Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Some of the events that occurred today are very important. Lisa Hensley, an NIAID employee (Ph. D) is a NIAID scientist who reports to Peter Jahrling at Fort Detrick. She was in Liberia to give technical assistance. She had informed Cliff that her role in Samantha's Purse (SP) getting the zMapp antibodies for Dr. Brantley and Nancy Writebol was only peripheral and facilitating. Lisa has been called back by Cliff and returned from Liberia last night and Cliff Lane gathered a considerable amount of information from her. It appears that she has been much more active in assisting the people from SP in procuring the zMapp antibodies from Gary Kobinger of the Canadian Health Agency. In addition to just pointing the SP people in the right direction, she was actively involved in organizing an attempt to procure the antibodies and deliver them to the patients. The CDC was actively involved also in the person of Kevin DeCock who put Lisa in contact with SP. In addition, the United States Embassy in Monrovia, Liberia was very actively involved in this process. With regard to the latter the embassy provided a UN helicopter to take Lisa and the military attaché from the embassy to the border of Sierra Leone and Liberia to pick up the package of monoclonal antibodies. However, SP had already chartered their own helicopter and picked up the material themselves. Nonetheless, our prior determination and announcement to the media that the NIH as well as the federal government played only a minor role in the procurement of these antibodies is technically not correct. When I found out about this, I felt it was very important to alert HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell. I briefed her on the fact that the original statement from the Department of Health and Human Services regarding the role of NIH was not technically correct. She agreed and indicated that we would have to let the White House know particularly the General Counsel. The reason why this is important is that technically speaking SP has broken the law by bringing in a drug from Sierra Leone to Liberia without the permission of the health officials of Liberia. In addition, there is also the issue of ethics in procuring a drug for one individual when there is very short supply. And so the question is asked how can one get drug for American doctors and health workers when hundreds of Africans are dying from the disease. We will have to face this issue in the press even though technically speaking NIH did not procure the drug. The appearance is that we at least assisted the SP in getting it. It is important to emphasize that Lisa Hensley was acting on her own accord without asking permission from any of her superiors and so she was really not representing the NIH. It appears now that this was what Sanjay Gupta of CNN was talking about when he told me by phone that he had e-mails that indicated that an NIH person was actively involved in procuring zMapp antibodies for SP and that the US Embassy was also involved and that he could not show me the e-mails since the person who gave them to him had a lawqyer who advised against it. I believe that the secret party who gave Sanjay the e-mails is SP who are now afraid that they have broken the law and are trying to say that the USG helped them and so how could it be wrong. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. Billy Fischer from UNC visited NIH to help the Clinical Center get ready for the possibility of admitting Ebola patients since the CDC is sending 50 people to West Africa and there is the possibility that they may get infected and might need care. Billy spent time in Sierra Leone directly taking care of patients. He was great! Again, much press today → CBS Morning Show with Charlie Rose and Norah O’Donnell; NBC Channel 4 Local News; CNN with Jake Tapper. August 7. 2014 – Re-visit of part of the African Delegation that is visiting DC. Francis Collins and I and other IC Directors briefed them in Medical Board Room of the Clinicial Center at 11:15 AM. Present were Mali President Kweita and Zambia Vice president Guy Scott and his wife Charlotte. I presented information about NIAID activities relevant to their countries (Mali – malaria; Zambia – HIV, TB). Media frenzy continues with Gaza war and Ebola. Ebola dialogue now focusing on the ethics of distribution of scarce interventions during medical crisis. Triggered by the availability of zMapp for the 2 American patients. Press today CNN New Day; MSNBC with Ronan Farrow; CNN International; Sirius Radio (Fox) with Marc Siegel