March 25, 1982
Dear Bob:
Thanks for your letter.  The Retrovirus Study Group keeps a low profile and is only hurled into action if the Chairman aggressively seeks problems (I do not) or if someone brings a problem to its attention.  It doesn't seem to me that there is a significant problem in retroviral taxonomy at the moment, though I would hope you will let me know if you think there is an issue involving the new human isolates that we ought to consider.
I appreciate your asking me to visit on the way to Cold Spring Harbor.  That will not be a leisurely time of the year for me, so I must decline.  However, I may be at NIH on May 3 or 4 (for some discussions of hepatitis B virus) and might well have some time on the afternoon of the 4th.  If that is a good time for you, let me know and we can get together informally (assuming I actually go).  I would, however, prefer not to give a seminar on that visit; a group discussion would be fine.
With best regards,
Harold E. Varmus, M.D.
Professor