Wednesday, May 12, 2004

Big White House day! The President visited the NIH for a “No Child Left Behind – Read First” ceremony. It was held at NIH since the NICHD had some activities in this area. Ceremony held in Natcher Auditorium. I sat in second row and the POTUS recognized me from the stage and greeted me individually noting that I was in the audience. After his talk, he came down to “work the rails” and chatted with me for about a minute on International AIDS. He mentioned that he had just met with the Health Minister of Angola. He was as usual very complementary to me. In the afternoon had a meeting in the WH with Kristen Silverberg, Allan Gilbert, Randy Tobias, Joe O’Neill, Mark McClellan, Lester Crawford and many others about fixed dose combination ARVs (FDCs) and the PEPFAR. We have developed a plan and a roll-out strategy. After the meeting, went to Indian Treaty Room and had a going away reception for Richard Falkenrath of the Homeland Security Council (HSC). Had nice chats with John Gordon (chief of HSC), Tom Ridge, Josh Bolten, Carol Kuntz, Clay Johnson and many others.