Sunday, April 21, 2013

Informed by Francis Collins that he spoke with Bill Corr (Deputy HHS Secretary) about the issue of my being muzzled, almost certainly because Tom Frieden and the CDC want the spotlight on the H7N9 story. Corr agrees with Francis that I should always be allowed to speak to Press (Print/TV/Radio) when they directly ask for me. Let us see how this turns out. Also, it is clear now that I have joined the 2x/week conference calls with HHS that CDC really wants to be in control even though I believe they are missing important stuff. For example, they are claiming that they cannot detect the virus in chickens, likely because the PCR assay is specific, but not sensitive. I just found out from the CEIRS people (including Mike Osterholm) that the Chinese are looking in the wrong place. The cloacal swabs are negative, but there are tons of virus in the trachea swabs. Case now well over 100 and counting. The Chinese need to start massive culling of chicken or the virus might adapt itself to humans after many dead-end jumps.