O this summit, the future of america in america summit. Were published by good and upworthy and were with the Aspen Institute and Society Program for this event. Im aaron, and im the founding director of the Aspen Institute science and Society Program. Part of the Broader Health medicine. Science and society was established in 2019 with the mission to elevate public trust in science and to help fost ear more diverse scientific workforce. Next slide. The gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the rita allen foundation. We would like to thank the eneral supporters. This event accompanies a magazine that talks about the lection issue. It was very positively reviewed. It was positively reviewed in the washington post. Are a number of the articles that you can view online if you heck out the magazine. Next slide. We are thrilled to have a stellar lineup of experts to discuss the future so future of science in this country. The format is rotating pair conversations during which two experts will speak for approximately eight minutes before we moved to the next pair. At the end of the five conversations, we will bring the speakers back for a q a. You can submit your question using the q a feature. At the bottom of the screen. And we will conclude the summit at 1 10 p. M. Eastern time. We will have the chat open for ll attendees if people wish to react to the discussion and, or share information. Ext slide. We will not be reading the biography. We will time each conversations for eight minutes and give notice when there is 30 seconds remaining in each conversation. Our first pair is dr. Ichelle mcmurryheath and dr. Rance cordova. We will bring those two into the spotlight. Dr. Mcmurryheath, youre welcome to kick us off with the irst question. Murryheath so im interested in how you are seeing this impacting science funding. We have seen new models for scientific funding in 2019 and 2020. What is this mean for the uture . Dealing with the covid situation, impacting science funding, michelle . Exactly. Yeah, well, i think all the science agencies are very busy. Ith receiveing proposals they are doing an admirable job. Theyre doing this at home, virtually. I know the National Science foundation, with which i am most familiar are doing reviews and awards remotely. And theyre theyre just giving out a tremendous number of awards. When you look at the statistics its even better than a year ago perhaps because they have more time to focus. And i think that it is working out very well for that particular gency. To receive a lot of proposals to get the funding out. I think i have been much more involved in the philanthropic world. Since initiating my term at the National Science foundation the foundations are stepping up. I know the science philanthropy alliance, for which i am a Senior Advisor is doing a lot to encourage the funding of basic research. And have over 30 foundations as part of that. And the foundations are really stepping up, realizing the tremendous importance of the continuity of science funding. There have been so many allegations of political interference in science funding and the covid related projects and agendas through this last year. Can public trust and science agencies further the progress of science to the benefit of the public . That is an important question, michelle. Science is about a search for truth. It is essential that the public trust the science agencies which have been authorized and funded. And have oversige from congress, which of course theyre the elected representatives of the people. So i think that the future of science in america depends on scientific integrity an relies n the backs of its citizens. Youre right. There have been allegations of political interference in the agenda or projects by some federal agencies. Only this morning, i was reading a misstep by the ceo of sigma phi of Scientific ResearchHonor Society about how protection should be established to protect ientific integrity established. And many media outlets, including those of the Scientific Societies have recorded various instances. And i think that the fact so many are concerned about these allegations and congress is clearly concerned is a healthy sign that the public wants to ensure trust in the science agency. We want to hold them accountable, want them to be transparent. And forthcoming in what they know. And that is a good thing for our democracy. Know many of the scientific missions, in my term of six years, we did not suffer from political interference. We hoped to maintain our mission to further the progress of science. We were sensitive to the priorities of different administrations. In 2010, our white house memorandum laid out the basic principles for the development and implementation of scientific integrity policies. Any of them had published, a few years later, their scientific integrity policies that were consistent with the intent of that memo. Unfortunately, Government Accountability office found that there was an uneven application oversight of the policy. They found that a number of the departments had failed to monitor with the compliance policy. We have a ways to go. Congress is actively proposing requirements for scientific integrity among the gencies. Or example, a bear in march of in march of bill 2019 that would require scientific Training Programs and so on. It had almost 200 supporters in congress. I think this issue you bring up is going