How tech companies can help combat the pandemic and reshape public health

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.