Diary Prequel Package — page 65

mentioned this to Kristen Silverberg. She knew nothing and immediately called Dan Bartlett (WH Press Office). I did not hear what they said; however, apparently what happened is that the press confronted the WH with the Walters interview and the WH caved in and admitted to the policy. The crazy thing is that it has now hit the press, but the WH will not let us talk about it since the President has not officially announced it. We still do not really know what the policy will be nor when it will be announced. More later! Dec.12, 2002 - Much activity back and forth with the White House and the DHHS regarding putting the finishing touches on the President's Statement and the policy in general. In particular, Kristen Silverberg and checked frequently with me. In midafternoon she called me down to the White House with Stewart Simonson to go over word-for-word the President's statement. We were the only DHHS people asked to do this. Big surprise in the statement was the fact that we will make vaccine available to the public before 2004 by allowing people who insist on vaccination to enter into an ongoing clinical trial (Cangene, Acambis, etc.) or by creating a special IND protocol (using Aventis-Pasteur). Exciting few hours at the White House with Karl Rove, Andy Card, Josh Bolten, Mike Gerson (President's speechwriter), Kristen, Susan Neeley (Public Affairs for Homeland Security), Dan Bartlett (Deputy to Ari Fleischer)Stewart and I having lively back and forth conversation. I insisted that they emphatically emphasize that we do not recommend vaccine to the general public; however, we will make it available to those who feel they still want it even though it is not recommended. I consider this a great victory since I am concerned about tens of millions of people getting vaccinating, which will surely lead to some serious adverse events. After the WH, Stewart and I went to the Department and worked on Qs and As for hours until around midnight. Also, we briefed the Governors of the States and the State Health Officials by teleconference. Dec.13, 2002 - Day of the announcement by the President. The DHHS team including me went to the WH at 1:00 PM in preparation for the 2:15 PM announcement. We met in the Roosevelt room and discussed the policy with Ari Fleischer, Dan Bartlett, and others. Bill Winkenwerder represented the DoD. Big surprise was that we learned the President would get the vaccine himself since he felt that as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, he could not order the troops to do something that he himself would not do. He will say that Laura and his children will not be vaccinated since they are part of the general public. President makes announcement. On stage with him was me, Tommy Thompson, Gov. Ridge, Julie Gerberding, Bill Winkenwerder, someone from State Dept. Afterwards, the President left and we all gave brief remarks and answered questions. The rollout went extremely well. I was on CNN and Julie and I were on the Jim Lehrer NewsHours together. I had been scheduled by Ari Fleischer to go on all of the Sunday talk shows with Tommy Thompson on Dec. 15; however, we were bumped by the breaking news of Trent Lott facing forced resignation because of his "segregationist" comments at the birthday party of Strom Thurmond. Nonetheless, I got my picture in both the NY Times and The Washington post standing next to the President and TGT.