to really come to the floor with the new administration. Its an important one. You know, part of what weve been seeing in terms of competence around a potential Covid Vaccine and responding to covids public discomfort with how science can understand something one day or seem to be going in one direction and then face a setback. How do you think we can better educate the public on the scientific process . And how you sometimes takes two steps forward and one step back or vice versa . Well, i think that too is a superb question. I think covid really brings that floor. N to the people perhaps did not think deeply about the scientific process and were confused about why were not there absolutes that we have a cure for this or we said we were going in this direction, why didnt we get there . That the whole progress with covid with understanding its genesis, understanding treatments, understanding how to do the the whole Data Analysis and contacts, and now, of course, the all important vaccines, that theyre understanding that that it takes a careful long time for cience to address really important, big mile stones, big goals. We had a number of samples. Tremendous breakthroughs that covers Science Magazine and newspapers all over the world like the discovery of provocation of the image on imaging of the black hole and so on, that we were careful to report. These took decades to come to fruition. Teamwork, global teamwork. And so, i think that there is more of an effort on the part of scientists and engineers and the science agencies and everyone in Media Publications to reinforce how long it takes the different you in in in in, know, the truth. About 30 seconds remaining in this conversation. We are in the midst of a president ial transition season. And ive participated in the Obama Transition Team many years ago. What would be your advice to the Transition Team looking at nsf right now . I think the agency is just remarkable in its goals and its progress and its team that has people exceptionally committed to the mission of the agency. Y advice is to do no harm. It is such a beautiful agency. We want to always encourage more young people to get involved in science. I think that the nsf is an invitation to young people to find out what it is like to submit a great proposal and to review them and all, and be a part of the entire spectrum of science and engineering. Wonderful, thanks. We will bring dr. Mcmurry heath back at the end. We are happy to have the head of the Global Health office of science and Technology Innovation at Johnson Johnson. Hello, hello. Signa, welcome to this forum. So Johnson Johnson, i hear you are busy working on a vaccine. Can you tell us a little bit about it and some of the questions people have about the equitable delivery of the vaccine . Where is Johnson Johnson in the whole spectrum of developing the vaccine and what are some of the challenges youre considering on the road to making sure the u. S. And the whole world has access to it . Yeah, thank you. Im pleased to talk about it. And its been 24 7 since the beginning of this year, when treatment for the coronavirus became a valuable available in january. Johnson johnson has been working fast and furious. Ours is a vaccine that is is platform called the agonal vector platform. This is the same platform that reviews many of the other vaccines, including the one we developed for zika but we never launched it. Because zika kind of disappeared. The same vaccine is being used in the hiv arena. The h. I. V. Vaccine is in phase three Clinical Trials across the world. And ebola, the ebola vaccine was approved by the European Union last year. So this is to say that weve had this platform. They have a huge vaccine expertise. So we just jumped on it immediately. Where we are today is in phase three, the studies are ongoing across the world. In the United States, in latin america, in south africa and in many countries in europe. It is a singledose vaccine. So you you you know, its fingers crossed, we are hoping to see the results soon. And our goal is to actually have the first batches of the vaccine available for emergency authorization in early anuary 2021. We hope to make one billion vaccines per year. Our commitment is to make it available for a notforprofit price. Across the world. In addition to working with governments, in terms of equitable access and distribution of the vaccine, we are working with many other actors. We recently made a commitment to portion of our vaccine lot as early as next year to the lower and lower middle Income Countries and lower Income Countries. This is a commitment we made at the u. N. General assembly where g7 was making a commitment to equitable access across the world. We are looking forward to the results. And you know, hoping to make a big difference for the world. That is wonderful. I am sure everybody is delighted to hear that. Youre the head of Global Innovation at Johnson Johnson. In africa youre trying to encourage finding the next einstein for science and engineers. And i personally think the future of science in america depends on the future of science in the whole world and how we interact and engage with the whole world. Science work for the whole world. Can you tell us about your efforts, globally, in encouraging young people to become the next einstein . I think as you may know, Johnson Johnson is a Global Healthcare company. So we have offices and our ickup trucks