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Chasing Life

Vaccine Warrior Kizzmekia Corbett

Chasing Life

CNN

Nutrition, Health & Fitness, Mental Health

4.58K Ratings

🗓️ 10 December 2020

⏱️ 21 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Kizzmekia Corbett is a 34-year-old viral immunologist, and she might help save the world. She leads the coronavirus vaccine research at the National Institutes of Health, and the mRNA vaccine they’ve developed in collaboration with Moderna has reported an astounding 94.5% efficacy. CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta talks to Corbett about her groundbreaking research, the pressures of a global pandemic and her suggestions for those trying to battle vaccine hesitancy.  To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

My love for science and solving problems came from childhood. I was the student who would

0:08.1

not leave a math problem unsolved. I won regional science fairs all the way from elementary

0:14.0

school and onward and so asking questions about the way the world turns essentially. I like

0:21.3

to think of it as like my purpose in life.

0:25.1

It's Kizmikiya Corbett. She likes to go by Kizzi. She's the lead scientist for coronavirus

0:30.6

vaccine research at the National Institutes of Health.

0:34.0

It became clear to me that for every single thing that I've read in a textbook about science,

0:40.3

someone had to discover that and I wanted to be one of those people. That for a line in a textbook,

0:46.9

which hopefully mRNA 1273 will be at some point, there's someone who discovered that thing and

0:55.2

helps to drive that theory forward. And so it's just a love of discovery.

1:01.4

Corbett is only 34 years old, but already her unstoppable curiosity has led her to some pretty

1:07.5

significant scientific discoveries. She is the top scientist behind Maderna's new mRNA vaccine,

1:14.2

which was submitted to the FDA last week and is expected to receive emergency use authorization

1:20.0

as soon as next week. On today's podcast, I talked to Corbett about her life, her research,

1:26.8

and the exciting potential of this new vaccine. I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta,

1:32.3

CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent, and this is coronavirus, fact for suspension.

1:37.6

My next guest is the lead researcher into trying to develop a coronavirus vaccine in the National

1:47.2

Institute of Health. Joining me now is Kismikia Corbett, backward. That's also Dr. Sanjay Gupta,

1:51.7

who I know is going to be asking you questions as well, Dr. Anderson Cooper and I spoke to Corbett

1:56.7

back in April. That's when the pandemic was still relatively new in the United States,

2:01.5

and a vaccine seemed like a far off dream. I know I'm sure you get this question from anybody you

2:06.8

meet who finds out what you do. Any idea when a vaccine assuming that this vaccine works when

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