    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1999, Book I)]
    [March 11, 1999]
    [Page 355]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 355]]

    Statement on Selection of the Director of the Vaccine Research Center at
    the National Institutes of Health
    March 11, 1999

        I am very pleased to join Secretary of Health and Human Services
    Donna Shalala, National Institutes of
    Health Director Harold Varmus, and my AIDS
    policy office director, Sandra Thurman, in
    welcoming Dr. Gary Nabel as the first Director of
    the new Vaccine Research Center at the NIH. Dr. Nabel's long and
    distinguished career as a research scientist will be an incredible asset
    in our efforts to find preventative vaccines.
        The first order of business for Dr. Nabel
    will be the effort to develop a vaccine for HIV. This is a top priority
    of our AIDS research efforts. Here in the United States, over 40,000
    people are newly infected with HIV every year. Across the world, the
    rate is nearly 6 million people per year. These are lives in jeopardy.
    Though we have made remarkable progress in treating HIV and AIDS, there
    is still no cure. So our best hope of bringing an end to the AIDS
    pandemic is to find a safe and effective vaccine.
        I have issued a challenge to the scientific community to find an
    AIDS vaccine within the decade. We are making important strides towards
    that critical goal and the leadership of Dr. Nabel will help us progress even more. Dr. Varmus and his team of expert researchers at the NIH,
    working in collaboration with scientists from across the globe, have
    produced remarkable results in reducing AIDS mortality here and in many
    other developed nations. Their improved understanding of how HIV works
    will be invaluable in the effort to find a vaccine to prevent infection
    in the first place.
        The human tragedy of AIDS throughout the world must move all of us
    to action. The search for a vaccine for HIV must continue to be a global
    priority because millions of precious lives hang in the balance.