Diary Prequel Package — page 114

qually puts out ht found out that years ago the OGE ruled and the DoJ confirmed that royalties collected by government employees on patents owned by the government on which the employee is an inventor cannot be considered as a financial interest and so cannot be a conflict. The royalties are considered government compensation similar to performance awards and salaries. I was still uncomfortable about taking royalties because of my high visibility and so I told Mark Rohrbough (OTT for NIAID at the time) to have the government NOT send me the checks. He related that they were legally required to give me the check in order to fulfill the requirements of the Federal technology Transfer Act (FTTA). Thus, I have given every penny of my royalties to charity - The Foundation for NIH, Inc. Total royalties since 1997 = $45,072.82. Finally, I put the royalties on my financial disclosure statement (SF278), but OGE told me to take it off since it was equivalent to government salary that does not go on SF278. Nonetheless, Solomon wrote an article on the IL-2 story on Jan. 9 with the theme that Cliff and I should have let patients know about the "conflict" (even though there was no conflict). I believed that I saved the day by speaking with the reporter and explaining all of the above. It would have been better if my name was not associated with any COI story, but at least he mentioned about giving the money to charity as well as the fact that I tried to put the amount on my financial statement. The reporter has FOIA'ed our SF278s and so who knows what other smearing he might try to do with misinformation. Jan 15 - Feb. 3, 2005 - Story came out in AP about the IL-2 patent. The reporter (John Solomon) did indeed mention that I was required to file a patent and that I tried not to accept the checks and ultimately gave the money to charity. Also, he mentioned that I was told to take off the entry of the money on my SF278. In the end, it was not nice to have a story about me with a implication that I did something wrong, when in fact, I went out of my way to avoid conflict. The AP story led to CBS Evening News doing a story on the same thing on Feb.1. However, their angle was that I was the hero/Saint in trying to avoid conflict, and the NIH would not let me do the right thing. I came out looking good and the NIH looking foolish. In the end, it would have been better if the piece did not air. Fishbein issue: This abscess continues to fester. Fishbein continually puts out missives on his brother's Website (honestdoc.org) about "widespread misconduct and scientific fraud at NIH" and plays the role of defender of the public health. The Privacy Act (he is involved in a personnel matter) forbids us to respond. We are faced with the impossible situation of not being able to respond to this psychopathologic accusations. He can go public, but we cannot respond publicly. This is untenable. Influenza: Avian flu (H5N1) is still percolating in Asia (mostly Viet Nam and Thailand). Most recent cluster of cases in Viet Nam. We are continually having conference calls with the usual suspects on preparedness - Carol Kuntz, Julie Gerberding, me, Stewart Simonson, Lester Crawford, etc. Had a meeting in the West Wing of the WH on Feb. 2 with Claude Allan who has replaced Margaret Spellings as Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy. Present were Julie Gerberding, Stewart S., Allan Gilbert, Bruce Gelling, Amit (FDA), etc. We updated Claude who will brief President Bush. Feb. 3 - Mar. 8, 2005 - Another stress and crisis issue. A microbiologist named Ebright from Rutgers circulated an open letter(to Elias Zerhoun) among all the microbiologists