Diary Prequel Package — page 61

(and likely others that he did not mention) concerning whether this can be done. They need to do due diligence and get some outside opinions and so they Gary has asked me to gather for a meeting at the WH a group of people who have actually done developing country implementation. They want to speak with these people without my being there, i.e. to check up on me. I suggested and they agreed to bring in the following: Peter Mugyenyi (Uganda), Jean (Bill) Pape (Haiti), Paul Farmer (Harvard-Haiti), Eric Goosby (Pangea Foundation and Rwanda). Gary asked me on a Friday and I needed to contact these people who were scattered all over the world to come to DC to see me and then have a visit to the WH. Gary insisted that I not reveal the plan to them and so I had to convince them to travel within a 72 hours period merely on faith as a favor to me. They all agreed and came: Mugyenyi from Uganda, Goosby from Rwanda, Farmer from Germany, and Pape from Haiti. Still Gary insists (despite my asking him again and again) that I cannot tell Terrell Halaska about any of this. I pushed Gary and he checked with Josh Bolten who said that this week we indeed will be able to tell Secretary Thompson. On another issue, things are heating up regarding possible war with Iraq. This makes compelling the imminent decision of policy regarding smallpox vaccination of civilians. The Pentagon will imminently announce that 250,000 to 500,000 troops will be vaccination with vaccinia (Dryvax). The question of the availability and recommendations for civilians remains. I am pushing for "recommending" that the 500,000 and then the up to 10,000,000 health workers and first responders get vaccinating. However, I feel that although we should make available the vaccine for the general public, given that the threat assessment is very soft, we should recommend that they not take the vaccine unless they feel very strongly that they do not want to take any chances. This is different from the situation with the anthrax vaccine where the DHHS said that had no recommendation either way; they just made the vaccine available if people wanted it. Went down to the White House to pre-brief Gary Edson and Jay Lefkowitz on Mugyenyi, Goosby, Pape, and Farmer. They both inquired as to what pretense I used to get these people to come to the USA. I said that I asked them to come and advise me about clinical trials in developing nations. Had dinner at the Trattoria Sorrento in Bethesda (Cordell Street) with the 4 visitors and told them exactly why I called them in and explained what type of questions would be asked of them at the WH. They look upon me as a hero for what I am doing. Nov. 13, 2002 - Multiple meetings in the DHHS to plan roll out of smallpox vaccination plan. It is imminent. The President is planning on having to start bombing Iraq in the 2nd week of January and wants to start vaccinating the 500,000 people smallpox response teams by December 1 and the 10,000,000 first responders by January in order to prepare for a release of smallpox by Iraq. Much discussion about timing the announcement of vaccinating the military with the announcement about the general population. Concern is that if we do not link the 2, the people will react to vaccinating the military by saying "what about us?" It looked like we were going to make the announcement on Friday,