FAUCI DIARY ARCHIVE — Friday, August 10, 2001
https://faucisdiary.com/diary/2001-08-10

Text below is verbatim from the released PDFs, with the original line breaks.
==============================================================================

DIARY ENTRY — Friday, August 10, 2001
Source: Diary Prequel, pp. 31–32 of 2026.07.27_Diary-Prequel-.pdf
Words: 244
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Secretary Tommy Thompson came to NIH to hold a press conference
to discuss the embryonic stem cell decision. He requested that I be with him on stage
along with Claude Lenfant, Lana Skirboll, Ruth Kirschstein, and Audrey Penn (acting
Director of NINDS). When he asked me to speak, I made a statement thanking him for
his leadership (since he favored allowing funding all along) and also thanked the
President for his courage in making a difficult choice, but one that will allow us to go

forward and do some good for mankind. I also pointed out the important fact that now
we can do head-to-head comparisons of stem cells derived from embryos versus adults
versus fetal tissue. My comments appeared on the front page of the New York Times on
August 11 and a clip of my comments was shown on the Lehr Newshour on the evening
of August 10. I am sure that some scientists will criticize me for saying that the decision
was a positive thing. However, it is clear to me that these types of people are clueless
when it comes to the world of Washington, D.C. Furthermore, the far right will also be
upset since I favored the use of embryonic stem cells at all. I care even less about what
they think of my position. All in all, I believe that this was a good day for biomedical
research. Lana Skirboll deserves much create for turning the President around.