products reaches across the world. It is a Global Network of people and products. Today, i know everybodys mind is on covid. E have multiple things for medical solutions and medical devices in pharmaceuticals as healthcare. Nsumer as we think about that and we think about the pipeline, we want to be sure about the pipeline. Thats coming behind from an r. N. D. Perspective. Similarly, the diversity of deas, i think we all believe and know that science is not an individual activity. It is a team sport. Its also an International Collaborative enterprise. Its our goal, a great idea can come from anywhere or anyone. We have to be prepared to pounce on those ideas. Because in those ideas are the solutions to make the world a better place. That is just great. So where do you see innovation being required in what you o . Where do you think we have the biggest need for most nnovation . I think it is across the globe in terms of disease states because i think on the one hand, we are focused on Public Health solutions and infectious diseases. And theres a huge need continues to remain a huge need n infectious diseases. But the noncommunicable diseases, cancer, heart disease, alzheimers, as of last year, before covid, we all thought that was the next ticking time bomb. T probably still is. I think as we continue to age and they have an aging population across the globe, and nother area that that science remain as black box. So if i think across, you know, the whole landscape, we have come a long way in health care. But, there are still major challenges to be solved. These do not recognize national boundaries. You know, they are human specific. So alzheimers disease, cardiovascular disease, cancer still remains a huge issue. We are excited about gene therapies. But i think ultimately, its probably in a place where we want more innovation is the personalized medicine the future that we all imagined. 30 seconds remaining. For the future, i think it is personalized medicine. But also, in the hands of young scientists all over the world. Whose ideas we need to solve the Biggest Challenges in healthcare. Well, thank you very much. Good luck with that vaccine development. Thank you, friend. Thank you. Karisi,ing us is joseph a professor of biochemistry and biochemists at ucsf. Hi, joe. Great to see you i dont see you yet. There you are. Hi, how are you . Im doing great. Bio hub its a very interdisciplinary type of innovative approach to solving problems. What are some of the things youre working on now . Sure. Just to be clear, there are two organizations, the Chan Zuckerberg initiative and the bio hub. I am with the bio hub. They are two separate organizations. In these times of covid, you are asking what are we working on or what were we working on recovid and it is ironic. Precovid, the bio hub and the bill and Melinda Gates foundation, we were working on a worldwide Early Warning radar system for emerging infectious disease. Kind of ironic. Biology was to leverage and infrastructure in low Income Countries by giving them technology training. The issue with that is that counter intuitively, the price of analyzing data has actually gone up while the cost to process samples has gone own. There are solutions to that. What good is the data if you cannot analyze it . Our solution was ivc. His was precovid. It enables people in your own country to analyze samples from people, insects, life stocks, plants, the environment. Whatever you want. To aggregate realtime analysis of that data. Basically making an emergency pathogen dashboard for the world was the idea. In early january, i was in cambodia, with the team, helping to set up the system there. It was with the institute there that they used the system to detect the First Chinese tourist ith covid. We were able to sequence that genome in midjanuary, early on in the pandemic. We thought great, the system is working. This thing probably will not go far past asia. We were badly wrong in that obviously. Fast the march, where are we now and what are we turning our attention to . We made a huge pivot. Everything we do now is all covid, all the time. Critical lab testing in the bay area to address the testing for the most vulnerable populations, clinics, prisons, jails. We deployed our technology to be ore actionable and useful. That is, every time or every two to three times covid jumps from persontoperson, a mutation is introduced in the genome, pretty much randomly. Not so randomly but mostly randomly. This effectively leaves a breadcrumb trail in the dream known genome that allows you to trace back where the virus as been. This is an amazing tool. Together with the department of health, cdph, and all the sequencing programs, we have been sequencing all of the covid genomes we can get. We are turning that information back to the counties in a way to make the information imminently actionable. You may ask how does that work . Imagine that you have two nursing facilities, both of which have outbreaks. And this is a real example, but im not going to name names obviously. In the sequence data, we saw that they shared identical genomes that are geographically distant from each other. We know they did not share patients. So immediately led to the conclusion that they had to share employees. And then the department of health was able to find the linkages to cut transmission short. We need to use every scrap of information we have right now to stop the