They look at Climate Change, covid19 Vaccine Development and science policy priorities for the Biden Administration. Kira thank you everyone for coming. Were going to get started. Thank you for coming to this summit, the future of science in america summit. Now that election day is behind us, we are eager to discuss the highstakes ahead for science and policy as we conclude a devastating year and as we approached 2021. Next slide, please. Chief ofeditor in leapsmag. Its an awardwinning magazine about science and the future of humanity. Our ambition is to critically impact how the public views scientific innovation. We are published by good and up worthy and were grateful for Program Support from leaps by bear. We are thrilled to partner with the Aspen Institute Science Society program for this event. Aaron i am aaron mertz. I am the founding director of the Aspen Institute Science Society program. Science society was established in 2019 with a mission to elevate public trust in science and to help foster a more diverse and engaged scientific workforce. Wed like to acknowledge the generous foundations which have made this event possible. The gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the rita allen foundation. We would also like to thank the general supporters of the Aspen Institute Science Society program and leapsmag. Kira this event accompanies a magazine that aspen and leapsmag and good co. Published last month titled the future of science in america, the election issue. The magazine aspires to promote roadmaps for science as a tool for health, as a vehicle for progress, and as a unifier of our nation. We were thrilled that it was recently positively reviewed in the washington post. You can read it for free on leapsmag and aspin institutes websites. Here are a number of the articles that you can view online if you check out the magazine. Aaron next slide. We are thrilled to have a stellar lineup of experts to discuss the future of science in this country. The format is rotating conversations in which two experts will speak for approximately eight minutes before we move 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. We will conclude the summit at 1 10 p. M. Eastern time. We will have the chat feature open for all attendees if people wish to react to the discussion or share information. To give more time to the speakers, we will not be reading their biographies. Kira we will time each conversations for eight minutes and give notice when there is 30 seconds remaining in each conversation. Aaron our first pair is dr. Michelle mcmurray and dr. Franz cordova. We will bring those two into the spotlight. Kira dr. Mcmurray, you are welcome to kick us off with the first question. Dr. Mcmurray so, i am interested, francis, in how you are seeing this impacting scientific funding. We have seen new models for scientific funding in 2019 and 2020. What does this portend for the future . Dr. Cordova dealing with the covid situation, impacting science funding, michelle . Dr. Mcmurray exactly. Dr. Cordova several agencies are busy. They are doing an admirable job. Theyre doing it mostly at home. I know the National Science foundation, with which i am most familiar, are almost totally doing the reviews and rewards remotely. They are giving out a tremendous number of awards. More than a year ago, perhaps because there was more time to focus. I think that it is working out very well for that particular agency. Also, i have been much more involved in the philanthropic world. 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. The tech foundations are stepping up, realizing the tremendous importance of the continuity of science funding. Dr. Mcmurray there have been so many allegations of political interference in science funding and the covidrelated projects and agendas through this last year. Can public trust in science agencies further the progress of science to the benefit of the public . Dr. Cordova that is an important question, michelle. It is essential that the public trust the science agencies which have been authorized and funded. And have oversight from congress. There have been allegations of political interference in the agenda or projects by some federal agencies. This morning, i was reading a missive by the ceo of sigma phi about how think should be established i know the union of concerned science echoes that, and many media outlets, including those of the Scientific Societies have recorded various instances. I think that the fact so many are concerned about these allegations and that congress is clearly concerned is a healthy sign that the public wants to ensure trust in the science agencies. We want to hold them accountable, want them to be transparent and forthcoming about what they know. That is a good thing for our democracy. Many of the agencies have integrity policies in place. In my term of six years, we did not suffer from political interference. We were able to maintain our mission to further the progress of science. As an executive branch, agencies are 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 of all the agencies. Many of them had published, a few years later, their scientific integrity policies that were consistent with the intent of that memo. Unfortunately, a Government Accountability office study found that there was an uneven application, oversight of the policy. They found that a number of the departments had failed to monitor the compliance with the requirements of the policy. We have a ways to go. Congress is actively proposing requirements for scientific integrity among the agencies. For example, a bear in march of 2019 that would require scientific Training Programs and so on. It had almost 200 supporters in congress. I think this issue you bring up will come to the fore with the new administration. It is an important one. Dr. Mcmurry part of what we are 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 . Dr. Cordova i think covid really brings that question to the fore. Really opens it up. People perhaps who did not think deeply about the scientific process and were confused about why werent there absolutes that we have a cure for this or we said we were going in this direction, why did it take us such a long time, why didnt we get there . The whole progress with covid of understanding treatments, understanding how to do the Data Analysis and contact and the allimportant vaccines. Theyre understanding that it takes a careful, long time for science to address important, big milestones, big goals. We had a number of samples at the National Science foundation that science magazines and newspapers all over the world. The imaging of the black hole and so on, that we were careful to report. These took decades to come to fruition. And teamwork, global teamwork. 