Thursday, October 30, 2014

Started the day with a 6:40 AM interview on WTOP. Another interesting day today. I was a panelist at the Washington Ideas Forum sponsored by The Atlantic magazine that took place at the Harmon Center for the Performing Arts on F and 6th Street, N.W. I was interviewed on stage by David Brooks, well-known columnist for the New York Times. The panel was broadcast live on C-SPAN as well as streamed online on their website. Of the people involved in this forum were Secretary of State John Kerry, Chris Matthews of NBC, and a large number of other notables. After that I went back to the NIH and hosted a whole group of network producers with full camera TV coverage on the process of donning and doffing for personal protective equipment. I demonstrated to them what we do in the process of taking care of patients with Ebola, in this case specifically Following the demonstration which was done by nurse specialist Kevin Barrett and hospital epidemiologist Tara Palmore, I did a long series of TV interviews with the cameras that were there during my step-by-step demonstration of the donning and doffing. Clips appeared on a variety of news outlets. An extraordinary situation occurred last night in which the state of Louisiana made an announcement that certain scientists and others who were planning to attend the annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene during the first week of November in New Orleans would not be allowed to attend the meeting. In essence they said that these people need to be quarantined if they came from a West African country or if they had taken care of the patient with Ebola within the last 21 days. This is an extension of the quarantine craziness that was started by Governors Christie and Cuomo. In essence, they are barring scientists from a meeting where their expertise and experience is most needed. Finally, I have been informed that I have been named in the civil action lawsuit against Pres. Obama, me, Thomas Friedman, Secretary Burwell, and DHH Secretary Jeh Johnson for promoting terrorism and discrimination. They are accusing us of colluding with president Obama who is a Muslim citizen of Kenya and trying to destroy African countries by introducing Ebola into society. You just cannot make this stuff up. Received a note today (dated Oct. 16, 2014) from Hilary Rodham Clinton saying that she was thinking of me and cheering me on saying that “The American people are fortunate to have your leadership at NIH as we face the challenge of Ebola”.