Wednesday, June 24, 2015

I participated with the NIH and CDC team here at NIH in Wilson Hall of Building 1 as well as in Room 151 in the meeting with the Vice Premier of China Jiu Yandong. The meeting was hosted by Sylvia Burwell (Sec., HHS). I presented a talk on the role of NIH in the response to the Ebola Outbreak. I interacted with several of my Chinese colleagues including the Director of the Chinese CDC. An agenda of the meeting is given in the PDF below: draft agenda.pdf June 25 – June 27, 2015 - I travel to Aspen, Colorado to be a participant in the 2015 Aspen Ideas Festival, Spotlight health. It was a most enjoyable experience as I attended several of the panels on areas that were of my own interest and expertise, and even some areas that are not my areas of expertise. With regard to my direct participation, on the morning of Friday, June 26 , I participated in a “Tutorial Session” which was a panel on the topic of “Be Preared: Infectious diseases are here to stay”. On the panel with me were Larry Brilliant, Neeraj Mistry, and Storn Kabuluzi of Malawi. The Panel was chaired by Judy Woodruff of The NewsHour (PBS). Judy is an old friend and it was a very lively panel. An added plus for the experience was that I finally got to meet Larry Brilliant who is one of the icons of global health, having participated actively in the eradication of polio from India during his time at WHO. He is the kind of person who I think could be a really good friend. He obviously has an incredible amount of respect for me. The panels that I enjoyed watching were the health and Healthcare session on the morning of June 26, which was a breakfast session right before my session. The speakers with Tom Daschle, Henry Waxman, Bill Frist and the panel was chaired by Steve Clemons, Editor-at-Large for Atlantic magazine. It was a most joyful time for so many of us in Aspen because the Supreme Court had voted by 6 to 3 to uphold the Affordable Care Act and the tax credit for those who live in states that do not have their own exchanges. In addition, the following day the Supreme Court ruled by 5 to 4 to strike down the prohibition on gay marriage. The Obama administration has had an amazing couple of days. On Friday evening of June 26 it was a wonderful reception at the home of Gail and Al Engelberg who live on a beautiful mansion overlooking the mountains of Aspen and Aspen Valley. The reception was in honor of former secretaries of Health and Human Services. These included David Matthews, Kathleen Sebelius, Donna Shalala, Tommy Thompson. It was great to see Tommy Thompson again as well as all of the others. Of note Donna Shalala wanted to talk to me in her new capacity as the CEO of the Clinton Foundation. Apparently Chelsea Clinton had been approached by people from MSF and WHO to help fund the controversial “ring vaccination” study of the Ebola vaccine that they are conducting in Guinea. As I had mentioned, both Cliff and I feel that this is a flawed study since it has no control group. Donna wanted to know whether the Clinton Foundation should get involved. I recommend strongly to her that they do not support this study and if, in fact, Chelsea Clinton feels that she wants to support it, then it is importantfor the Clinton Foundation to get an outside group to look seriously at the design of the study, which I have a lot of trouble with, as well as to examine the data that is a ready been collected. Donna thanked me for :”Covering my back as you always do”. The reception was idyllic in that views were breathtaking, the skies were crystal clear and the weather was warm without any humidity. I met many wonderful people at the reception including a nice conversation with my old friend Ashley Judd, who looked absolutely beautiful. She complimented me on “how great I looked” and on the important work that I have been doing for so long. She was with a little dog and was barefoot. She is an amazing looking woman and a really devoted global health advocate. She was there to talk about her reflections on global health on the following day. One of the people I ran into who was very complimentary was a Zoe Baird, who called me the epitome of the true public servant. She said that I was incomparable in what I have done over so many years for the people of the country in the world. It was a very moving and sincere compliment to me. The following day on Saturday, June 27, I participated in a panel on the “Looming Antibiotic Crisis”. On the panel with me was Peggy Hamburg and Ramanan Laximinarayan, who heads the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases. He is a terrific guy with whom I had the opportunity to fly back to Denver with that same morning. All in all it was one of the best trips that I had taken in that the atmosphere was beautiful, the social interactions were in extremely positive, and I got the opportunity to do my thing in front of a lot of important people who have also become over the years good friends.