Diary Prequel Package — page 358

ral News Radio; Canadian TV; VOA TV bs; BBC Newsday d; WNEW Press low level but consistent. For me → Federal News Radio; Canadian TV; VOA TV - "Straight Talk Africa Show - 1 hour); ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) taking over parts of Iraq Gaza still a mess with rocketing of Israel and retaliatory air strikes by Israel. August 21, 2014 - 2 secondary cases of Ebola (beyond cluster of health care workers) from the index in Nigeria. Getting close on agreement with Tom Frieden. Cliff Lane very helpful; in hammering out details with CDC people - Tim Uyeki and Steve Redd (Steve is a rally good guy with whom I dealt during the Flu issues). Continued press → MSNBC; WTOP radio; CNN with Lou Dobbs; BBC Newsday Radio. August 22, 2014 - Situation same with epidemic. Good news - have come to agreement with Tom Frieden on approach to Ebola vaccine following Phase1 trials. Agree to go for RCT with control group as first choice. There well may be obstacles on the ground to this approach including perception of keeping interventions from those who need it (even though we still do not know whether the vaccine is either safe or effective). This may necessitate a modified RCT without a control group or even skipping an RCT and going to emergency open access. The plan is to do a "rolling" approach staring with RCT → modified RCT → open access in priority order. I will present this to Secretary's call next week. Tom Leaves for West Africa over the weekend. Press still active → Fox 5 WTTG; CNN International; BBC Radio - The World; WNEW CBS Radio - NYC; PRI (BBC) - Boston - "The World" with Marco Werman August 23 - 27, 2014 - Still escalating Ebola situation. Now a secondary case in Nigeria with having infected a person who took care of him. That person (who recovered) then infected a doctor in Port Harcourt. The doctor died, but the doctor's wife is now infected. The numbers are going up. Tom Frieden now in Liberia to assess the situation. He is saying that it is catastrophic and out of control in a press conference from Monrovia. People on the Secretary's 3x per week call have criticized him for being "hyperbolic". How should they know - he is there and they are here. Typical government cover-your-ass bullshit. Still getting modest press. August 28, 2014 - Our big press teleconference announcing the beginning of the Ebola vaccine Phase 1 trial of the Chimp Adenovirus 3 vector with the Ebola GP bivalent gene insert. Trial to start on September 2 at NIH Clinical Center. Also coinciding with slightly later start of monovalent identical vaccine in the UK with Oxford, Wellcome Trust and extension into Mali and the Gambia. Also, we announced our collaboration with NewLink and Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) in a Phase 1 trial (in Silver Spring, MD with WRAIR) of the VSV - Ebola vaccine.