Friday, August 22, 2014

Situation same with epidemic. Good news – have come to agreement with Tom Frieden on approach to Ebola vaccine following Phase1 trials. Agree to go for RCT with control group as first choice. There well may be obstacles on the ground to this approach including perception of keeping interventions from those who need it (even though we still do not know whether the vaccine is either safe or effective). This may necessitate a modified RCT without a control group or even skipping an RCT and going to emergency open access. The plan is to do a “rolling” approach staring with RCT → modified RCT → open access in priority order. I will present this to Secretary’s call next week. Tom Leaves for West Africa over the weekend. Press still active → Fox 5 WTTG; CNN International; BBC Radio – The World; WNEW CBS Radio – NYC; PRI (BBC) – Boston – “The World” with Marco Werman August 23 – 27, 2014 - Still escalating Ebola situation. Now a secondary case in Nigeria with having infected a person who took care of him. That person (who recovered) then infected a doctor in Port Harcourt. The doctor died, but the doctor’s wife is now infected. The numbers are going up. Tom Frieden now in Liberia to assess the situation. He is saying that it is catastrophic and out of control in a press conference from Monrovia. People on the Secretary’s 3x per week call have criticized him for being “hyperbolic”. How should they know – he is there and they are here. Typical government cover-your-ass bullshit. Still getting modest press.