Whitney Pennington Rodgers: Before we really dive in
to talking specifically about Google's work
in the contact tracing space,
let's first set up, sort of,
the relationship between public health and tech.
You know, I think a lot of people,
they hear Google and they think of this big tech company.
The think of a search engine.
And there may be questions about why does Google
have a chief health officer?
So could you talk a little bit about your work
and the work your team does?
Karen DeSalvo: Yeah. Well, maybe I am the embodiment
of public health in tech.
Coming together, my background is I practiced medicine for 20 years,
though a part of my work has always been in public health.
In fact, my first job, putting myself through college,
was working at the state laboratory
in Massachusetts.
As the story will go, with joy, wherever you connect it again,
a Massachusetts theme.
And I, across the journey of the work that I was doing
for my patients
to provide them information
and the right care and meet them where they were medically,
translated into the work
that I did when I was the Health Commissioner in New Orleans
and later when I had other roles in public health practice,
that really is about thinking of people and community
in the context in which they live and how we provide the best information,
the best resources,
the best services that are culturally and linguistically appropriate,
meet them where they are.
And when the opportunity arose to join the team at Google,
I was really thrilled,
because one of the things that I have learned across my journey
is that having the right information at the right time
can make all the difference in the world. It can literally save lives.
And billions of people come to Google every day
asking for information,
and so it is a tremendous opportunity to have that right information
and those resources to people
so that they can make good choices,
so that they can have the right information,
so that they can participate in their own health,
but also, in the context of this historic pandemic,
be a part of the broader health of the community,
whether it's to flatten the curve or keep the curve flat as we go forward.
WPR: And so it sounds like that there is this connection, then,
between public health and what Google's work is
in thinking about public education and providing information.
And so could you talk a little bit about that link
between public health and public education, and Google.
KD: Definitely.
You know, the essential public health services
include communication and data, and these are two areas
where tech in general, but certainly Google,
has the opportunity to partner with the public health system
and with the public for their help more broadly.
You know, going back to the earlier days of this pandemic,
towards the end of January,
Google first leaned in
to start to put information out to the public
about how to find resources in their local community,
from the CDC or from other authoritative resources.
So on the search page, we put up knowledge panels,
is the way that we describe it,
and we did develop an SLS alert,
which is something we've done for other crises,
and in this particular historic crisis,
we wanted to be certain
that when people went on to search,
that there was authoritative information,
which is always there but certainly very prominently displayed,
and do that in partnership with public health authorities.
So we began our journey really very much in an information way
of making certain that people knew how to get the right information
at the right time to save lives.
I think the journey for us over the course of the last few months
has been to continue to lean in
on how we provide information and partnership with public health authorities
in local areas,
directing people in a certain state to their state's health department,
helping people get information about testing.
There's also been, though,
a suite of resources that we wanted to provide to the health care community,
whether that was for health care providers that may not have access to PPE.
For example, we did a partnership with the CDC Foundation.
Though the scale of the company,
and the opportunity for us to partner with public health
around things like helping public health understand if their blunt policies
around social distancing to flatten the curve
were actually having an impact on behavior in the community.
That's our community mobility reports.
We were asked by public health agencies all across the world,
including some of my colleagues here in the US,
could we help them have a better evidence-based way to understand
the policies around social distancing or shelter in place?
Which I think we'll talk about more later.
In addition to that sort of work, also been working to support public health
in this really essential work they're doing for contact tracing,
which is very human resource intensive,
very complex,
incredibly important to keep the curve flat
and prevent future outbreaks,
and give time and space for health care and importantly science
to do the work they need to do to create treatments
and, very importantly, a vaccine.
So that work around providing an additional set of digital tools,
exposure notification for the contact tracing community,
is one of the other areas where we've been supporting the public health.
So we think, as we've thought about this pandemic,
it's support the users,
which is the consumer.
There's also a health care system and a scientific community
where we've been partnering.
And then, of course, public health.
And for me, I mean, Whitney,
this is just a wonderful opporutnity
for Big Tech to come together with the public health infrastructure.
Public health, as Joy was sort of articulating before,
is often an unsung hero.
It saves your life every day, but you didn't know it.
And it is also a pretty under-resourced part of our health infrastructure
globally but especially in the US.
It's something I worked on a lot before I came to Google.
And so the opportunity to partner
and do everything that we can as a company,
and in this case with contact tracing in partnership with Apple
to create a very privacy-promoting, useful, helpful product
that is going to be a part of the bigger contact tracing
is something that we feel really proud of
and look forward to continuing to work with public health.
In fact, we were on the phone this morning with a suite of public health groups
from across the country,
listening again to what would be helpful, questions that they have.
And as we think about rolling out the system,
this is the way that we've been for the last many months at Google,
and I'm just really,
I landed at a place
just a few months ago -- I just started at Google --
where we can have an impact on what people know
all across the world,
and I"ll tell you, as a public health professional, and as a doc,
that is one of the most critical things.
People need to have the right information
so that they can help navigate their health journey,
but also especially in this pandemic because it's going to save lives.
WPR: It's great. Thank you.