Diary Prequel Package — page 148

Hopkins and Ken Mayer of brown, one of the themes and the points that I made in the press conference is that AIDS in the USA was assuming the face of a young black woman. My good friend Phill Wilson (CEO of the Black AIDS Institute in LA) gave an eloquent talk on this subject and he should have been with me on CNN instead of my getting bumped by Regan. I was pissed because that one 5-10 minute segment on Paula Zahn likely undid by 100-fold the points that I and Phill were trying to make at the conference. I had mentioned this to my CNN Producer friend Christy Feig and she was also appalled and has since brought it up to the CNN Board. In any event, at Sam's Party, I was still pissed and discussed this with Powell who has been spending time on the lecture circuit talking about prostate cancer, particularly in black men. His comment was "What do you expect?.... It is CNN." He promised that he would bring up the issue of AIDS in Black America in his lectures. I have known Colin for years from the time that he was Secretary of State and I had briefed him on AIDS and went to the UN with him during an UNGASS years ago. Also, had discussions with my old friend Lee Hamilton who is co-chairing the Iraq Study Group that will be giving their report to the Congress and the President in a few days. It will be extremely critical of the execution of the Iraq War and rebuilding. Also discussions with - Antonin Scalia, George Will (ABC), Nina Tottenberg (NPR), Bob Shieffer (CBS), Bill Plante (White House correspondent) and many others. Dec. 4, 2006 - Things mostly quiet on the NIH front. Big problems in Iraq that are dominating the news with insurgency and civil war. Bush is having a very hard time. Democrats have taken control of House and Senate, mostly by voter protest of the war in Iraq. Had World AIDS Day with usual press interest. Secretary Leavitt wanted me to go to China with him from Dec. 6 to 13; I first said yes, but then backed out since I really do not want to travel during this busy period and the purpose of the trip was secondary to my interest and involvement, i.e. economic and trade considerations with only a side order of health. Jenny Fauci doing great in Brazil. She loves it and will return on Dec. 23. I am getting more and more involved in Global Health issues such as malaria, health care work force support in developing nations through the DDCF, XDR tuberculosis, etc. Have given many talks over the past few weeks on these issues. Dec. 13, 2006 - I hosted a press conference to announce the breakthrough study that was prematurely stopped by the DSMB. Study was the use of medically supervised adult male circumcision in Kenya (Kisumu) and Uganda (Rekai) to determine effect on HIV transmission. Results were striking. Study was safe and led to a 48% (Uganda) to 53% (Kenya) decrease in transmission. Big printed press coverage including front page of NY Times. Dec. 14, 2006 - Big White House Malaria Summit sponsored by Malaria No More and Introduced by Laura Bush with the POTUS giving Keynote Lecture. Held as 1⁄2 day meeting at the National Geographic Society Headquarters on 17th Street in DC. I had helped Gary Edson who was consulting for Malaria No More in the scientific background for the meeting which was mostly talks by African Health Ministers, Melinda Gates, Faith-Based people (Rick Warren, etc.), Paul Wolfowitz, Margaret Chan (WHO DG). I had nice chats with each of these. Purpose was to increase awareness of malaria and