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 really reinforce how long it takes and the different steps. Kira about 30 seconds remaining in this conversation. Dr. Mcmurry we are in the midst of a president ial transition season. I participated on the Obama Transition Team many years ago. What would be your advice to the Transition Team coming in to look at ssf right now . Dr. Cordova i think the agency is remarkable in its goals and its progress and its team that has people exceptionally committed to the mission of the agency. My advice is to do no harm. Its 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 be a part of the entire spectrum of science and engineering. Aaron we will bring dr. Mcmurry back at the end. We are happy to have the head of the Global Health office of science and Technology Innovation at Johnson Johnson. 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 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 . Thank you. Im pleased to talk about it. It has been 24 7 since the beginning of this year, when sequence for the coronavirus became available in january. Weve been working fast and furious. Ours is a vaccine that uses the 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. Zika kind of disappeared. The same vaccine is being used in the hiv arena. Its in phase 3 trials across the world, and the ebola vaccine was approved by the European Union last year. We have a huge vaccine expertise. We jumped on it immediately. Where we are today is in phase 3. The studies are ongoing across the world. Trials are ongoing in the United States, in latin america, in south africa and in many countries in europe. It is a singledose vaccine. Fingers crossed, we are hoping to see the results soon. Our goal is to have the first batches of the vaccine available for emergency authorization in early january 2021. We hope to make a billion vaccines per year. Our commitment is to make it available for a notforprofit price. In addition to working with governments, in terms of equitable access and reliable distribution of the vaccine, we are also working with many other people. We recently made a commitment to annotate a 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 assembly where g7 was making a commitment to equitable access across the world. We are really looking forward to the results. And hoping to make a big difference for the world. Dr. Cordova that is wonderful. I am sure everybody is delighted to hear that. Youre the head of global of innovation at Johnson Johnson. In africa, youre trying to encourage some people through something called the next einstain forum, for science and engineers. 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 science. Can you tell us about your efforts, globally, in encouraging young people to become the next einstein . The next madame curie. Ms. Kumar i think as you may know, Johnson Johnson is a global company. It is a Global Network of people and products. If we think about the Johnson Johnson pipeline today, i know everybodys mind is on covid, but we have multiple things for medical solutions and medical devices. As we think about that and we think about the pipeline, we want to be sure about the pipeline. Similarly, the diversity of ideas from across the world sparks innovation. I think we all believe and know that science is not an individual activity. It is a team sport. It is also a national and collaborative enterprise. A great idea can come from anywhere or anyone. We have to be prepared to pounce on those ideas. In those ideas are the solutions to make the world a better place. Dr. Cordova that is just great. Where do you see innovation being required in what you do . Where do you think we have the biggest need for most innovation . Ms. Kumar i think it is across the globe in terms of disease states. I think on the one hand, we are focused on Public Health solutions and infectious diseases. There continues to be a huge need. But the noncommunicable diseases are of great importance, of course. Cancer, heart disease, alzheimers. As of last year, before covid, we all thought that was the next ticking time bomb. It probably still is. As we continue to age and have an aging population across the glove, that is another area. As i think across the whole landscape, we have come a long way in health care. But there are still major challenges to be solved. Disease dont recognize national boundaries. They are human specific. All cardiovascular disease, cancer still remains a huge issue. In that arena, we are excited about gene therapies. Ultimately, where wed all land is in a place where we want more innovation, is the personalized medicine future that we all imagined. Kira 30 seconds remaining. Ms. Kumar for the future, i think it is personalized medicine, but also, in the hands of young scientists all over the world. Dr. Cordova thank you very much. Good luck with that Vaccine Development. Ms. Kumar thank you. Aaron now will be joseph, a professor of biochemistry and biophysics at ucsf. Dr. Cordova hi, joe. I dont see you yet. There you are. Hi, how are you . Im doing great. Dr. Cordova the bio hub, it is a very interdisciplinary type of innovative approach to solving problems. What are some of the things youre working on now . Sure. There are two organizations, the Chanzuckerberg Initiative and the chanzuckerberg bio hub. I am with the bio hub. They are two separate organizations. In this times of covid, you are asking what are we working on or what were we working on precovid and it is ironic. Precovid, the bio hub and the bill and Melinda Gates foundation, we were working on a worldwide, Early Warning for infectious diseases. Kind of ironic. The idea was to leverage biology and infrastructure in low Income Countries by equipping them with technology training. Counterintuitively, the