FAUCI DIARY ARCHIVE — Wednesday, October 10, 2001 https://faucisdiary.com/diary/2001-10-10 Text below is verbatim from the released PDFs, with the original line breaks. ============================================================================== DIARY ENTRY — Wednesday, October 10, 2001 Source: Diary Prequel, pp. 35–36 of 2026.07.27_Diary-Prequel-.pdf Words: 854 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Met at St Regis Hotel in Washington, D.C. with Secretary Thompson; Secretary of State for Health, UK Mr. Alan Milburn; Minister of Health of Canada, Mr. Allan Rock; Secretary of Health of Mexico, Julio Frenk to discuss international collaborations in Public Health related particularly to the response to bioterrorism. Claude Allen and Tommy Thompson appoint me chair of a committee to advice on technical matters related to smallpox vaccine manufacture, testing and application. October 8-21, 2001 – Historic, breaking news every day. New York City, Washington, D.C., Florida are targets of mail-related anthrax cases. As of Oct. 21 there have been 9 cases of anthrax – 1 death from inhalation, 2 serious inhalation anthrx and 6 cutaneous anthrax with about 40 documented “exposures:. Check news clips for accuracy. Secretary Thompson appointed me Chair of the Vaccine Technology Team to determine the scientific and technical feasibility of upscaling the production of smallpox vaccine – see Memo of October 17 (Wednesday) from ASF to Claude Alan (Deputy Secretary, DHHS). Within this period of time there has been major inconsistencies regarding the “grade” of the anthrax involved in the above exposures. I have spoken with USAMRIID current and former scientists, particularly Co. Peter Jahrling. He has examined the material from Sen. Daschle’s office and finds that it clearly is finely milled and what he would consider “weapon grade”. He told me that it was better than any bioweapon of anthrax that the USA has ever made. He believes that it was from Iraq. To my amazement, Gov. Ridge (Penn) was recently appointed to the Cabinet-level post of Director of the Office of Homeland Security and he went on television stating that he was told by scientists (likely CD and/or Army people that this was “garden-variety” anthrax; that is was sensitive to all antibiotics and that it was definitely not weapon grade. I was floored. I called back Peter Jahrling and he said that he looked at under low power and it looked like a clump, which would suggest that is was crude and not weapon grade. However, when he looked under electron microscope he saw pure spores that were finely milled. He hydrated the system and the spores became totally suspended and remained so which is the definition of weaponized. Clearly, someone is intentionally not telling Gov. Ridge the truth or he is masking the truth. The obvious potential reason is that the USA does not want to deal right now with the obvious conclusion that the material came from Iraq. I have been trying to cry the warning. I mentioned this to Terrell Halaska (Deputy Chief of Staff to Tommy Thompson) as well as to Stuart Simonson of OGC/OS/DHHS. I also hinted to Tim Russert, Sen Lieberman and Sen John McCain who were my co-guests on “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Oct. 21, 2001. I believe that there will be hell to pay when the American public realizes that they have not been dealt with in a totally open manner. Oct. 8 - 17, 2001 – Thompson asks me to chair a “Vaccine Technology Team” to provide scientific and technical feasibility with pros, cons, and recommendations on how to expand the existing smallpox vaccine stores and develop new, additional stores. See my Oct. 17 memo to Thompson. Oct. 21 – 22, 2001 – More cases of inhalation anthrax, most recently in a DC Postal worker who did not touch the Daschle letter, but who was only in the central Post Office Building where the letter was initially sorted. I am convinced that this is very high grade material. I in good conscience cannot refrain from bringing this to the attention of DHHS forcefully. I spoke to Stu Simonson (Oct. 21) and told him that he must tell Secretary Thompson of my concerns. I also mentioned this to Frank Sesno (CNN) who has called me at home because of the concern that there may have been an exposure at CNN since they have contracted a private environmental firm to monitor their offices. They received a tentative positive ID for anthrax in the environment and called me. I told Frank that he must report this to the CDC and gave him the appropriate number. He did so and is now working with the CDC. On Oct. 22 at a CNN morning appearance, I saw Frank Sesno again and he wanted to pursue our conversation. I strongly urged him to explicitly ask Gov. Ridge just from whom he is getting information that this is not weaponized material. I believe that it is of weapons grade given my conversations with Peter Jahrling at USAMRIID. Also, I received a phone call from Sen. Bill Frist who was in NYC. We had both been on the Diane Rehm Show this AM and he called to ask advice on how to get the correct message out. I also implored Sen. Frist to look into the weaponizing situation in the same manner that I did with Frank Sesno. Hopefully this will get straightened out before all credibility is lost. See New York Times article of October 22, 2001 by Judith Miiler and Sheryl Stolberg.