Diary Prequel Package — page 411

7renzy calming onference with from models or else it will come back to bite him. I urged him to totally resist such predictions. He was very grateful for my advice. Nov. 4, 2014 - GOP takes control of the Senate in today's elections. Frenzy calming down. Little press interest - like shutting off the faucet. Nov. 5, 2014 - Preparing for Hearings of the Senate Full Appropriations Committee (Mikulski). Tom Frieden and I will testify together with Sylvia Burwell. POTUS publicly requests $6.18 Billion in "emergency" funds for Ebola. We will dwefend this at Hearing on Nov. 12. Nov. 6, 2014 - Still calm. No Ebola Press. Did Hearing prep by teleconference with Sylvia. Nov. 7-11, 2014 - Still calm. Mostly preparing for Senate Appropriations Hearing on Nov. 12. POTUS asking for $6.18 Billion in emergency funding for Ebola (Domestic and International). NIH portion is $238 million. Went to EEOB on Nov. 10 to rehearse for Hearing with Ron Klain. Nov. 11 - very good meeting in Building 10, 4th Floor Medical Board Room with clinical investigators who took care of Ebola patients at Emory, Nebraska, NIH. Also, DoD and HHS present with presentation of individual clinical data from the USA patients. It became clear to me that it is impossible to determine if any of the experimental drugs given to the patients (ZMapp, Brincidofovir, favipiravir, convalescent sera, TKM-Ebola) helped or did harm (likely did some harm. Decision was to develop a clinical protocol for future USA patients and also to be used as prototype for Africa. Protocol should be RCt with standard medical care (fluid and electrolyte replacement) as the control arm. The data also suggested to me that if you keep patients alive with medical care, that the body's immune system will almost always clear the virus (likely without experimental drugs). Nov. 12, 2014 - Successful Hearing today before the Full Senate Appropriations Committee chaired by Barbara Mikulski with Richard Shelby as Ranking Minority. Sylvia Burwell, Jeh Johnson (DHS), Michael Lumpkin (DoD), Heather Higginbottom (DoS) testified and then accompanying witnesses went to the Table. Tom Frieden and I were the "accompanying" witnesses for Sylvia. All went well. About 18-20 Senators appeared. Tom Harkin made a statement that this was his last official Hearing and he wanted to specifically call me out as a great public servant with whom he has worked on this committee for 30 years. This elicited a round of applause from the audience. Patrick Leahy also remarked that he has been working with me "forever". All-in-all, a very good Hearing. Nov. 13, 2014 - Difficult situation arising regarding the conduct of the Phase 2/3 trials of Ebola vaccine in Liberia/Sierra Leone. The companies (first GSK; now also J & J, who do not even have a candidate ready) are balking at going ahead with the trials unless they get "global indemnification". This is unprecedented to demand for a Phase 2/3 trial