Diary Prequel Package — page 147

Oct. 22, 2006 - Went to the Grand Opening of the House of Sweden (Swedish Embassy plus offices and art shows) on Georgetown Waterfront (right next to Sequoia restaurant). King Carl Gustav and Queen Sofia were greeting everyone. Amazingly beautiful structure with views of the canal and the Potomac. Crisp Fall night with bright stars. Of note, Queen Sofia asked specifically to speak with me after the greeting line finished since she had been told of my work with HIV/AIDS. She is committed to helping Russia with its problem of HIV since she feels that the Russians would be more amenable to getting help from the Swedes than from the USA. She wanted to talk about how we (she and I ) could work together on this. Had good discussion with Kristen Silverberg about the problems the Administration is having. Nov. 28, 2006 - Attended and spoke at the Aspen Symposium in DuPont Circle (DC). It was an unusual gathering of Iranian scientists meeting with various US officials, particularly in the Dept. of State and HHS. I was a main speaker and exchanged information with Iranians on HIV/AIDS, TB, and other diseases in Iran. It was surprisingly frank and open given the tense relations between USA and Iran surrounding the Iranian nuclear program. If fact, the Iranians who came to the USA were a bit nervous about the political fall-out for them. I dealt with Kamiar Alaei and his brother Arash Alaei on ID issues in Iran. Also present was Dr. Abolhassan Nadim, the Chair of the Iranian Epidemiological Association. Dec. 2, 2006 - Annual Christmas Party at Sam and Jan-Smith Donaldson's House in McLean. Have been going to these parties for at least the past 10 - 15 years. The usual interesting and warm crowd was there. This party is probably the most friendly of all of the D.C. "glitterati" parties, mostly because of the warmth and friendliness of Sam and Jan as well as the fact that the same people come every year +/- whoever is hot at that time in the news. Over the years, we have run into virtually everyone who is "known" in DC. Some highlights from this year. Nice conversation with Colin Powell about AIDS in African-Americans. The recent UNAIDS numbers are out showing that of the new infections in the USA, among men, 50% are in Blacks and among women 65% are in Blacks. On Nov. 30, I was supposed to be on the CNN Paula Zahn Show speaking about this, but at the last minute, their producer (Marie....) cancelled because she said that they have a guest who is really the "face of AIDS, since she got infected from her boyfriend by heterosexual sex". Turns out the guest is Regan Hoffman, the editor of POZ Magazine. Regan is a beautiful, blond, blue-eyed WASP from Connecticut who clearly accidentally got infected from her white boyfriend who was almost certainly bisexual. For every one of these, there are 10,000 poor black girls in an inner city area who got infected from their drug-user boyfriends. So there they were: beautiful, blond, blue-eyed and wealthy Paula Zahn speaking on TV with beautiful, blond, blue-eyed (likely also wealthy) Regan Hoffman smiling and saying how grateful she is that she has all the opportunities for treatment. Her only "concern" is that the mother of her new boyfriend was concerned that she was infected; but now all is well because the boy's mother is an "educated person". I had watched this on TV and almost vomited. This was as far from the reality of what the "face of AIDS" is than I could ever imagine. On Nov. 29 at a big HIV Prevention Meeting at the Mandarin Hotel in DC chaired by John Bartlett of