2012

I still believe that there is no reason for the Journals insisting that the papers (redacted) need to be published by end of Jan/early Feb. Why not wait until this mess in openly discussed in an “Asilomar-like” setting…

Went to Situation Room in the White House at 3:15 PM. Cold, very damp, gray day. Purpose to discuss the H5N1 situation and brief the National Security Staff (NSS) about my upcoming trip to the Geneva meeting scheduled…

The past couple of weeks have been intensively involved in discussion about the H5N1 issue. Extraordinary “legal” issues come up about what can and cannot be discussed in public. I pushed for and it will happen next…

You really cannot make this up if you tried. They (HHS, DoC, White House) have finally decided that we all need export control licenses to go to Geneva. The DoC and HHS are working feverishly to get them on time before…

Approved at the last minute (literally) that I can go to Geneva and was granted an Export Control License for me, Barbara Jasny (representing Bruce Alberts of Science), Paul Keim (Chair, NSABB), and Yoshi Kawaoka…

Briefed the NSS in the Situation Room with Heidi Avery leading (I had pre- contacted her explaining that I had to do the briefing and she agreed), Laura Holgate and Brian Kamoi from NSS, Kris Beardsley (more of her…

Finally, a pleasant evening. Attended reception at the Jefferson Hotel for the Global Health Corps (GHC) created and led by Barbara Bush, George W’s daughter. Great reception. It was a fund raiser for the fellows of the…

Went to a (now commonplace for me) dinner at Café Milano hosted by Catherine and Wayne Reynolds in honor of Gov. Jerry brown (D-CA) and his wife Anne. Brown in DC for Governor’s Convention. Sat next to Anne and got…

Briefed the senior, but sub-Interagency Policy Committee on the Geneva meeting. Chaired by Laura Holgate from NSS (National Security Staff). Also present were Brian Kamoi (NSS – he has lost about 90 lbs. and looks…

Ron Fouchier flew in from Rotterdam to be on a panel tomorrow AM (Feb. 29) organized by American Society of Microbiology (ASM) to discuss this issue. Invited Ron over my house for dinner (rigatoni and sausage with…

ASM panel at 7:15 to 8:15 at Omni-Shoreham in D.C. Standing room only, fed live on Website with many reporters tuned in. Paul Keim chaired panel that included Ron Fouchier, me, Bruce Alberts, and Mike Osterholm…

Much press coverage going on trying to decide what went wrong. Jon Cohen from Science is coming close to figuring it out. However, when he asked several members of NSABB to answer some questions, it become clear that…

It is starting to become clear that the NSABB are saying that the basis for their recommendation is the fact that the virus was made transmissible and the decision had little or nothing to do with whether or not the…

Went to special premier showing of the movie “Game Changer” about Sarah Palin starring Julianne Moore, Ed Harris and Woody Harrelson. All the usual DC glitterati were there, both political and media. Tammy Haddad was…

PCAST meeting at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Presented on a panel with Paul Keim (Chair of NSABB), Bruce Alberts (Science editor- in-chief), Peter Palese (Mt. Sinai) regarding the H1N1 manuscript…

Gave my yearly talk to the Zuckerman Fellows on “A Career in Public Service”. Very engaged group; was told by conveners that the fellows loved the talk and found it the best among many talks by White House people, and…

House Appropriations Subcommittee Hearings – Rayburn Building. Unusual situation that the Hearing was confined to a discussion about NCATS. Only official witnesses were Francis Collins and Tom Insel (Director NIMH) who…

Small intimate dinner at Café Milano sponsored by Wayne and Katherine Reynolds. Dinner in honor of Susan Hockfield the retiring President of MIT. Usual glitterati – Rick Atkinson (author), Head of National Geographic…

Went to Baltimore to present John Bartlett with an award from AIDS Action Baltimore. He was delighted at my laudation. It was run by AIDS activist and friend of mine – Lynda Dee..

Gave my Nifty-Fifty Lecture on a “Career in Public Service” TO Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda. It was fun since the students were so engaged with me.

