Read Tony's Diary: The Prequel (Part 8 of 8)

on very interesting subjects:
1) Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO and founder of Facebook was introduced to me a few
weeks ago by e-mail by Susan Desmond Hellman, the current CEO of the Bill and
Melinda Gates Global Foundation. We arranged to have a teleconference between
Mark and me today to discuss the issue of Mark wanting to get involved in a
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
460philanthropic  way with promoting biomedical science. The call lasted one hour
from 4 PM to 5 PM on an absolutely brilliantly beautiful day in Washington with
clear skies and relatively no humidity(an unusual event in the summer in
Washington). Mark was very engaging and we went over the multiple possible
ways that he may contribute.  He asked probing, highly insightful questions about
how we fund biomedical research through grants in the extramural program and
by funding the investigators in the intramural program. He was very interested in
the concept of funding projects versus funding people. We went over several
models of how research is funded. We discussed the issue of creating an institute
that is an infrastructure with walls like the Rockefeller University. We also
discussed the possibility of an institution that makes grants like the Howard
Hughes Medical Institute. He asked a lot of questions about the NIH and he
wanted to continue the conversation at a later date after he thought a bit about
what I had told him. I found him to be a very engaging, highly intelligent young
man.
2) Gary Nabel, who is currently at Sanofi in Boston, called me on my cell phone to
tell me that he had just been in California and had a conversation with Gov. Jerry
Brown. The California State Assembly has put a Bill on the desk of Gov. Jerry
Brown that would prohibit exemptions from vaccinations on religious and
philosophical grounds. Gov. Brown had spoken to Gary when he was in
California today about this since he finds this to be a difficult decision as to
whether or not he should sign the bill.   Gary spoke to him about me and my
knowledge of the subject and Gov. Brown gave Gary his cell phone number to
give to me to have me call him. I did so and had about a half an hour conversation
with Gov. Brown in which I explained to him the reasons why I feel that he
should sign the bill prohibiting religious and philosophical exemptions from
vaccinations in the state of California. He asked probing questions. We had a very
good conversation and he thanked me heartily for giving him the time. Based on
the discussion, I believe that he will sign the bill. We shall see.
The TedMed people got back to me and really like my draft.   They have made some
suggestions that are easy.
June 30, 2015 – I must have been convincing to Gov. Brown yesterday – he signed into
law the California vaccine legislation (see above).
July 1, 2015 – The California law has attracted some attention.   I appeared on CNN with
Jake Tapper to discuss it.
July 2, 2015 - Today I appeared on the Diane Rehm Show where I did somewhat of a
debate with Dr. Robert Sears, a pediatrician from California who was concerned about
the law recently signed by Gov. Brown in California. On the show with me was Liz
Szabo from the newspaper USA Today. In addition, there was a pediatrician who is an
expert in parental response to vaccines for their children. Her name is Dr. Allison Kemp.
The show went very well and it was clear that Dr. Sears misrepresented certain facts and
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
461cherry-picked information for his own advantage. Following the interview, when I got
back to my office, I received several e-mails telling me that I did a very nice job in being
balanced in my approach.
There has been an additional case of Ebola in Liberia. A 17-year-old boy was found dead
and was shown by PCR to have had Ebola. Since then, there has been an additional case
or two. Therefore, we are concerned that this may be the beginning of another outbreak in
Liberia and perhaps in other West African countries.
Drew Faust, President of Harvard had e-mailed me a couple of days ago to ask me for
suggestions for Dean of Harvard School of Public Health to replace Julio Frenk who had
left to become President of University of Miami.   I gave her several names and then she
responded this AM thanking me and telling me that she had just watched “Larry Kramer:
In Love and Anger “ (HB0) and this was her comment to me:
  I spent the evening tonight watching the Larry Kramer HBO documentary in which you
figure so prominently—and impressively.  The footage throughout is amazing, (I kept
thinking what it would be like to have such a record of the Civil War…), and the story
both tragic and triumphant.  I was powerfully struck by your comment towards the end
about how Act Up permanently changed everything in how officials, the state and
organized medicine deal with patient communities. The film will remain in my mind for a
long time…
Very best, Drew
July 7, 2015 – Met with team from Gilead Sciences who presented data on their new
compound GS 5734 that has impressive preclinicakl activity against Ebola.   They want
our help in testing it in West Africa.   It is an RNA Polymerase with activity against
MERS, and likely RSV, Chik, and others.   We will help them and do a trial in West
Africa after we finish the ZMapp trial that is moving along well (47 subjects thus far) in
Sierra Leone and soon in Guinea.   Infections persist in both countries.   Also, last week
there was an infection in Liberia with 2 secondary cases.
The Gilead people were: Andrew Chang (Head of HIV Therapeutics & Development
Operations; William Lee (Head of research); Howard Jaffe (Senior Advisor); and Tomas
Cihlar (Head of Discovery Virology).
Also, Cliff is back from Guinea and it looks like (despite the continued objections of tom
Frieden), we will expand the RCT Vaccine trial into Guinea where there are persistent
cases.
Had diner tonight at Grapeseed restaurant in Bethesda with the BMGF people who are in
town for our yearly joint gates/NIH meeting.   Francis Collins and I and Doug owy were
the senior NIH people there and Trevor Mundel, Emilio Emini, Chris Carp, Chris Wilson
were senior Gates people among others.
Released by Chairman Rand Paul
463
Released by Chairman Rand Paul

Summary:
Watcher-discovered document from paul-readingroom (2026.07.27_Diary-Prequel-.pdf), auto-indexed 2026-08-05.

Excerpt: on very interesting subjects: 1) Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO and founder of Facebook was introduced to me a few  weeks ago by e-mail by Susan Desmond Hellman, the current CEO of the Bill and  Melinda Gates Global Foundation. We arranged to have a teleconference between  Mark and me today to discuss the issue of Mark wanting to get involved in a  Released by Chairman Rand Paul 460philanthropic  way with promoting biomedical science. The call lasted one hour  from 4 PM to 5 PM on an absolutely brilliantly beautiful day in Washington with  clear skies and relatively no humidity(an unusual event in the summer in  Washington). Mark was very engaging and we went over the multiple possible  ways that he may contribute.  He asked probing, highly insightful questions about  how we fund biomedical…