Diary Prequel Package — page 355

VYC Brian Lehrer August 8, 2014 - Frenzy continues. Press includes WTOP Radio, WNYC Brian Lehrer Radio, Fox Business TV, NPR Los Angeles. Gaza + Ebola - now ISIS is taking over Iraq and the USA in now bombing their advance to a Kurdish city where American diplomats are holed up. The USA wants to avoid another Benghazi. Because of this the White House is not allowing any government people to go on Sunday AM TV and so I had to cancel invitation from This Week with George Stephanopoulos and "Face the Nation". White House is in the controlling the message mode. August 8, 2014 - (Saturday) - Having daily Secretary and NIH (Collins) call. Issue is that we are trying to expedite going into phase 1 trials of interventions that have only been in pre-clinical. These include zMapp, the Canadian VSV vaccine, the VRC ChimpAd3 vaccine. Emory is making "side deals" with Mapp for zMapp and Canada for VSV to get pre-exposure prophylaxis for doctors at Emory. Potential problem is an "optics" problem in that USG is helping Westerners get interventions that Africans cannot get. This is all getting very intense and similar to the Anthrax issues from 2001. Sylvia is starting to see more clearly what I can do regarding leadership on the phone calls. August 11, 2014 - The frenzy around Ebola still continues with the major issue being the ethics of getting experimental drugs to the two Americans, and most recently to a Spanish priest who was flown from West Africa to Madrid and who received the experimental zMapp cocktail of monoclonal antibodies. The media are pushing the story of favoritism towards the West and developed nations as opposed to the Africans who are suffering from the disease. They fail to understand that there is no evidence that zMapp actually works, and the fact is that there are only three doses left in the possession of the company that owns it, i.e. MAPP Biopharmaceuticals. Of note, the President of Liberia has contacted the White House to see if the United States can expedite either transfer of two sick Liberian doctors to the United States for care and/or obtain doses of zMapp for them. It is interesting that Larry Zeitlin, the CEO of MAPP Biopharmaceuticals, has contacted Cliff Lane telling Cliff that he wants to get rid of the three doses of zMapp that he has in his possession because of the pressure on him to distribute it to a number of people in Africa who need it. He does not want to be put in this ethically difficult position. He wants to give it to either WHO or MSF. However, he does not want the US government to react negatively to this. He wants to make sure that we do not criticize his giving the doses to another entity, thereby making them responsible for its distribution. We have been having a daily conference call including this past weekend on Saturday and Sunday with Sec. Sylvia Burwell to keep up with the rapidly evolving E bola situation. During that call yesterday (Sunday), Secretary Burwell suggested that since we helped the American doctors to get doses of zMapp that we might suggest to Larry Zeitlin that he give the doses to the Liberians. This would accomplish two goals: 1) it would allow President Obama to respond to the Liberian president, and; 2) it which show the world that we do not just favor Westerners, but that we are helping to make drugs available to Africans.