Your vaccine questions deserve real answers | Kizzmekia Corbett | Your Body on Tech
TED Talks Daily
TED
4.1 • 12.1K Ratings
🗓️ 24 June 2026
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What good is a vaccine people don't trust? Immunologist and TED Fellow Kizzmekia Corbett co-developed the first COVID-19 vaccine to enter clinical trials — but she'll tell you that making the vaccine was never the hardest part. The real obstacle is the gap between scientists and the people who have honest questions about the shots they're being asked to take. She shares a refreshing approach for taking on vaccine inquisitiveness and ensuring that humanity is ready for the next pandemic. And stick around after her talk for a deep dive conversation with our guest host for the week, author and podcaster Manoush Zomorodi, into the ideas she shared on stage and beyond.
This is episode three of a seven-part series airing this week on TED Talks Daily, where Manoush — and the seven speakers she curated for TED2026 — explore how you can live a healthier life in our high-tech era.
To hear more from Manoush, listen to TED Radio Hour wherever you get your podcasts. Check out her new book, Body Electric, to learn more about the hidden health costs of the digital age
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas and conversations to spark your curiosity every day. |
| 0:11.2 | Hello, I am Manus Shumeroody. I am a journalist, author, two-time TED speaker. |
| 0:16.7 | You may know my voice because I host the TED Radio Hour podcast over on NPR. |
| 0:21.6 | This week, I am taking over for Elise Hugh with a little something special. |
| 0:25.6 | A series of episodes all about how you can live a healthier life in our high-tech era. |
| 0:32.7 | So why me? |
| 0:33.9 | Well, because I had the honor of guest curating a session at the recent TED-2020s conference, |
| 0:40.4 | and I focused on my obsession, which is tech, the human body, and what is keeping us human in this |
| 0:47.9 | digital age? Every day this week, we are bringing you one of these talks from my session, |
| 0:53.1 | followed by a conversation with that speaker to go deeper. |
| 0:58.1 | Today, Kizmikia Corbett. |
| 1:00.8 | She is a viral immunologist at the Harvard T. Chan School of Public Health, who served as scientific lead on the Moderna COVID vaccine. |
| 1:10.5 | So this vaccine was developed in a world record. served as scientific lead on the Moderna COVID vaccine. |
| 1:17.1 | So this vaccine was developed in a world record-breaking 66 days. |
| 1:24.4 | But Kizmikia is really candid about what she and her team did wrong when it came to rolling out the vaccine to the public, many of whom were skeptical. |
| 1:28.5 | And the truth of the matter is that vaccinologists like myself had long ignored this population of people |
| 1:34.1 | who just were not going to take vaccines for one reason or the other. |
| 1:38.6 | We were too busy publishing our data in world-renowned journals, kind of talking to ourselves. |
| 1:43.7 | So how do we build back the public's trust in science and medicine, especially considering |
| 1:49.6 | the recent outbreaks of hantavirus and Ebola? |
| 1:53.5 | What is the role of the people making the vaccines in connecting with the people who don't |
| 1:59.8 | believe that what she does is even legitimate. |
... |
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