Dr. Bob calls up Dr. Julie Gerberding to address vaccines, the CDC, and how public trust factors into both. Julie has vast experience with all of those topics, having served as president of Merck vaccines and also as CDC director under George W. Bush, the first woman to serve in that role. First, Bob and Julie discuss the vaccine rollout, how the variants may affect things, and Merck's failed efforts to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. Then, an important discussion about the CDC, and how to avoid politics from interfering with science in the future. Plus, the lifelong lessons she learned about infectious diseases during the HIV epidemic as Bob's Chief Resident at UCSF in the 80s.

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Check out these resources from today’s episode: 

• Read this op-ed from Julie Gerberding and other former CDC directors about how President Biden can rebuild public trust in the CDC: https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/cdc-was-damaged-marginalization-politicization-how-biden-can-fix-it-ncna1254135 
• Learn more about Julie’s experience caring for patients with AIDS at San Francisco General Hospital in the 1980s: https://www.merck.com/stories/lessons-from-dual-pandemics/ 
• Check out this article about Merck’s decision to stop developing its two COVID vaccine candidates: https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/01/25/960294852/merck-stops-developing-both-of-its-covid-19-vaccine-candidates 
• Learn more about Dr. Bob Wachter and the UCSF Department of Medicine here: https://medicine.ucsf.edu/

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