third transmission of the virus. Thats what were turning our technology to. With thanksgiving coming up, and the Holiday Season coming up. Theres already a spike in covid cases. It will go even higher. The technology you are talking about, it sounds amazing. It sounds almost sciencefiction like, which is fabulous. It that, inat why is america, where we are one of the most advanced nations, having so much trouble in preventing transmission . Well, theres a lot to unpack in that question. One of the issues, there are many issues, ranging from political to organizational. Let me address some of the obvious ones. Right off the bat. And i can speak mostly for california. Ere a state of 58 counties. Each county has its own department of Public Health and has their own just dictions. They have 58 ways of doing things. 58 intentionally different information systems. Transmitting information among counties is hard. We had a conversation with one of our departments of Public Health and said if you could have anything you want right now, a shiny testing machine or more people, what would it be . And the officer said information. Our inability to move information around and coordinate makes us uniquely unprepared for a pandemic, which does not give a hoot about county borders. Yep, exactly. Because if you think about contact tracing, we have not been able to Deploy Technology in the way other places have deployed technology. Let me switch gears for a second. Clearly, some leadingedge work going on around the country. What role can academic and private sector collaboration play . In this pandemic and also in the future and how is that important to the future of science in america . In a situation like a pandemic, i feel like it is all handsondeck. You need to do what you have to do to get the job done. I dont care what people are working on before, today, you are working on covid. We turned all of our attention to addressing what the problem at the moment had to be. So that is why we spun up a testing laboratory. There is a question of labcorp labcorps a quest and a out there. Why are you doing this . Everybody has a responsibility in academia and in the Nonprofit Sector to step up and do what they can in the moment of the emergency to the best of their ability. Because you cant s irv t back and wait for the cavalry to come. If there is anything we have learned in this pandemic, no one is coming. 30 seconds remaining. You worked in infectious diseases. I think back to h. I. V. And until now. This is collaboration on a massive scale. Across scientific borders, what across private sector borders. What did we learn from this sort of collaboration . Well, hope that the le sons learned are those that persevere. Many lessons were learned in the 1918 pandemic but were forgotten over the decades. We need to relearn how to Work Together and transmit data and information in real time in a way that is useful to everybody and to have coordination across Public Health authorities, which, right now, we dont. I hope that we learn to use these tools and technologies that are developed. To now attack the things that prior to covid really werent getting the attention they deserved. Tuberculosis, maleah, you mentioned r. S. Vrment. We still dont have a vaccine for r. S. V. I hope the lessons of this pandemic will not be forgotten. Thank you. Such a great note to end on. We appreciate you joining us. Thank you. Both. Now were joined by saad amir who is the founder of plus one vote. A Nonprofit Organization dedicated to getting votes on ssues like Climate Change. Hi. Hello, how are you doing doctor, professor. Yeah. So i have a question for you. So now that the election is behind us [laughter] what are the next priorities for you and your peers who are committed to Climate Change and equality . I would love to think the election is behind us but, aside from the ongoing struggle of conceding what the results were and the results are what the results are, joe biden is our president elect. I want to highlight the fact that the election, in many ways, is not over. I want to highlight the fact that the election is not over and also on the Senate Runoffs that are happening in georgia. Right now, we are seeing the control of the senate will come down to that. And in many ways for bide on the have a cooperative senate will determine what hes able to do on science policy whether it be for coronavirus or for Climate Change. And so i want to make sure that we highlight that that is not over and that our mission at plus one vote is to make sure we get as many people on the ground in georgia and go out and vote for that senate runoff. But you know, when it comes to Climate Change, i think what weve seen turnover last few years has been fairly cataclysmic in america in terms of what were doing for climate hange. I am glad that even in the conversation of all of the science stuff that we are having Climate Change brought up. I think a lot of the focus of the Science Community is on the coronavirus. Rightly so. We cannot ignore the main crisis we have. It is clear that we need to reduce our Carbon Emissions in half by 2030. What that looks like is essentially a 7. 