Thursday, April 26, 2012

The heat is still on and the focus high (in some circles) regarding the H5N1 issue. I testified before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee today. Chair – Joe Lieberman and ranking minority – Susan Collins (R- Maine). Other witnesses were Dan Gerstein (DHS), Paul Keim (NSABB) and Tom Inglesby (Univ. of Pittsburgh). Lieberman started the Hearing by stating that I was his “hero”. Paul Keim more and more is making me believe that he is a poor Chair of NSABB and a weak person in that he continuously says that Mike Osterholm is off base with his letter to Amy and then he defends him strongly at the Hearing. He wants it both ways. The media (mostly bloggers like Laurie Garrett and others such as Helen Branswell) keep thinking that the USG is acting in some sort of conspiratorial manner regarding letting out information such as Amy’s response to Mike Letter. In this regard, I mentioned to Lieberman when he asked about the accusations in Osterholm’s letter to Amy that I completely disagreed with most of what was in Mike’s letter and that Amy had written a comprehensive refutation of Mike’s points and that I would make this letter available to the Committee if they wished. The press picked this up to mean that we were releasing the letter to the public. That was not the case, but eventually ( a couple of days later) when HHS Legisl. Affairs sent the letter to Lieberman, then HHS released the letter. Made nice remarks at Memorial for Frank Neva at the Audubon Society in Bethesda.