Diary Prequel Package — page 429

few days ago it Big breakthrough in food allergy published in the NEJM. NIAID funded the study. Showed that early age consumption of peanut products in children with diathesis for allergic reaction significantly decreases incidence of peanut allergy after 60 months. I appeared and was interviewed by Jeff Green on The NewsHour to discuss it. Feb. 27, 2015 - Still in an amazing cold wave in Washington, D.C. A few days ago it was 2 below at IAD. Went to Humphrey Building today at 8:00 AM to meet with Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Hosted by Sylvia Burwell. Her staff included Liberian Minister to the USA, among others. On our side was Peggy Hamburg, Cliff Lane, Francis Collins, Tom Kenyon (CDC). Has good conversation about our efforts in Liberia, particularly the vaccine trial and the ZMapp trial that was announced today in Liberia. The President profusely thanked us for helping out with their Ebola issue. She is a very sharp lady. Feb. 28, 2015 - Had another one of those great dinners hosted by Catherine and Wayne Reynolds at the Book Room of the Jefferson Hotel. Freezing weather. Great guests including Vernon Jordan and his wife Ann; David Petraeus and wife Molly, Jim Johnson and his date Heather (?), Buffy Cafritz. Interesting discussions by Jordan on the political arena of Hilary Clinton and her candidacy. Petraeus spoke about the ISIS treat, Iraq and the Middle East. One of the best of the Reynolds's dinners. Chris could not be there. She was in Northern California cheering on Ali who was running a marathon in the Napa Valley. March 3, 2015 - Testified before the House Labor - HHS Appropriations Subcommittee for the NIH budget. As usual for the past few years, it was only a 2 hour Hearing with Francis Collins testifying and me backing him up at the table together with Gary Gibbons (NHLBI), Tom Insel (NIMH), Nora Volkow (NIDA) and Jon Lorsch (NIGMS). Hearing started early (8:30 AM) since Benjamin Netanyahu was speaking before a Joint Session of Congress at the invitation of Speaker Boehner and against the wishes of Obama. He was making the argument that the USA was making a "bad deal" with Iran on nuclear control versus sanctions. During the Hearing Congressman Andy Harris (R-MD) made the point that he felt that we were spending too much on AIDS compared to other diseases with much more of a morbidity and mortality impact on the USA. He wants to allocate money strictly according the disease burden in the USA. Hence, this would destroy funding for malaria and TB and greatly hurt funding for AIDS. Obviously, I will be opposing this. Still record cold weather and lots of snow in DC. March 5, 2015 - Was supposed to go to Boston yesterday evening in order to speak at an Ebola Forum at Harvard today. However, a big snow storm was forecast for DC for today and I was afraid that I would get stuck in Boston. I wisely, did not go and actually gave my talk and Panel discussion via "GoToMeeting", which worked very well. Paul Farmer was on the panel in Boston. Good thing that I did not go since DC got 8 inches