susan sheer for her many years and many contributions to public health and h.i.v. epidemiology and surveillance. >> so i believe that dr. cofax also has something to say. >> so, dr. sheer, susan, i want to personally thank you for your contributions to the department. we met each other i think my first day of work in 1998. i just want to express my deep appreciation. you are a very humble person who does not have a lot to be humble about. i think your work in the department really extends not only to improve the lives of people living with h.i.v. and members with h.i.v. living in the city, but also across the country and across the world. we have to mention that you have published in international journals, you've done ground-breaking research, you've supported an incredible team of folks to do the work, you've mentored many epidemiologists and scientists. you've led a life that i'm grateful for and personally very impressed by. thank you so much for your work. i hope you will enjoy your retirement. i also hope, as we work to get to zero and your leader in the getti

susan sontag. you did an enormous amount of work for this book, and one of the things that's stunning about it is, the material that you had to go through, the archives and the sheer -- i don't even know how many interviews there were. and i think it's been said and i think you have told me this, i have known ben, i should just confess, for a while so it's not really an interrogation. i'm a great admirer of your books and i consider myself an honored friend, so it's so nice to be here interrogating you as a result of that. i understand that you're the so-called authorized biographer. i guess there been an authorized books, and i was wondering if you could talk a little bit about what that means for an audience who may not know what that is. what are the advantages and maybe even the disadvantages of authorization, and then we'll get to the susan sontag but just to start with -- >> fasten interesting question because it's very hard to explain, even though it doesn't seem like like a hard concept . i was the authorized biographer but this book is not the authorized lockerbie. when you say the authorized biography it sounds like it got a seal of approval from somebod