price of analyzing data has actually gone up while the cost to process samples and make sequence has gone down. There are solutions to that. What good is the data if you cannot analyze it . Our solution was ivc. This was precovid. It enables folks in your own country to analyze samples from people, insects, livestock, plants, the environment. Whatever you want. Realtime analsysis 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 Pasteur Institute there that the team in cambodia used the system to detect a chinese tourist with 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 fastforward to 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 adjust the dearth of testing for the most vulnerable populations, prisons, jails. That, we deployed our sequencing technology to be more actionable and useful. We deployed our technology to be to be 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. This effectively leaves a red crumb trail genome that allows you to trace back where the virus has been. This is an amazing tool. Together with the department of health, and our local county partners, 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. This is a real example but im not going to name names. In the sequence data, we saw that they shared identical genomes but they are geographically distant from each other. We know they did not share patients. It immediately led to the conclusion they had to share employees. The department of health was able to find linkages between the facilities to cut transmission short. We need to use every scrap of information we have right now to stop the third transmission of the virus. That is what we are turning our technology to. With thanksgiving coming up, there is already a spike in covid cases. It is going to go even higher. The technology you are talking about, it sounds amazing. It sounds almost sciencefiction like. Given that, why is it that in america where we are one of the most advanced nations, having so much trouble in preventing transmission . There is a lot to unpack. One of the issues here and there are many issues ranging from political all the way down to organizational. Let me address some of the obvious ones. I can speak mostly for california. We are a state of 58 counties. Each county has its own department of Public Health. You have 58 different sets of rows. 58 different ways of doing things. 58 potentially 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. I need 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. Exactly. 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 hands on deck. You need to do what you have to do to get the job done. We dropped all of our research projects. 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 had to be. That is why we spun up a testing laboratory. We got a lot of criticism should a lot of criticism. There is a question of labcorp company, why are you doing this . Everybody has a responsibility in academia and in the Nonprofit Sector who are in science to step up and do what they can in the moment of the emergency to the best of their ability because you cannot sit 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 hiv, this is collaboration on a massive scale. Borders, whatfic can we learn from this sort of collaboration . I hope the lessons we have 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 attack the things that prior to covid were not getting the attention they deserved. Tuberculosis, malaria. Anstill do not have operational drug or vaccine for rsv. D for 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. We are joined by the founder of plus one vote. A Nonprofit Organization dedicated to getting out the vote on issues like Climate Change. How are you doing, dr. And professor. Now that the election is behind us, 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 put a highlight on the Senate Runoffs that are happening in georgia. Right now, we are seeing the control of the senate will come down to what happens in georgia. There are two senate races in georgia where the control of the senate will come down to that. In many ways, the ability for biden to have a cooperative senate depends on when he does with science policy. Whether it be for coronavirus or Climate Change. I want to make sure that we highlight that is not over and that our mission is to make sure we get as many people on the ground in georgia to go out and vote before that senate runoff. When it comes to Climate Change, i think what we have seen over the last few years has been fairly cataclysmic in america in terms of what we are doing for Climate Change. 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. And rightly so but we cannot ignore the main crisis we have. Reviewer forexpert the upcoming ar six report. Clear wemakes it very need to reduce our Carbon Emissions in half by 2030. What that looks like is essentially a 7. 5 percent reduction in emissions every year from 2020 to 2030. It is 2020 and we didnt do anything we are nowhere on track to where we need to be to reach a limited two degree warming in global temperatures. 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. As we are going forward, what we need to see is a much more aggressive effort to push forward an agenda on Climate Change. What we have seen is president elect joe biden say he will reenter the paris accord. I want to note for everybody here 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 stopping, our emissions have significantly 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 of 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 what we have seen over the past two years or even before that. We will not be able to address the Climate Crisis in a significant, meaningful way through a series of executive orders that are pushed through and not really done or followed through in a coherent effort on the ground across utility, the private sector, across transportation in the United States. Lets be provocative for a minute. Lets say the senate is not in. He democrats hands what can the Biden Administration do realistically in that situation on the Climate Change issue . Even in the incidence where right now, the presidency is Biden 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 that works across the treasury, labor, agricultural, interior, across these different sectors. 