Thursday, November 6, 2014

Still calm. No Ebola Press. Did Hearing prep by teleconference with Sylvia. Nov. 7-11, 2014 – Still calm. Mostly preparing for Senate Appropriations Hearing on Nov. 12. POTUS asking for $6.18 Billion in emergency funding for Ebola (Domestic and International). NIH portion is $238 million. Went to EEOB on Nov. 10 to rehearse for Hearing with Ron Klain. Nov. 11 – very good meeting in Building 10, 4th Floor Medical Board Room with clinical investigators who took care of Ebola patients at Emory, Nebraska, NIH. Also, DoD and HHS present with presentation of individual clinical data from the USA patients. It became clear to me that it is impossible to determine if any of the experimental drugs given to the patients (ZMapp, Brincidofovir, favipiravir, convalescent sera, TKM-Ebola) helped or did harm (likely did some harm. Decision was to develop a clinical protocol for future USA patients and also to be used as prototype for Africa. Protocol should be RCt with standard medical care (fluid and electrolyte replacement) as the control arm. The data also suggested to me that if you keep patients alive with medical care, that the body’s immune system will almost always clear the virus (likely without experimental drugs).