Thursday, December 8, 2022

We had our 9th annual meeting today with Bill Gates in the context of the NIH-Gates Foundation collaboration on multiple projects. In the course of the meeting they showed to my surprise film clips of Bill Clinton, Tedros, and Slim and Quarraisha Karim thanking me for my many years of service. I should comment here on the really close relationship that I've developed over the years with Bill Gates and the mutual respect we have for each other. We also joined by the common issue of the conspiratorial theorists out there who think that Bill and I are doing strange things like putting chips in the vaccines that we're trying to get them to receive. It's the source of fun jokes between Bill and me. Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) called me today to wish me well and to tell me how much he has enjoyed over the years working with me. He congratulated me for my “extraordinary service to our nation over decades”. Four astronauts visited the Clinical Center today and the Children’s Inn. The said that the one “must thing” that they wanted was to meet me and so I went over to the Medical Board meeting on the 4th Floor and met with and took photos with them: Thomas H. Marshburn, Kayla Barron, Matthias Maurer, Mark T. Vande Hei Just met with the German Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach who has become somewhat of a friend in that every time he is in DC he wants to come and see me. He values my advice and says that I am a “rock star” in Germany. Also, at the meeting was German Ambassador to USA Emily Haber. PRESS: CBC News Canada (TV); Washington Post Exit Interview with Blair Guild;