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 consistent way of bringing those different entities together. Biden would have the ability to do that by creating Additional Office as well as appointing a director in his cabinet. 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. Of course, as we may remember 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 kuebler to emissions in the atmosphere are also increasing. Each year, it gets sniffing cutely worse and our ability to handle the crisis is also getting worse. 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 we are distributing a vaccine or taking care of Different Development of fossil fuels and other environmental injustice issues, he has the ability to highlight and prioritize those communities that have suffered the most. I think that there is a lot that he can do. In particular, i believe in the last president ial debate, fracking became a big thing. 30 seconds remaining. I want to emphasize if we are going to reduce our emissions, we cannot be creating fossil fuel developments. Especially with the understanding every pipeline that is under proposal would ultimately by projection, it is set out to be out for 20 to 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 more action oriented things. I 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 that. We will bring back dr. Mcmurry heath. Hello, dr. Mcmurry heath. Thank you for staying on with us. 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. What can we look forward to seeing, obviously the pfizer Vaccine Developments have been a big thing in the news. Can you give us a look at what is to come . We have a small but mighty team, 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. We think it is incredibly important and Environmental Justice is so key. The part of making sure we have more Equitable Society and scientific breakthroughs in all those areas that reach communities in need most effectively and immediately. In covid, the response by our Member Companies has been amazing. In the 10 months since the pandemic came onto the stage our , companies have started over 800 research and Development Programs all focused on finding therapeutics or vaccines to fight covid. In development. We hear a lot about the top 10 in the final stages. The news this week from pfizer showing their vaccine is showing incredible efficacy. Moderna last night from that their vaccine is shortly behind and doing well is great. We are also working on a a lot of promising therapeutics. This week, we, and emergency use authorization that allows for a of the antibody cocktail to combat covid. All of these are Building Blocks toward getting that real armament we will need for a concerted response. It would be ideal if we had our biotechnology responses married to sound and Public Health measures as well to prevent the spread of covid and hopefully more of that will be to come. Just know that biotechnology is not asleep at the wheel. It is going out full 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 impacts 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 youre 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 responsible for declaring whether or not any of these therapies are or event therapies or vaccines are effective. , which has developed the entire distribution particle for Covid Vaccines, they will be critical in not just mapping out who should get the 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 flag. They cannot wait on politics. We have to put patients first. We are seeing a massive spike in coronavirus right now. I think that is going to continue for the next several months. The holidays are coming together. We are all trying to get there get together for thanksgiving. How do you think that will play a role in the work you are doing with bios . It certainly hit home for everyone. Scientists are not immune from seeing their families and missing their children and trying to homeschool. Everyone is working through these restrictions and new realities. All of the scientists working in the front lines and our companies are aware of the urgency and want to do everything they can to get the solution out as fast as possible. It is going to be a hard season. We are used to being together as americans. This is going to be a virtual celebration. 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 administration. You also work at the fda. Advice for any incoming Vice President joe biden on what he can do to combat coronavirus and implement these solutions you are creating . One of the interesting things i see in the conversations about how to get up for the transition is the fear of involving a lot of folks that are on the front lines of working toward these solutions. What we do in the food 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, we include that body of knowledge. 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 patients. That is what we need to make sure we see as well. I am very optimistic. I have hopes it is going to be a great new day but there is still a lot of work still to be done. Absolutely. We need those solutions. I am trying to go out with my friends. At first i thought, is this going to be one or two weeks, one or two months and now it is one or two years. You got ready to sit in your house for a month or so and now three or four months have passed and now even more. It is incredible. One final take away from your research that you want everyone to walk away from here and 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 developed. That is important for us all to remember as we try to return our country to normal. Lets get those vaccines. [laughter] thanks so much. Now, we will bring back all five of the speakers. We have about 20 minutes remaining for a public q a which , we have been monitoring. Please continue to contribute your questions there. 