5 percent reduction in emissions from 2020 to 2030. And its 2020. And we didnt do anything. You know, and so were nowhere on track of where we need to be to reduce our carbon emission to be able to reach a limited two degree warming in global temperatures. And i think the United States, in particular, has gone backward in a lot of climate policies, rolling back protections for clean air, clean water, methane emissions. Over the last two years. As we are going forward, what we need to see is a much more aggressive effort to push forward an agenda on client Climate Change. Nd what weve seen by is president elect joe biden say he will reenter the paris accord. I want to note for everybody that that that is largely a symbolic gesture. Globally, the paris accord has done very little to limit our global emissions. Even in the midst of the pandemic, which with a lot of industries stopping, one would think it has reduced but not to the level of what we need to see. I think there is a disconnect between what the science makes clear about what needs to happen on Climate Change and Climate Action and what we are seeing in terms of the political realities f america. I am skeptical, my peers as well are skeptical that we are equipped to handle the situation if we continue to go at it from hat we have seen over the past two years or even before that. We will not be able to address the Climate Crisis in a ignificant, meaningful way through a series of executive orders that are pushed through and not really done or followed through and a coherent effort on the ground across utility, the private sector, Cross Transportation in the United States. Lets beeper frog live for a minute lets be provocative or a minute. Lets say the senate is not in the democrats hands. What can the Biden Administration do realistically in that situation on the climate hange issue . The presidency is providing. Kamala harris is our Vice President as well. Congress is with the democrats. If the senate does not go to the democrats, there is a large potential to take action. Limited, though it will be. There is the ability for biden to establish a climate mobilization office. I think what we need to see is a larger level of coherent efforts to specifically fight the Climate Crisis. Treasury, labor, transportation, agriculture interior across these different sectors again as we know climate is a threat multiplier. It not only increases temperatures but it impacts our food, it impacts our water. It impacts our air and education and those that are most vulnerable. The indigenous, black people, people of color. As well as jobs in our economy. We need to have a more coherent way of bringing those different entities together. We have never really seen anything like that. I think that would be important. He can get us back into the paris accord through executive order. Again, a symbolic gesture. And can declare a climate emergency. The United States and many other nations around the world have often declared climate emergencies. Those threats have not necessarily been taken particularly seriously, as we have seen by literally people doing nothing. It ends up being a lot of lip service. I think the reality is that we are at the point of Climate Change where we cannot have any more inaction. Every year we do not reduce emissions, emissions are increasing. Every year where we dont reduce emissions, not only are those emissions increasing, but our net cumulative are increasing net cumulatives are increasing. So each year it gets significantly worse and our ability to handle this crisis is also getting worse. So biden has the ability to do ll those things. We know that these crises impact the most vulnerable communities the most intensely. I think he also has the ability to highlight those issues and whether were distributing a vaccine or taking care of different developments of fossil fuels and other environmental injustice issues, he has the ability to highlight and prioritize those communities that have suffered the most. There is a lot that he can do. In particular, i believe in the last for essential debate, fracking became a big thing. 30 seconds remaining. Of being the center of the conversation. And i want to even size that if were going to reduce our emissions, we cannot be creating fossil fuel developments. Every pipeline is under otential or under proposal when, by projection, it is set to be out for 2020 years for 20 or 30 years. We have to be cognizant of what he is doing and push for president elect joe biden to push for more progressive and action oriented things. Dont think we can keep waiting until 2030 and 2050. What can you do in your first 100 days in office to put us on a pathway to reduce emissions 7. 5 this year is what we need to see from joe biden. Great. I am looking forward to hat. We will bring back dr. Mcmurry heath. Hello, dr. Mcmurry heath. Thank you for staying on with us. No problem. So, you are kind of a boss. You have thousands of people who have been doing a lot of the work in development and research on covid, coronavirus. Hat can we look forward to seeing, obviously the Pfizer Vaccine develop its have been a big thing. Can you give us a look at what is to come . Sure, sure. Well, we have a small but mighty team in bio. But we are a membership organization. The Biotechnology Organization represents a number of companies in biotech, across health care, agriculture and environment. I was interested to hear your comments on the environment. E think it is incredibly important and Environmental Justice is so key. The part of making sure where we have making sure we have more Equitable Society and scientific breakthroughs in organizations and reach communities in need most effectively and immediately. The response by our companies on covid has been amazing. In the 10 months since the pandemic came onto the stage, our companies have started over 800 research and Development Projects for therapeutics or vaccines read 191 vaccines vaccines. 