Hi everyone, I'm Katie Curric and this is Next Question.

My company Katie Curric Media wouldn't get to do all the cool things we do,

like bringing this podcast, if it weren't for the really innovative, smart, and forward-thinking

companies we're lucky enough to partner with. One of those partners is the Bio Pharmaceutical

Company Merck. And on this sponsored episode of Next Question, I'm sharing a conversation I had

with Merck's Executive Vice President and Chief Patient Officer, Dr. Julie Gerberdeen.

I got to know Dr. Gerberdeen when she was head of the CDC. She really knows her stuff.

We also work closely together on calling cancer awareness back in the day.

As a company with a long legacy of research and infectious disease, Merck has been in the

thick of the COVID crisis, mobilizing its scientific expertise to help address the pandemic.

So in this conversation, Dr. Gerberdeen and I look at the pandemic's lasting impact on public health

and how we can better prepare for the next one.

I wanted to ask you on a personal level as we approach the summer of 2021, how are you feeling?

I'm cautiously optimistic. I believe in the value of the vaccines and I think we're going to see

pockets of really high protection, but I think we're also going to see occasional hot spots.

And that's the thing that scares me the most.

I know that it's hard to even speculate about this, Dr. Gerberdeen, but how concerned

to are you about a variant that will not be susceptible to the vaccine? Because honestly, that's what

I think about and I'm sure that's probably one of the reasons you're cautiously optimistic.

That's exactly right. We have the virus and the variants versus the vaccine and vigilance.

And these variants are predictable surprises, but we've been seeing them emerge even before we

put the virus under vaccine pressure or we hope in the future more antiviral pressure.

...