Diary Prequel Package — page 309

Apr. 6, 2013 -- Took train to Philadelphia to attend the memorial Service for Chick Koop at the Tenth Presbyterian Church on 17" Street and Spruce Street. Chick was a dear friend and an historic figure. April 8 -- 14, 2013 -- Continual increase in cases of H7N9 flu from China. Virtually all chicken to human with about 20-30% fatality rate. HHS still not allowing me to do press on this for the usual reason that they say CDC has the lead. It is becoming clear that CDC is driving this obstruction. I am very sorry to hear that since this is really petty. An example is that on the evening of Sunday, April 14, WTOP contacted to me to be on their show at 7:05 AM on Monday, April 15. HHS said it should go to CDC even though WTOP is a local DC station!!! HHS gave it to Tom Frieden (Director of CDC) and just by chance, Tom called me at home on Sunday night at ~9:00 PM to talk about vaccines for H7N9 without even mentioning that he had been asked by HHS to do WTOP the next day. April 10, 2013 -- Spoke at the Hart Building in the evening together with Astronomer Nancy Roman (87 years old). I spoke to people and students involved in a pro-education program in DC. Introduced by Edwin Grosvenor (President of the American heritage Society and former CEO of National Geographic Society. He loved my talk on "30 Years of HIV -- A personal Journey" so much that he said I definitely should write a book and offered his wife Elizabeth as my agent/publisher. She did Morton Kondrake's book about his wife Millie. April 11, 2013 -- James C. Hill Lecture given by Wafaa El-Sadr. Had lunch at Positano before the lecture. In the evening wend to the Lasker Board dinner at the Howard Hughes Institute Headquarters on Jones Bridge Road. I was asked with Harold Varmus to discuss the effects of the sequester on NIH. April 12, 2013 -- Sad day. Scheduled to get Whipple Procedure at Hopkins on April 15. April 14, 2013 -- Went with Chris to a book party at 3319 Newark Street, N.W. at home of Steve Pearlstein. Also hosted by Neera Tanden and Wendy Gray. It was for Zeke's new book "The Brothers Emanuel" about his and Ari and Rahm's growing up in Chicago. At the party met many of the usual DC crowd -- Nino Scalia, John Podesta, Walter Isaacson, Al Hunt, Gene Sperling, etc. April 15, 2013 -- A day of infamy! Two bombs go off near finish line at the Boston Marathon. 3 killed and 176 wounded. Many legs were blown off. Horrible pictures taken by iPhones. Clearly an act of terror. Not known who or why yet. Stay tuned. April 16, 2013 -- Met with Francis in my weekly 1-on-1 and mentioned that the situation with HHS and their muzzling me from the press is unacceptable and he offered to talk with HHS people. He agrees with me. Harold Varmus tells me that he does not even ask permission to do press. He just does it and then informs HHS. He says: "If they do not like it, they can fire me". I believe that if Francis's efforts fail, I will start doing that.