marion Barry.
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May 6, 2015 - Went to Detroit to receive honorary doctorate of LAWS from Wayne State Univerity. President Roy Wilson whom I know from his years ta NIH and he was on the Search Committee that I co-chaired with Gary Gibbons for the Director of NIMHD. Very nice trip. Absolutely beautiful weather - 50-60 and bright sun. Had very pleasant dinner in Roy spectacular apartment near Wayne State Univ. Roy was born in Japan of African-American father (officer in Air Force) and Japanese mother. He is fit and handsome guy. His apartment was a combination of modern American and Kyoto-like Japanese décor. Really nice.
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2015-05-07 00:00
Anthony S. Fauci
May 7, 2015 - Received degree today from WSU. On plane back, zsat behind an African American man and his wife/girlfriend. He looked around 60 years old and in great shape. I helped him open the upper luggage bin and our eyes met. He looked straight at me and said with a big smile: "Did you dye your hair gray so that a young man like you would look more distinguished?". I told him that unfortunately it was age. He asked me how old I was and I told him 74. He smiled and said he was 69 and gave me a fist pump. I noticed a massive diamond-studded ring on his finger. He pointed to it and said: "Do you know what this is?" I said no and he said it was a Hall of Fame Ring. I looked at him and apologized and said I am very sorry, but I do not recognize you. He said: I am Lem Barney, Hall of Fame cornerback for the Detroit Lions from 1967 through 1977, and you are that wonderful doctor who does so much for the world. I told him how much I admired his play over so many years with the Lions. We hugged and shook hands for a long time. Wonderful encounter!
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May 9, 2015 - Chris has been in Zimbabwe and South Africa for the past 2 weeks giving lectures on Ethics. She wrote me a wonderful 30th Anniversary letter: Dear Tony.docx May 2015 ays -- double the Dear Tony: Happy 30th Anniversary! Thank you for a wonderful 30 years. I have had a little time to reflect and so wanted to share some thoughts with you. In my view, these have been 30 great years. Thirty years seems like a long time, and yet I cannot imagine life without you. It has actually gone by pretty quickly. We love each other and work and play together- all of which I hope will continue for many years to come. We have three incredible kids, a comfortable and enjoyable life, and good health. We can talk to each other about the mundane, the philosophical, the political, and the speculative. We laugh and cry together. We run and cook and even (lately) play tennis together. I am only one of many many who have great admiration and respect for all that you have done and continue to do. You have done remarkable things at work and made amazing contributions to science and to your country. I hope that my support and encouragement have been helpful to you and that I have not interfered with your many successes. My hope is that over these following years we will find time to enjoy life as much as possible. There is so much to learn and do and see. It would be fun to do it together. Thank you for being my lover, my friend, my advisor, my companion, my critic. Thank you for putting up with the bags under my eyes and the weight of the world on my shoulders. Thank you for being a great father and husband. I look forward to celebrating our anniversary together. I love you. Christine
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May 11, 2015 - Liberia now declared Ebola free (no cases in 42 days - double the maximum incubation period of 21 days.
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May 12, 2015 - is back today and yesterday for his follow-up visit. I flew back from DDCF meeting early to catch him before he left hospital. He came to my office with Rick Davey to say hello. He looks great. Feels good except for some easy fatiguing. His brain MRI shows some improvement. The CT on semen is now up to 27-29 from 18 previously. Hence, virus clearing from semen. Still on eye drops for Ebola uveitis. Tears negative. When he visited in my office in Building 31, we hugged and had a great conversation. He gave me a letter that was very moving. Letter below:
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May 14, 2015 - I am very disturbed by the situation regarding the conflict of principles between scientists (ourselves) and certain health officials in Europe concerning the conduct of randomized controlled clinical trials in the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. I am absolutely astounded by the lack of scientific rigor demonstrated by people like Jeremy Farrar the head of the Wellcome Trust and certain scientists at Oxford University including Peter Horby and Adrian Hill. I am also surprised that Peter Piot is also sharply criticizing any placebo-controlled trials particularly of drugs. We have considerable experience with HIV and in other arenas where the artificial show of compassion in a serious disease that results in wide distribution of unproven drugs leads to a double jeopardy of never proving that an intervention works or not, and more importantly misses the possibility that they are actually harming people. The British and as well as people at WHO and Doctors without Borders by taking somewhat of a self-righteous approach that any research done in the setting of an Ebola outbreak is unethical are actually hurting people. The Oxford group actually covered up that several patients given open access to Brincidofavir died and they never reported it. They said that the study was stopped because there were no more infections, when this was a blatant misrepresentation. There have been dueling criticisms in the press between our approach and theirs about this. A recent Wall Street Journal article by reporter Tom Burton analyzed this carefully and blasted the Europeans for giving out medicines in an open access manner while likely hurting people with drugs that have clear toxicity that have really no pre-clinical indication that they would work. In my mind Cliff Lane is a true hero in this as he is designed and implemented randomized controlled trials for vaccines in Liberia as well as controlled randomized trials without a placebo for certain drugs like ZMapp. I am terribly disappointed with Tom Frieden who continues to insist that you cannot do a randomized controlled trial of the vaccine in countries like Guinea because this would interfere with the public health effort of getting the epidemic down to zero. Clearly, as well-meaning as he may be, he does not have a clue about how to design or implement a clinical trial. Again I am really very disappointed with him, with the WHO, with the Wellcome Trust, and with individual characters such as Jeremy Farrar and Marie-Paule Kieny at WHO. They really should be ashamed of themselves.