191 vaccines are in developing. Development. We hear a lot about the top 10 that are in the final clinical stages and its very important that theyre there. The news from pfizer showing that their vaccine had incredible efficacy. Is shortlyom modorna behind and doing well is great. All of these are Building Blocks toward getting that real rmament we will need for a concerted response. It would be ideal if we had our biotechnology responses married to have sound married to sound and conference of strategies for a hopefully more of that will be to come. Know that biotechnology is going out for force to try to help us combat this. Absolutely. I think there have been, like you said, some incredible developments that are not the ones that are highlighted in the news but helping to treat the mpacts of the coronavirus. What do you think is the biggest challenge in Public Health right now that you think needs to be overcome for you to be able to use these technologies that oure developing in an effective way . The biggest unknown hanging out there that i hear from a lot of our Member Companies is uncertainty at the federal level. We need to see a smooth transition between administrations to ensure that the u. S. Food and Drug Administration, which has been pivotal to this effort, is esponsible for declaring whether or not any of these therapies are effective they will be critical in not just mapping out who should get he vaccine first, but how we will actually physically get it to all the locations we will need it around the country. Those sorts of efforts cannot lag. They cannot wait on politics. We have to put patients first in this enterprise. We are seeing a massive spike in coronavirus right now. I am not leaving my house. Im fine on this zoom call. You know what i mean . And i think that is going to continue for the next several months. The holidays are coming together and we are all trying to get together for thanksgiving and christmas and all of that. How do you think that that will play a role into the work that we are doing you are doing . It certainly hit home for everyone. Our scientists are not immune from missing their families and rying to homeschool. Everyone is working through restrictions and new realities. I think all of the scientists working on the front lines in our companies are aware of the urgency and want to do everything they can to get the solutions out as fast as possible. It is going to be a hard season. We are used to being together as americans at this time of ear. Not just on the december holidays but also on thanksgiving. This is going to be a virtual celebration, nationally. We will have to find a way to keep hitting home the importance f mass wearing, social distancing, limiting social gatherings and not traveling if it is not absolutely necessary because we are still not out of the woods, even though we see some promising biotech breakthroughs. And so, you have done work for the obama dministration. Do you have any advice for incoming Vice President joe iden on what he can do to, combat kenny and implement these solutions . One of the interesting things i see about how to gear up for transition is the fear of involving a lot of folks that are on the front lines, working towards the solutions. What we do, for example in the fruit and Drug Administration and what we do in our companies that are developing these products and bringing them all the way to the patients bedside is unique. You do not see it in academia or federal labs. It is a unique body of knowledge. I hope that, as we are bringing stakeholders around the table together that we include that body of knowledge together. We have seen it with operation warp speed. One of the leaders has a history of being able to deliver new drugs and solutions to atients. That is what we need to make sure we see as well. I am up to mystic i am optimistic. There is a lot of work yet to be done. Absolutely. We need those solutions. I am trying to go out with my friends. We need to fix this pandemic. I thought is this going to be ne or two weeks and now one or two years . Isnt that the truth . Ou got to be ready to sit in your house for a month or so and now three or four have passed trade is incredible. What is one final take away from your research that you want everybody to remember . The Covid Vaccines have been through more scrutiny and more examination than almost any vaccine in history. While i know folks are worried about the politicization of science, know that there are so many eyes on this process that when we get vaccines out to patients, they will be some of the most trusted vaccines ever and thats important for all of us to remember as we want to return our country to normal. Lets get those vaccines, man. [laughter] thanks so much. Thank you both. Now, we will bring back all five of the speakers. We have about 20 minutes remaining for public speaking which we have been monitoring. Please contribute your questions there. I will ask lee first question. This can go to anyone who wants to chime in. What kind of concerted effort should be made to bring the voice of scientists to the political body . How should this be done . Maybe michelle, since you guys are doing something in that arena . Sure. Scientists are never shy to volunteer. Scientists have great knowledge to bring to bear. And we are trying to renew scientific pride. There has been a disparagement of scientists to Bring Solutions to patients. And its important to understand that they are really doing this to try to improve Public Health. So we need to make sure that voice is included in the table. The public gets to see the hard work and the difficult path that it is to actually develop some soft these drugs and vaccines. One of the things i would add to that is that, for too long, the scientific world and the nonscientific world have not really interacted in a wholesome way. One of the key things that scientists and the public, i say public in general, nonscientists, need to do is engage with each other more. For too long, science has been seen as being in the ivory tower. Think we need that engagement in order to make sure that this is a public dialogue in which everybody can participate. I would like to add something that, there are lots of opportunities for scientists to get more involved in internships. Several agencies in the federal government as a whole. I know that it is a struggle. They are transformative. It changed my course from research, becoming much more involved with how to get back give back and include more science in the political realm. So opportunity abounds, but you have to want to do it. And figure it would be interesting to at least try it out for a while. As a former aaa fellow, i could not agree more. [laughter] i think that it is really important that, in the political world, we see a lack of expertise from the people that are in office. Even at your local City Council Meetings and things like that, i think Civic Engagement from the Science Community is really important to make sure that our elected officials are on track with what the science is aying. In the science and politics area, it is important that our politics are informed by science. I think we have to continue to advocate for that. I would love for it to be automatic but i dont think everyone necessarily trusts cience all the time. When we are dealing with Climate Change, that is really important. Make sure you are doing the proper science work. But the advocacy component, the Civic Engagement component, the storytelling component is super vital. Thank you. Our next question comes from shirley, who says since it is likely that more than one vaccine will be available in 2021, how will the public decide will the average citizen decide which vaccine to take . I can jump in on that. I can save you. [laughter] ill tee it up for you. We will need more than one. We will need many vaccines. We have so many shots on goal. There will be some vaccines that will be more amenable to certain populations than others. There will be some, the elderly sometimes struggle with making a robust immune response. There will be ones that need a single dose like the Johnson Johnson one, as opposed to a dual dose. Ome of them are stable at 70, some can be frozen, some are stable at room temperature. As we think about immunizing the globe, we will need lots of different technologies to get to the finish line. I think you said it really well. I think we need as many vaccines as we can get. It is ok that they are all of different types. Different things will be appropriate for different populations in different circumstances. So as michelle said, the johnson hnson vaccine can be refrigerated. It can be stored, especially with the underprivileged infrastructure challenged places, this will be an easier thing to get to eople. Some of the high tech kinds of measures and vaccines that are available will be appropriate in areas where high tech can be supported. And then the low tech ones are places are low tech where simplification is required. So we need all of them. Great. I will pose two questions that are slightly different but related. Lee mcintyre from Boston University asks, my concern is that despite all of the innovations and breakthrough of science, we are hampered by cience denial. Does anyone know any ways to combat science denial . Scientific illat literacy . I will start with the Scientific Literacy part. The denial, i talked a lot about this in the past. It is not exactly a small portion but the portion of eople who deny it is not the people we want to address. The more popular question is science literacy, how do we embrace the potential people out there who are susceptible to becoming science deniers in the future because they dont know very much . At the state level, i saw a lot bout different states more recently about tremendous opportunities to work with teachers in the state and the governor of the state and put hat on the agenda. Science literacy is really important. I am glad that, through the election, there has been so much emphasis on the importance of science. All the way through. Organizations with the federal government and the federal science agencies, the Scientific Societies, we all need to encourage everybody to become a part of the science literacy genda. Many of us have teachers in the family. They are tuned into science literacy. Only that way can we mitigate the people from becoming science deniers later on. I apologize. It has been such a wonderful conversation. Thank you. I will just say that we need to make science sexy or whatever we