Diary Prequel Package — page 233

street from Washington Square Park), ran into Bob Bazell (NBC News), who live in the same apartment. Next AM (April 7) went to Enterprise headquarters and met with the leadership to discuss the "Plan". Beautiful day. I stayed for AM. Present were Alan, Tachi Yamada, Peter Piot (new Chair of Council), Manuel Romaris (EU), Catherine (Kate) Hankins (UNAIDS-WHO). Seth Berkley (IAVI), Jose Esparza (BMGF), Peggy Johnston, Yves Levy (INSERM), Rafi Ahmed (Emory and chair of the Scientific Committee). Good discussions. I kept them on track about what NIAID would or would not agree to). April 14, 2010 - Dedicated the Special Unit at the Clinical Center for vaccine studies. Honored Stewart Simonson for the role he played in pushing through the red tape to get this done. Had nice ceremony with Cliff, John Gallin, Gen Jim Gilman (USAMRIID), Stewart, etc. Group went to Black's restaurant on Woodmont Avenue - Bethesda) for drinks on the outdoor terrace (pretty cold). We continue to have endless meetings with ASPR on the Medical Countermeasure (MCM) review led by Nicki Lurie with Laura Petrou and Jenny Backus involved. I now attend by conference call since it is a waste of time to go down town for these drawn out discussions. Theme is post-mortem on the pandemic flu response and how do we incorporate what Heidi Avery wants into the Secretary's (HHS) MCM review. The incompetence and amateurishness of HHS crew in general is noteworthy. I love Jesse Goodman, but he just does not get it that the FDA is a major part of the problem; and he is one of the very best FDA people. April 17, 2010 - Was at the Georgetown Harbor near Thompson's Boat House watching Ali's Varsity Crew Boat compete in a regatta. Nice Spring day on the Potomac. Chris and I were with the usual parents group including our good friends Liz and David Hayes whose daughter Molly is Ali's "best" friend and boat-mate. Both will attend Stanford in September. There had been a terrible explosion in an off shore deep-water oil rig a few days ago with no apparent oil leak despite the fact that the platform was destroyed, 11 people died and scores injured. It was the British Petroleum (BP) Horizon Deepwater well. David Hayes is the Deputy Secretary of the Department of the Interior. In the middle of the regatta, David got a phone call from the White House communications people. Apparently, there is considerable amount of oil leaking from a broken pipe line. They were saying that the leak is minimal and David was caught in the middle in having spoken to the press and saying that this was serious. The White House communications people were concerned that he said that we have a bigger problem than exists. They were apparently giving him some "shit" about this. David, who recently (last year) had a cardiac arrest associated with a myocardial infarction on a golf course, looked shook and distracted. I encouraged him to not worry about what the communications people think. I know something about the WH trying to control the "message". Little did either of us know that over the subsequent months would unfold the worst oil spill in history and the worst environmental disaster in the history of the USA.