A single line often inverts meaning once you see what it
answers, so neighbouring messages are always shown.
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June 10, 2015 - Long interview with me on XDR TB patient by Denise Grady appeared today in the NY Times. Also, did FOX Channel 25 Local News this AM. Got report from BSC and was told that "Outstanding" was not a sufficient adjective to describe how good my laboratory and my section was. Praised my leadership and it was the first time that every single person in a given laboratory got "outstanding". Called the lab a "National Treasure".
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June 12, 2015 - Did Bloomberg TV on MERS, which is still going on in South Korea. Now up to 133 cases and 14 deaths. We here at level of HHS are already having the usual conference calls of preparedness regarding development of therapeutics and vaccines.
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June 15, 2015 - had dinner over my house with Eric Goosby and Chris - the now traditional sausage and rigatoni dinners that I have had with Eric, Harold Varmus, and Gary Nabel over the years. Eric is in town for and IOM workshop. He also is seeking my assistance in obtaining a grant from the DDCF and also NIH now that he is out of government and pursuing global health issues. Of note, he has recently been appointed as the UN Secretary General's Special Envoy for TB. Tom Frieden is balking at supporting the proposal for the IOM Study on lessons learned in the Ebola response. I will be supporting the study with NIAID funds. Tom still is not really on the same page with me about what went on during the response. He is still fixating on have the IOM study focus on "alternative clinical trial designs" instead of the RCT. Also, he is still against Cliff trying to extend the RCT to Guinea. Tom feels that the Guineans will react badly to a trial and be paranoid that we are trying to kill them. This conflicts with the fact that the WHO is already doing a ring vaccination (poor design) study in Guinea. Anyway, conversation with Tom are still very cordial and I like him - just disagree with him sometimes.
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June 16, 2015 - I am in the midst of preparing my talk for the International AIDS Society to take place in Vancouver. As usual I am taking this very seriously and doing multiple drafts. Cliff Lane and I had a teleconference with individuals from Drs. Without Borders (MSF); in particular, we spoke with Sophie Delaunay along with Jennifer Cohen of MSF. The discussion was the interest on the part of MSF to be a major player in the development of a Biobank for specimens in West Africa related to the Ebola outbreak. Cliff and I are somewhat skeptical about this issue since MSF rarely, if ever, gets involved in biomedical research, and when they do, we have had concerns about their capability in this regard. CDC (Tom Frieden) agrees completely with us on this and has skepticism about their involvement. They are a wonderful organization when it comes to taking care of patients; however, we have had some difficult experiences with their inability to really appreciate the importance of the scientific method when doing research. Today I had the first meeting for the search committee for the director of the division of intramural research to replace Kathy Zoon. The Committee is co-chaired by Cliff Lane and Gary Gibbons.
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2015-06-17 00:00
Anthony S. Fauci
June 17, 2015 - I gave a talk at the HPTN/IMPAACT meeting at the Crystal Gateway Marriott Hotel on Jefferson Davis Hwy. in Crystal City, Virginia. This was an important talk because I introduced to the investigators the difficulty that we are having now with certain members of Congress wanting to decrease the AIDS budget and even move money out of the AIDS bucket into other institutes. I showed the audience a C-SPAN clip of my debating with Senator Cassidy (R-Tea Party) from Louisiana where he was talking about matching allocation of funds with the number of disability adjusted life years (DALYs) in this country. If this approach were followed, it would have a serious negative impact on all global health research, particularly research on infectious diseases. I articulated well my objection to this. Some people have picked this up and put it on YouTube, and the clip has gone viral. In addition, I spoke to the group about future directions of focusing the AIDS research specifically on ending the epidemic so that ultimately we will not have to spend any money on AIDS. This would be an important public health accomplishment, and it would silence the people who want to take money from AIDS prematurely before we have ended the AIDS epidemic. Tonight, I flew to Atlanta to participate in the Charles C Shepard Science Award Ceremony in Atlanta at the CDC headquarters.
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June 19, 2015 - I gave a lecture at the CDC on the subject of " Ending the HIV AIDS pandemic: From scientific advances to public health implementation". The lecture was extremely well accepted by the CDC community. I had time to chat with my dear friend Tom Frieden about a number of issues of mutual interest. I was shown around the absolutely beautiful new CDC campus that I had not been on for several years. The campus has been completely transformed by beautiful, architecturally creative buildings. It is very clear that I am highly respected and revered by the CDC community. Tom introduced mew as a "living legend". It was a great visit that I enjoy very much and it cemented my relationship with our colleagues at the CDC.
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June 20, 2015 - I viewed the preview of the soon to be shown on HBO documentary on Larry Kramer entitled "Larry Kramer: In Love and Anger". It was played at the Naval Heritage Center on 701 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. The documentary is a moving story of Larry Kramer's complicated life. I was prominently featured in the documentary interacting on multiple occasions with Larry.
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June 22, 2015 - I gave a lecture at Georgetown University O'Neill Institute at the Law School on New Jersey Avenue, NW Summer Program on Infectious Diseases and the Law. Again very well received by the group there. We are in the middle of an extraordinary heat wave now in Washington DC with temperatures reaching 95- 100° with sunny skies during the day and massive thunderstorms at night. ye
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June 23, 2015 - I had a very nice breakfast meeting at the American City Diner with Bill Schultz who is the general counsel for the Department of Health and Human Services. I met with Bill at the suggestion of Pulitzer Prize winning author and close friend of mine Rick Atkinson. Rick was concerned if I got involved with Don Fehr, who offered to be an unofficial agent for me and read over my manuscript as well as tell me how to write a book proposal for an editor, that this informal arrangement could spell out to the a legal issue later. This arrangement might also be something that is frowned upon by the department. And so Rick recommended that I meet with Bill and get his legal advice. My meeting with Bill was terrific. He was extremely encouraging to me about writing my book. He agreed with Rick that I should hold off making even any informal arrangements with anyone and I should just go ahead and continue to write my chapters and when I am ready to leave the government to then put together my proposal and "shop" it around to different publishers and agents. I will take his advice and go that way. This evening I gave a presentation to the AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) annual meeting at the Renaissance Hotel Downtown at 999 - 9th Street Northwest. The talk was very similar to what I gave to the HPTN/IMPAACT group.