Diary Prequel Package — page 211

iq) we had a festive banquet in Annenberg Hall. I remember when Chris and I first delivered Jenny to Harvard for her 1st year, we walked through Annenberg Hall. It looks like the great hall from Harry Potter books. June 16-17, 2009 - Gave Keynote Address at the Pacific Health Summit in Seattle on TB research. It went over extremely well. Many people said that the talk was "historic" and "transforming". I gave a passionate plea for pushing research on TB into the 21st Century and making it transforming and not just incremental. Patty Conrad came with me to Seattle to help out with the press and she enjoyed the trip greatly. Her first trip with me in 2 years since she began working at NIAID. June 22, 2009 - Back to the West Wing of the White House for the first time since the Obama Administration began. Met in the Situation Room in meeting jointly run by Laura Petrou (COS for Sec. Sebelius) and Heidi Avery (HSC) to discuss planning for response (vaccine program) to H1N1 Swine flu. June 30, 2009 - Had an interesting day of H1N1 flu "stuff". Harvey Fineberg and I constituted a panel that discussed the lesson of the Swine Flu affair in 1976 and its relationship to what is going on today with the swine H1N1 2009. Sponsored by CSIS (Center for Strategic and International Studies) and Kaiser with Steve Morrison and Jennifer Kates presiding. Held in Room B339 in Rayburn Building. Standing room only crowd. Went quite well. Later in the afternoon, went to the Roosevelt Room of the White House to have a similar discussion of lessons learned from 1976. Present were John Brennan (HSC), Sec. Sebelius - (finally got a chance to chat with her and she congratulated me on my honorary doctorate from Harvard a few weeks ago, Apparently, she was in the audience at Commencement since her son graduated from the Business School); Jane Lute (Deputy Sec. - DHS), Arne Duncan (Sec. Educ.), Peggy Hamburg (FDA), Ann Schuchat (CDC), David Senser (former director of CDC who was fired in 1977), Harvey Fineberg, David Matthews (Sec. HEW during 1976), David Hamburg, Walter Dowdle (old friend from CDC), Peter Orszag (Director, OMB). President Obama joined the group for about 30 minutes. He clearly recognized me and greeted me warmly. The entire discussion went from 3:30 to 5:10 PM. Warm, humid summer day in DC July 2, 2009 - Another flu panel, this time at the AAAS at 12th and H Street, N.W. Chaired by Harvey Fineberg. Other panelists were Anne Schuchat, Ken Bernard and Ken Cole (US Navy). Good crowd, good discussion. War DC Summer day. Took taxi back to NIH because of horrific delays on Metro's Red Line related to tragic crash that occurred last week where 9 people died. July 9, 2009 - Participated as a major speaker at the "Flu Summit" held at NIH run by HHS. Speakers were Sec. Sebelius, Janet Napolitano, Arne Duncan (Education), John Brennan (HSC). Pres. Obama called in from the G-8 conference in L'Aquila, Italy with a "Buon Giorno". Much press at the conference. Still much activity going on. Weather has been spectacular for July here in DC - very unusual - no humidity - cool in the AM.