want to call it. We need to make science more appealing. It has just been disciplined which a discipline which has been appropriated with difficult to understand concepts and difficult to access people. Therefore, i think if we can make science lay, even the language we speak, that would be a good start. In terms of making it something that is accessible to all and not feeling like it is a privilege of a few, that shipped in mind is what we need. I hope the next generation will play a big role in making that appen. I will say, as the young person here, i think that how we tell these stories and the way e stories are expanding and changing and it gives me both hope and fear. I will start on the hope part because when you see social media, they all have the ability to put forth opinions and tell stories in our own way. Science needs to be a part of that. We need to encourage people learning science even in high school to bring that into other forms of storytelling. We are seeing different entities coming together. My work is in policy staff as well as climate. We have had the ability to work with fashion, celebrity, we takeover of the magazine. Over of v magazine. I am a think about little worried from that same system because we have seen massive disinformation online particularly on facebook around coronavirus and putting a little will only be so effective. We need to start taking action to stop these aco timbers from developing online that are the these these echo chambers from developing online. People want to know where dr. Fauci is and what is up. It is imparted we see more integration of science into all aspects of society. It is nice to see duck their factory on the cover of in style fauci on ther. Cover of in style magazine for example [laughter] magazine for example. [laughter] over 70 million americans how do we reach those people . Think there dont who do notion people accept, so i am not sure about the first part of that sentence but it is clear that there are a lot of people that need to be reached by the kinds of things said to hear. For me personally in this whole election experience, that is what struck me the strongest. My whole life is involved in science and engineering. This election is an invitation question. Ddress that i am going to spend a lot of time thinking about that and dedicating myself to education, outreach and hispanic heritage. Is a very complicated election with respect to the latino populations. There is not a homogenous population but there are millions of them and increasing. Is the way i would like each of us to do to step up. This election has not changed their course but redirected us a changed our course but redirected us a bit to reach people. Once upon a time we were those people as well. I came into science late because i did not have access. Think i thank that person for the question. Tot is something we all need turn our minds to now that the election is over. Look at polls of want, both want to Climate Change. Climate change addressed. It is important we push on these issues because there is a fundamental disconnect in our democracy between what the public is in favor of and what elected officials are willing to put into law. It is more important than ever to actively vocalize your opinion, contact your local officials, and let them know what it is you actually believe so at the end of the day what elected officials put forth is what they think will keep them in office. We have to advocate for science. Science on its own does not advocate. We are the ones who have to push that forward. You can donate to our organization. I will put a link in the chat. We need to get actively engaged and use that science brainpower we have and to translate that into policy lawmaking. How does a novation proceed with all the other limitations imposed by the innovation proceed with all the other limitations imposed by the pandemic . Safety precautions you can use to safely work in the lab. We have been running a lab at running for tilt tilt with nol incidences. And toever strategies revolving schedules you can get quite a bit done even with strict policies in place. It requires you to be more thoughtful with how you deploy your personal but it should not be an obstacle to getting the task done. Great. Any closing thoughts for us . America . Science in it has been great being here. Work together the we can doe been, great things for the future. For me something that has always given me a lot of hope and solace, knowing reality an objective and inherent curiosity. We have talked about coronavirus there are change, but lots of other sciences out there. We important and important we keep exploring the world around us. Thank you for joining us. All our you to wonderful speakers into it to everyone who tuned in. Feel free to follow the Aspen Institute. We have a newsletter. Stay tuned and we hope to see you all again. , everybody. Dayonight on u. N. University of texas at austin professor sarah brain talks day on cue and q a, university at austin professor sarah brain talks. Are purchasing information from privately collected companies. They are using tools like automatic i since plate readers license plate readers. Sarah brain tonight on cspan q a. It heads to the International Space station from rocket heads to the International Space station from cape canaveral. Watch live coverage on cspan. Next to a discussion with a former white house counsels and rm