Diary Prequel Package — page 368

Sept. 10, 2014 - The debate still continues as to whether or not we will have military assistance in dealing with the Ebola epidemic in West Africa. There is a disturbing lack of transparency between HHS and us here at NIH in that they are obviously negotiating at the level of the National Security Council and the Department of Defense about what to do in the epidemic without telling Francis Collins or me what is actually going on. In the meantime, Cliff Lane as a long-term member of the Medical Defense Board of the Department of Defense has met with Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff today. Cliff relates to me that Gen. Dempsey seemed quite receptive to Cliff's pleading for a massive military logistic support for the Ebola situation in West Africa. Also at that meeting with the Joint Chiefs was Laurie Garrett, because of her prior experience with Ebola epidemics. According to Cliff, Laurie also pleaded for a massive military effort. It should be noted that today another important event occurred in which the President announced at a TV appearance that he will initiate a scaled up military attack on ISIS (he calls it ISIL) including their assets in Syria. He declared that ISIS is a threat to the Middle East, the surrounding regions, and the United States and Europe, largely due to the fact that they have publicly said that they will attack Western nations. This is a particularly important problem because many Westerners with Western passports and Visas including those from the United States have joined ISIS. The President stated that he would not include ground troops in this effort. However it is clear that Special Forces will be needed to guide the air attacks. The press is sharply criticizing the POTUS for having no plan, missing prior opportunities, and now doing too little, too late. More later. I bring this up because this is certainly a complicating issue when you are also asking the military to help with Ebola outbreak. Had a momentous evening today in that I gave a keynote lecture at the PhRMA Research and Hope Awards Gala at the Mellon Auditorium on Constitution Ave. It was particularly important because the other speaker was former Pres. George W. Bush. We resumed our warm personal relationship in that when he entered a small room of VIPs to shake hands and take pictures as soon as he walked into the room he caught my eye and said out loud for everyone to hear: "Hey, Tony it's great to see you". He gave me a big hug; we took pictures; chatted a bit and then when he was on the stage for his talk which was actually a conversation with a moderator, the first thing he said is that: "We have with us tonight my friend Tony Fauci. I gave Tony the Presidential Medal of Freedom several years ago. I did that because you should know that he is one of the most important American heroes of our time." It was extraordinarily flattering, but this is exactly the way he has been treating me for years. The talk that I gave was entitled ending the HIV-AIDS pandemic: a realistic goal. Overall the evening was very pleasant. I sat down next to my old friend form NIH director Elias Zerhouni and the evening was full of warm praise by many people for me and what I have been doing with HIV over the last many years. Sept. 14, 2014 - A lot has happened over the past few days. There has been a considerable amount of disorganization, diffusion, and lack of direction at the level of HHS as well as the rest of the USG (USAID, DoS, etc.). It has been announced that the President will visit the CDC on Tuesday, September 16. It is anticipated that he will announce that the United States military will get heavily involved in the response to