Diary Prequel Package — page 30

May 24, 2001 -- Went with Christine to the Sons of Italy dinner at the National Building Museum. Met and had warm conversations with old friends Sam Donaldson (MC for the event), Tony Lo Bianco, Connie Stevens, John Podesta, etc. Seated at my table was Connie and Tony Morella, and Geraldine Ferraro. May 25, 2001 -- Briefed the Staff of Sen. Thomas Daschle on global health down at the Senator's office. Main person was Dennis McDonough. It was coincidental that Sen. Jim Jeffords had just turned from Republican to Independent and will vote with the Democrats and so Daschle will be the new Senate Majority Leader. Big excitement about this in Washington. June 24-25, 2001 -- Attended the United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on HIV/AIDS in NYC as part of the U.S. Delegation headed by Secretary of State Colin Powell and Secretary of DHHS Tommy Thompson. This was an historic event in which Heads of State, Ambassadors, and Ministers of Health gathered and pledged a new attitude towards the catastrophic epidemic. A Declaration was agreed. upon (with some objections from Moslem countries to the use of words such as sexworkers, homosexuality, etc.). A United National Global Trust Fund was agreed upon. As mentioned above, US contributed $200 million to the fund. Other countries are following such as UK with $200 million over 5 years, France with $120 over 5 years. There is some concern as to how the fund would be managed and administered. Kofi Annan gave a magnificent speech. Colin Powell also was superb; much of material from his speech reflected material that I had put together for the joint meeting in the White House (see above) in preparation for the "fund". I spent much time with Secretary Thompson negotiating with the French Minister of Health Bernard Kouchner and Brazilian Minister of Health Jose Serra. We discussed the establishment of Hospitals for AIDS in Africa with the French and the patent situation re: US made drugs used in Brazil. July 20, 2001 -- Meeting at the White House. Was asked and went to White House to present an "AIDS Update" to the Cabinet Task Force on HIV/AIDS that is chaired by Secretaries Tommy Thompson and Colin Powell. Present was Secretary of Education and Deputy Secretaries of Treasury, OMB, etc. I was very well received and Powell asked many questions. July 25, 2001 -- Met with former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. He is interested in diabetes and brought people from the American Diabetes Association with him. He had previously helped in getting us (NIAID) an additional $40 million dollars a couple of years ago for autoimmune diseases and wanted to know how he might continue to help us in our work on the immunological nature of Type 1 diabetes. He also wanted and got a general briefing on what NIAID is doing in diabetes research from me and Dan Rotrosen (Director, DAIT, NIAID).