Went to National Portrait Gallery to have historical filming of my experience with HIV and my career. It is part of the National Portrait Project to film the histories of important Americans who have made major…

Senate Appropriations Subcommittee Hearing for NIH. Francis Collins, me, Varmus, Griffin, Insel, Hodes. Too bad that these hearing are only a total of 2 hours when we used to have 2 hours for NIAID alone. I got…

Appeared on Channel 8 “Capitol Insider” to discuss the NSABB situation.

Amazing shit. Mike Imperiale (mostly likely him) of the NSABB called a New Editor from Nature (Brendan Maher) and told him that he felt nervous about voting against publication of the manuscripts since he was afraid…

I called Paul Berg is Stanford today to get his perspective since he was so involved in a leadership role in the Asilomar situation in the 1970s. We had a great conversation as we discussed the similarities and…

Went over John and Elaine Gallin’s to first have John and I fish in the Potomac and then have dinner. Unfortunately, John backed out of his garage going very fast without looking in his rear view mirror and smashed the…

Went to Palo Alto to give the Thomas C. Merigan Lecture at Stanford. Great day. Lectured on “Ending the AIDS Pandemic” and had several long Qs and As sessions with students, fellows and faculty. I thoroughly enjoyed it…

Went down to Hart Building to brief Sens. Harken and Roger Wicker in preparation for their trip to Africa (South Africa and Namibia) where they will visit CDC and NIH-funded sites. Also briefing them were Julia Martin…

The heat is still on and the focus high (in some circles) regarding the H5N1 issue. I testified before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee today. Chair – Joe Lieberman and ranking minority –…

Went to Annual Brunch given by John McLaughlin on the roof of the Hay-Adams Hotel in celebration of the White House Correspondence Ball the night before. It has been several years since I was invited to the Ball. Usual…

Partook in NAS Workshop Panel on 20 F Street on H5N1. This was part of the NAS Annual Meeting. Controversy continues. At the meeting, Richard Roberts (1993 Nobel Laureate and known Gadfly) came to the microphone and…

Went to and spoke at a “Garden Party” at the home of Ellen and Gerry Sigal in honor of Mark Harrington and the 20th Anniversary of the Treatment Action group (TAG). I honored him and reminisced about the activist years…

Spoke at the Lasker Board Dinner held at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Headquarters on Jones Bridge Road. Spoke about H5N1 issue.

Met with old friend Ron Dellums (Former Chair of House Armed Services Committee and former Mayor of Oakland). He has retired from politics and wanted to chat with me about opportunities in consulting in global Health…

Flew to Miami for U of M Commencement and had dinner with awardees and commencement speakers for the entire University. Donna Shalala (President of U of M) was my sponsor. Dinner at amazingly palatial home of Leonard…

Received honorary Doctor of Science at University of Miami and delivered Commencement Address. Beautiful and enjoyable day. May 14-16, 2012 – Megan’s graduation. Arrived evening of May 14 and had dinner with Meg, Jen…

Barry Bloom sends me pre-print of Commentary that will appear in Science at the same time as my and Francis Collins’ article. Barry’s co-author is the ever crazy Lone Simonson. They are proposing that the USG create an…

Appeared on “Talk of the Nation” on NPR on the recommendation of the FDA Advisory Panel to Approve Truvada as PrEP and the OraQuick test for HIV.

Spoke at the NAS/IOM President’s Circle Annual Meeting on the H5N1 issue. This is still hot among certain circles. Meeting took place at the House of Sweden at 2900 K Street, N.W. in Georgetown. Gave talk to IDSA Fellow…

Met with Sanaria people including Steve Hoffman today about an update on the work he is doing with his vaccine for malaria.

