FAUCI DIARY ARCHIVE — Tuesday, November 25, 2008
https://faucisdiary.com/diary/2008-11-25

Text below is verbatim from the released PDFs, with the original line breaks.
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DIARY ENTRY — Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Source: Diary Prequel, p. 188 of 2026.07.27_Diary-Prequel-.pdf
Words: 164
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Received a call from Aaron Pickrell who is running the Obama
transition team for HHS and sub-agencies. He said that my name is actively being
discussed for NIH director and he wanted to know if I was interested. I was frank and
honest with him saying that I wanted to remain as NIAID Director, but I want to be part
of the Obama team and perhaps we could work out something informal (without title) or
more formal (?Special Assistant or Special Advisor to the POTUS) for issues on Global
AIDS, Emerging infections, and Biodefense. He said that he would run this up the ladder
and see how people react. My real desire is to stay where I am but to be called upon as I
have been for 20+ years on issues mentioned above. I do not want to give up my solid
base of scientific credibility. I hear that Francis Collins is aggressively campaigning for
the job of NIH Director – not surprising.