Monday, June 29, 2015

I had two interesting encounters today by telephone with very interesting people on very interesting subjects: 1) Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO and founder of Facebook was introduced to me a few weeks ago by e-mail by Susan Desmond Hellman, the current CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Global Foundation. We arranged to have a teleconference between Mark and me today to discuss the issue of Mark wanting to get involved in a philanthropic way with promoting biomedical science. The call lasted one hour from 4 PM to 5 PM on an absolutely brilliantly beautiful day in Washington with clear skies and relatively no humidity(an unusual event in the summer in Washington). Mark was very engaging and we went over the multiple possible ways that he may contribute. He asked probing, highly insightful questions about how we fund biomedical research through grants in the extramural program and by funding the investigators in the intramural program. He was very interested in the concept of funding projects versus funding people. We went over several models of how research is funded. We discussed the issue of creating an institute that is an infrastructure with walls like the Rockefeller University. We also discussed the possibility of an institution that makes grants like the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He asked a lot of questions about the NIH and he wanted to continue the conversation at a later date after he thought a bit about what I had told him. I found him to be a very engaging, highly intelligent young man. 2) Gary Nabel, who is currently at Sanofi in Boston, called me on my cell phone to tell me that he had just been in California and had a conversation with Gov. Jerry Brown. The California State Assembly has put a Bill on the desk of Gov. Jerry Brown that would prohibit exemptions from vaccinations on religious and philosophical grounds. Gov. Brown had spoken to Gary when he was in California today about this since he finds this to be a difficult decision as to whether or not he should sign the bill. Gary spoke to him about me and my knowledge of the subject and Gov. Brown gave Gary his cell phone number to give to me to have me call him. I did so and had about a half an hour conversation with Gov. Brown in which I explained to him the reasons why I feel that he should sign the bill prohibiting religious and philosophical exemptions from vaccinations in the state of California. He asked probing questions. We had a very good conversation and he thanked me heartily for giving him the time. Based on the discussion, I believe that he will sign the bill. We shall see. The TedMed people got back to me and really like my draft. They have made some suggestions that are easy.