Monday, November 3, 2014

Ron Klain visited NIH today (He had visited CDC last week). He wanted to familiarize himself with what the various components of government were doing in Ebola. I made a presentation to him in the VRC, showed him the lab where Nancy Sullivan works and where she developed the ChAd3 Ebola vaccine. Then we took him over to the Clinical Center to see Julie Ledgerwood’s vaccine clinic where the phase 1 trial took place. Then we showed him the SCSU and the room where we took care of Ron was impressed and wants me to come to the WH on Friday to give a shortened version of my presentation at a meeting where the POTUS is hosting certain Congressional leaders. Tom Frieden spontaneously called me up to thank me for being so supportive of him. I have been continually serving as a late night (by phone or e-mail) sounding board for him in his attempts to negotiate his having to deal with some many factions (ASPR, HHS, USAID, etc.) Last night I helped him out by strongly suggesting that he not listen to the modelers who tell him “exactly” how many news cases of Ebola to expect in the USA over a period of time. I warned him that the models are based on assumptions and multiple variables and can be very misleading and he should not “own” data that comes from models or else it will come back to bite him. I urged him to totally resist such predictions. He was very grateful for my advice.