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 . Should it be new alliances or parallel efforts and how should this be done . Maybe michelle, since you guys are doing something in that arena . Sure. Scientists are never shy to volunteer. We have had the privilege of working together before. Scientists have great knowledge to bring to bear. We are trying to renew scientific pride. There has been new disparagement. A lot of the scientists who work in the industry to Bring Solutions to patients. It is important to understand they are doing this to try to improve Public Health. We need to make sure that voice is included in the table. And the public gets to see the hard work and the difficult path it is to actually develop some of 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. I think that 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. I 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 involved like through internships and policy work. The federal agencies, the federal government as a whole needs a lot more people to step up and become part of it with greater diversity and backgrounds and experiences to help out. I know that it is a struggle to encourage people to apply for these additions but they are transformative. I took one when i was young as nasas chief scientist and it changed my course from research to a policy event and becoming much more involved with how to give back and include more science in the political realm. Abounds but you have to want to do it. I think it would be interesting to try it out for a while. As a former aaa fellow, i could not agree more. [laughter] thatwould also like to add 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 the local City Council Meetings and things like that and i think Civic Engagement from the Science Community is really important to make sure that our elected officials are staying on track with what the science is saying. As someone who is light, in the science area but also the politics area, i think it is important our politics are informed 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 science 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 average citizen decide which vaccine to take . I can jump in on that. We will need more than one. We will need many vaccines. It is fantastic 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. Vaccines that include might be the right one for them. There will be ones that need a single dose like the Johnson Johnson one, as opposed to a dual dose. Some of them are only 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. 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 but also in different circumstances. As michelle said, the Johnson Johnson vaccine, it can be stored in regular refrigeration. Especially with the underprivileged and under resourced infrastructure challenged places this will be , an easier thing to get to people. We will need all of those. Ist will end up happening some of the hightech kinds of measures and vaccines that are available will be appropriate in environments where high tech can be supported. The lowtech ones will end up being places where low technology is required. We need all of them. Great. I will pose two questions that are slightly different but related. Lee mcintyre from Boston University says, my concern is that despite all of the innovations and breakthrough of science, we are hampered by science denial. Anyone know industry efforts to combat science denial . Is theuston asks, what greatest strategy for increasing Scientific Literacy and who should lead that effort . 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 people who deny science is relevant to their life 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 . There, i think it is the responsibility of everybody. At the state level, i saw a lot about different states more recently, there is tremendous opportunity to work with universities, in the state and the governor of the state and put that on the agenda that 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. All kinds of 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 agenda. I personally am thrilled many of us have teachers in the family. I have several among my children. They are tuned into the importance of science literacy for the young ones that they teach because only that way can we mitigate the people from becoming science deniers later on. I apologize. I was always going to have to leave it. It has been such a wonderful conversation. It was wonderful to meet with you. 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 a discipline which has been appropriated with words,lt to understand difficult understand concepts and difficult to access people. Therefore, i think if we can make science, even the language we speak in the media and images we portray of science, 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 shift in mindset is what we need. I hope the next generation will play a big role in making that happen. I will say, as the young person here, i think that how we tell these stories and the way we tell the stories are expanding and changing. I think it gives me both hope and fear. I will start on the hope part. Right now, we see social media. We all have a voice and we have the ability to put forward our opinions and tell stories in our own way. I think science needs to be a part of that. We need to encourage people who are learning science, even if they are in high school, to start bringing the expertise and ideas into other fields and other forms of storytelling. As we are going forward, we are seeing different entities come together. Even my work is in policy stuff, voting as well as climate. As we have been doing that, we have had the ability to work with fashion and celebrity. We recently had the ability to do a takeover of a magazine. Heres our cover of taylor swift and a bunch of other people talking about engagement and getting out there and reaching millions of people online. We need to think about how we can change our modes of storytelling and bring together these different sectors so that, at every level, people understand what is happening with science. What is happening with coronavirus and what is happening with Climate Change. I am also worried because, we have seen massive, massive disinformation online, particularly on facebook around coronavirus. Putting a flag on a post that says here is a link to the cdc will only be so effective. I think it is important that as we move forward, we start taking action to stop these echo chambers from developing online that are allowing the breeding of subcultures who are antivaxists. Or