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Whitney Pennington Rodgers:
Before we really dive in

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to talking specifically about
Google's work

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in the contact tracing space,

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let's first set up, sort of,

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the relationship between
public health and tech.

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You know, I think a lot of people,

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they hear Google and they think of
this big tech company.

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The think of a search engine.

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And there may be questions
about why does Google

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have a chief health officer?

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So could you talk a little bit
about your work

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and the work your team does?

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Karen DeSalvo: Yeah. Well,
maybe I am the embodiment

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of public health in tech.

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Coming together, my background
is I practiced medicine for 20 years,

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though a part of my work
has always been in public health.

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In fact, my first job,
putting myself through college,

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was working at the state laboratory

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in Massachusetts.

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As the story will go, with joy,
wherever you connect it again,

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a Massachusetts theme.

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And I, across the journey
of the work that I was doing

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for my patients

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to provide them information

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and the right care and meet them
where they were medically,

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translated into the work

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that I did when I was
the Health Commissioner in New Orleans

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and later when I had other roles
in public health practice,

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that really is about thinking
of people and community

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in the context in which they live
and how we provide the best information,

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the best resources,

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the best services that are
culturally and linguistically appropriate,

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meet them where they are.

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And when the opportunity arose
to join the team at Google,

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I was really thrilled,

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because one of the things
that I have learned across my journey

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is that having the right
information at the right time

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can make all the difference in the world.
It can literally save lives.

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And billions of people
come to Google every day

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asking for information,

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and so it is a tremendous opportunity
to have that right information

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and those resources to people

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so that they can make good choices,

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so that they can have
the right information,

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so that they can participate
in their own health,

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but also, in the context
of this historic pandemic,

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be a part of the broader health
of the community,

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whether it's to flatten the curve
or keep the curve flat as we go forward.

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WPR: And so it sounds like
that there is this connection, then,

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between public health
and what Google's work is

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in thinking about public education
and providing information.

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And so could you talk
a little bit about that link

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between public health
and public education, and Google.

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KD: Definitely.