Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Tom Frieden back from West Africa, gives press conference and says that the situation is out of control and could result in 100,000 cases! HHS people concerned that he is being hyperbolic; I do not think that he is hyperbolic. Worrisome things – an American missionary M.D. got infected while got infected in Liberia in a hospital that was not for Ebola patients. Turns out he was doing an OB-GYN exam on a woman who was infected, but did not know it and did not tell the missionary that she had been exposed. Big problem – people are not telling the truth for fear of stigma. Epidemiological curves are now exponential. A lot of planning, but not much action. I am supporting Tom in the press and at HHS even though he still thinks that we should pre=position TKM drug (siRNA) and VSV vaccine for PEP for health workers in the ETUs even though they have not been in Phase 1 yet. Did Panel at CSIS on 1616 Rhode Island Avenue. Very hot muggy day. Panel on Global Health issues in the context of Larry Gostin’s new Book of Global Health Law. Panel was me, Larry and Tim Evans of World Bank. Ebola was a major topic. Important – Secretary Sylvia Burwell called my cell phone at 2:30 PM to ask my opinion of whether we were not doing enough or were doing it wrong. I told her that quantitatively we are not doing enough. But as the epidemic grows exponentially, then the quantitative defect transforms into a qualitative defect and then we are doing it wrong since doing the same thing minimally while the epidemic grows, then becomes doing it wrong. She also tasked me to find out whether there are options to improve the tobacco plant yield of the ZMapp antibodies or as suggested by some, that we go to CHO cells. She wanted me to contact the Agriculture people at the BMGF where she used to work to get their opinion. I called and spoke with Susan Hellmann (President of BMGF), Chris Elias (BMGF), Rob Horsch (Ag expert at BMGF), Larry Zeitlin (CEO of Mapp Biopharmaceutical to get their opinion. Consensus is that it will take too long to fix the poor yield in tobacco and that we should go for CHO in 2 of the 3 antibodies. The 3rd does not do well in CHO and so stick with tobacco on that one. I wrote a long e-mail to Sylvia explaining this. Press – CNN with Erin Burnett News still dominated by ISIS who beheaded another USA journalist; Russia invading eastern Ukraine; Gaza and Ebola