Had a great and moving evening at the Annual Sons of Italy National Education Leadership Awards Gala at the National Building Museum. I presented a scholarship to a student who will be going to Harvard next year…

NIAID had our annual spring policy retreat at the Hilton Hotel in Rockville which was a meeting between our group and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) in order to determine possibilities of strengthening…

Went with Chris to Annual Garden Party at the home of Jamie Gorelick and Rich Waldron. Usual good time with the usual Washington elite there, i.e. Ruth Marcus, Chris Matthews, etc. Always good to see Jamie and Rich…

Had dinner over my house with the 3 week-day bachelors (i.e. their wives live and work in different cities): Harold Varmus (Connie in NYC); Gary Nabel (Betsy in Boston); and Eric Goosby (Nancy in San Francisco). I…

At the invitation of Larry Kramer, I attended the “official” opening of “The Normal Heart” at the Arena Stage Theater. Had dinner with Larry and NYC and DC theater notables in the absolutely beautiful new atrium in the…

Went to a cocktail reception honoring Larry Kramer at the home of Don and Ann Brown at 3005 Audubon Terrace, N.W.; Washington, DC). Ann is a childhood and high school friend of Larry from when he lived in DC. Larry went…

In Boston today to participate in the 200th Anniversary Celebration of the New England Journal of Medicine. I had been asked to write one of about 12 articles over the year 2012 (NEJM started in 1812) summarizing the…

Supreme Court with Chief Justice Roberts pulling an amazing maneuver actually confirms the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, but calls the Individual Mandate a “tax”. Everyone thought that he would be the…

Had a historic thunderstorm with winds up to 80 to 90 miles an hour on the night of June 29. Major power outages were experienced throughout the area. No major damage to my house but again we have several days and up to…

Saw “Normal Heart” again at Arena Stage. Wonderful play. Many people in audience recognized me and thanked me for my work. July 9-18, 2012 – Went to Martha’s Vineyard (MV) for the “Big” meeting of the editorial Board of…

Controversy continues regarding CEIRS investigators and the “moratorium” on H5N1 research (see immediately above meeting with Heidi Avery). I went to NYC to the Marquis Marriott Hotel on 46th and Broadway to address the…

Slow month of August in D.C. Summer. On Aug. 8, 2012 did a “Science in the Cinema” performance at the AFI Theater in Silver Spring with Ian Lipkin for the movie “Contagion”. Fun being with Ian. Always a character…

As part of the kick-off of the “Celebration of Science” weekend here in D.C. and at NIH sponsored by Michael Milken, I was on a 2 man panel run by Greg Simon, formerly of Faster Cures”. The panel (filmed for TV) was on…

Conversations with Heidi Avery continued – Heidi called my office when I was out running on an absolutely beautiful September day. My office contacted me and I came up to office and called Heidi with my running clothes…

Exceptionally pleasant and enjoyable evening. Bob and Deborah Seder invited Chris and me to join them for the Bruce Springsteen concert at Nationals Stadium. He arranged an amazing group of 10 people for the event. It…

Pleasant surprise. Received an inscribed copy of Bob Woodward’s new book “The Price of Politics” with a note written in the first page – “To Tony Fauci and Christine Grady – What a great night it was! – With greatest…

Received “The Starlight Award” together with Roy Vagelos from the Children’s Inn at NIH. I received it for the “Science” and Roy for his extraordinary influence on building of the Inn in 1990 with Merck money when he…

Meeting in the Situation Room of the White House (1:30 to 3:00 PM) called by Heidi Avery. Discussed the issues around DURC and how we are going to address the voluntary (on the part of the scientists) moratorium on…

Attended World Leaders Forum at the Low Library at Columbia University. On a panel with Wafaa El-Sadr, Eric Goosby and Michel Sidibe (Director, UNAIDS). Very enjoyable. Jenny attended. Discussed the potential end of…

Lunch at the Italian Ambassador’s (Amb. Bisogniero) home (Villa Firenze) on Albermarle Street, N.W. Lunch in honor of former Italian Ambassador, now Foreign Minister of Italy Giulio Terzi di Sant’Agata.

Attended the Elton John AIDS Foundation Benefit Gala at Cipriani’s Restaurant on Wall Street by special invitation of Sir Elton John whom I had met at the IAS meeting in DC in July, 2012. The entertainment by Stevie…

Spoke at the Annual Meeting of the Institute of Human Virology (Bob Gallo’s Institute) held at the Marriott Waterfront Hotel in Baltimore. Took train from NYC (Elton John Gala) directly to Baltimore.