who are against science and do not believe in Climate Change. It is important we take action allowt and continue to for real science to be integrated into our communication. I am hoping that what happens as a result of the pandemic is that people care what scientists have to say. People want to know where dr. Fauci is. I think it is important we continue to see more efforts like that and more integration of science into all aspects of our society. It is nice to see dr. Fauci on the cover of in style magazine. As an example. [laughter] talk about popularization of science. That was great. There are so many questions that we wont have time to answer. I think it is such an incredibly important question. Go for it. Dr. [indiscernible] how do you reach those people . I am not sure about the first part of that sentence. It is really clear that there are a lot of people that have to be reached. That is something that for me personally in this whole election experience, that is what struck me. My whole life is involved in science and engineering. Are on thislike call and listening to it. I think this election is an invitation to us to address that question. I personally am going to spend a lot of time thinking about that and devoting myself to education into hispanic not rich and to it is a very complicated election with respect to the latino population. They are not a homogeneous population. There are millions of them, and they are increasing. Like my nowmuch deceased parents, each of us is a personal thing we can step up to and i think this election has not changed our course but we directed us a bit to reach out to people that do not perhaps have not enjoyed the access, the outreach that we have enjoyed. And once upon a time, we were those people as well. And i know i came into science late because i did not have access. I was able to get it. I thank that person for the question, and i think it is something we need to turn our minds to now that the election is over. And i would add to that, when you look at every paul looking at what democrats and republicans want the majority of , each side want action on Climate Change, want a vaccine and action on coronavirus. I do not think believing in science necessarily Falls Along Party Lines even though you may see messaging from certain leaders, and i think that is really important that is why it is so important that we continue to push and engage on these issues because there is a fundamental disconnect in our democracy between where the public once and is in favor of ny elected officials are willing to put forth and make into law. That is why it is really important. It is more important than ever to actively vocalize your opinions, contact your representative, contact your local officials and let them know what you believe so, at the end of the day, what our politicians will put forth is what they think will keep them in office, so it is up to us to actively advocate for the science. Science on its own does not advocate. It just is the reality of what is happening. We have to be the ones that do the work and push it forward. If youre looking for how to do that, you can join us at plus1vote. Or donate to our organization. I will put a link in the chat. I think it is really important now we get engaged and actively use that science brainpower we have and translate that into policymaking. Last question from paul. How does science information proceed with social distancing and other limitations imposed by the pandemic . Maybe dr. Derisi, you could kick us off. Dr. Derisi yes, it can. There are a lot of safety precautions you can use to safely work in the lab. We have been running the lab 24 7 since march at full tilt. Knock on wood we have had no incidents. That is because we have very strict mask wearing, social distancing, you cannot have people in the same room with clever strategies and revolving schedules, you can get quite a lot done, even with strict policies in place. It just requires you to be a little more clever, little more thoughtful on how you deploy your personnel and how they Work Together, but it should not be an obstacle to getting the task done. Great. Any closing thoughts for us in our last two minutes, the future of science in america . Dr. Derisi well, im hopeful. And it has been great being here. I think if we can Work Together as scientists and collaborators across all sectors on the pandemic, we can do great things for the future. And i think that science is, for me, something that has always given me a lot of hope and solace in knowing there is an objective reality and an inherent curiosity to everything that is happening around us. Of course we are talking a lot about the implications of the science from coronavirus climate , change and all these other issues, but there is a lot more science out there. I am hopeful that, in all these different fields, astrophysics to botany or whatever, that we continue engaging with science. It is important that we keep exploring the world around us and uncover the mysteries of the world. So thank you for joining us. On that note, thank you so much to all of our wonderful speakers and everyone who tuned in. Feel free to follow leapsmag and the Aspen Institute. They both have a newsletter. We hope to do more events together. Please stay tuned and we hope to see you all again. Thank you all so much. Bye now. Thank you so much. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] we will discuss policy issues that impact you. Coming up tuesday morning, bill is sure of share our strength discusses how the covid19 pandemic has exacerbated Food Insecurity in the United States. The Heritage Foundation talks about their recent 2021 index of the u. S. Military staff report. Watch cspans washington journal live at 7 00 eastern tuesday morning. Be sure to join the discussion with their phone calls, facebook comments, Text Messages and tweets. Tuesday, the Nevada State Supreme Court meets to certify the States Election results. Watch on cspan, c spend our group with the free cspan radio app. Tuesday, president elect jode biden and Vice President elect Kamala Harris will name key Foreign Policy and national urity personnel into including tony blinken as secretary of state, Jake Sullivan as arsenal security advisor and april haynes as