Participated at the National Press Club in the launching of the WHO Global TB Report. Panel moderated by Jeanne Meserve (old friend from CNN, now with WTOP) and neighbor. On panel was Mario Raviglione (WHO), Ken Castro…

Met with Howard Koh (Assist. Sec. for Health) and Deputy Ron Valdesarri in my conference room 7A-24. They wanted to discuss and were actually putting pressure on me/us at NIH to put together a guidelines panel for…

Participated in a panel on Global Health and award ceremony at Georgetown. Mark Dybul was given the Timothy Healy Award. Panel consisted of me, Mark, Eric Goosby and Barbara Bush (daughter) with Marty Federov…

Spoke at Panel of the Annual Meeting of the Academy of Achievement. Panel held at Top of the Hay Adams in the Hay-Adams Hotel. I led off the panel speaking on Ending the AIDS Pandemic and an AIDS-Free Generation…

Beginning of monster hurricane “Sandy”. Supposed to be the worst storm in memory with convergence of a true Atlantic Ocean Hurricane with a Nor-Easter coming from Canada and the West. All airports (DCA, IAD LGA Kennedy…

As I had predicted over and over again, Obama won re-election handily with 330 electoral votes. Nov. 7-8, 2012 - Went to San Francisco to give Keynote at 25th Anniversary of CFAR and 25th Anniversary of FDA approval of…

Appeared on ABC’s ONLINE TV show hosted by Christianne Amanpour on the subject of the ongoing dengue epidemic in India as well as in Madeira and Puerto Rico. These ONLINE shows are fast becoming the new type of news…

I present the C. Everett Koop HIV/AIDS Public Health Leadership Award to Rep. Henry Waxman at the Mayflower Hotel. The award is given by the Forum for HIV/AIDS chaired by Veronica Miller. I gave a nice laudation with…

Big day today. It was the official celebration of World AIDS Day (WAD) and there was a celebration at the State Department from 10:30 to 11:30 AM. Hillary Clinton unveiled the “Blueprint” for PEPFAR to end the AIDS…

Viewed a screening at the State Department of the acclaimed movie “How to Survive a Plague” about the HIV activist movement. Host was the director of the movie, David France. After the movie I was on a panel with Mark…

had dinner over Mark Dybul's home on Wallach Place in northwest DC together with Chris Grady, Jason Claire, Kristen Silverberg (former assistant to President George W. Bush and an old friend of mine from that…

had a town hall meeting with the Vaccine Research Center principal investigators and other staff to reassure them that they have nothing to worry about related to the departure of Gary Nabel to Boston to work at Sanofi…

That evening had a senior staff dinner in which I discussed my desire to tighten up the work ethic of the front office. The work load is being disproportionately falling on me, and particularly Greg Folkers who is…

went to dinner at the home of Connie Milstein on 3210 – R Street, N.W. in Georgetown. Connie is the owner of the Jefferson Hotel in Washington DC. The occasion of the event was a fund raiser for the organization called…

Saturday morning spent an hour on C-SPAN television (National Journal) in Washington DC (400 North Capitol Street) discussing seasonal flu and other infectious disease issues. I was on the show with my friend Tom…

engaged in a National Academy of Sciences Symposium in Washington DC at the Keck Building on 5th St., NW to discuss emerging infectious diseases and the 20th anniversary of the 1992 IOM report on emerging infectious…

travel to New York City to give the keynote lecture at the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DND1) symposium run by Medicins Sans Frontiere (MSF, aka Doctors Without Borders) entitled “Lives in the Balance…

attended Lessons and Carols at the National Cathedral in Washington DC at 7:00 to 9:00 PM. This is a tradition which our family has done for all the years that are children attended the National Cathedral School. It was…

had dinner with Wayne and Catherine Reynolds at the Adour Restaurant at the St. Regis Hotel on Connecticut Avenue in Washington DC. As usual Wayne and Catherine put together a very interesting group for dinner. This…

We had an “international consultation” on the problem of gain of function research on H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) (see above discussions). The meeting took over two days from December 17 to December 18…

Interesting and potentially bad news regarding Sec. Hillary Clinton. A couple of weeks ago she reportedly fell and had a “concussion” that kept her out of the public eye for ~ 3 weeks. Report today that she was admitted…