Out of the Crisis

Remember how fast shelter-in-place went from seeming impossible to becoming a reality? Remember how policy makers all of a sudden appeared to understand what was at stake and take action? How did this happen?Max Henderson was on a sabbatical from his full time role at Google, when he saw the first few COVID cases in the US. At that moment, he realized that we were not acting quickly enough. This led Max to found CovidActNow.org, which started out as a simple calculator to understand how many deaths could result from every day of delay. Pairing this with a large public pressure campaign, Max helped push government leaders to respond to this crisis. I spoke with Max to talk about the early days of CovidActNow, how he came up with his model and what he is focusing on going forward.

Why weren't we ready? There are so many conflicting theories surrounding this idea that it seems hard to answer. But it is not a black box, there is a science to this. In fact, we have been through outbreaks so many times that our lacking response is shocking. To learn more about the history of infectious disease and why we weren't ready I decided to talk to an expert. Dr. Robert Schooley is one of a handful of true infectious disease experts. He has seen numerous outbreaks and spent his entire career in research and treatment of infectious disease. Dr. Schooley and I spoke about the historic lack of resources for the study infectious disease, where we went wrong in this pandemic, and what the path to "normalization" must look like to avoid a relapse.

Lenore Estrada, like many of us, was set up for a good year heading into 2020. She had just broken ground on a new site for her bakery, Three Babes Bakeshop, and was scaling up her operations. Then, everything had to be put on hold. At this moment, Lenore decided to use the tools of entrepreneurship and her experience in the food industry to make a difference. Lenore launched SF New Deal with the goal of providing income for workers and meals for those who have been hurt by COVID-19. Now, SF New Deal has disbursed over $3 million to small businesses and delivered over 300K meals to people in need. Lenore and I spoke about how she started SF New Deal, the broader implications this crisis is having on under-resourced communities, and how we can use her experience as a model for others who want to join the fight.

Robert Rhinehart is most known for Soylent, a company and product he founded in the search for nutrition supported by science. But, Robert has always been interested in technical underpinnings of biology.So, after reading a paper about the effect of COVID on the brainstem, Robert jumped into action. He launched the Corona Initiative, a public benefit corporation dedicated to building the tools for research. These tools, such as a psuedovirus, are required for researchers to run experiments and test treatments. In this conversation Robert and I discussed why basic research is underfunded, what we need to accelerate COVID research and the implications this pandemic could have on biotechnology companies going forward.Some of the resources we discussed are:marsbio.vccorona-initiative.comhttps://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/57309/elife-57309-v3.pdf

After seeing the impact of the SARS pandemic as a child in Hong Kong, Alpha Lee dedicated his life to science. Studying mathematics and biology at some of the most prestigious universities in the world, Alpha has now turned his attention to an area ripe for disruption, preclinical drug discovery.Alpha had just arrived in the bay area for the startup program Y Combinator when the lockdowns for COVID starting. Having been through this before, Alpha knew what he needed to do. Alpha decided to use the technology he had been developing to find promising compounds to fight coronavirus and then open source it. Alpha received thousands of submissions and now the most promising of those are being developed in a lab in the UK. Alpha's message throughout all of this? Let's not waste the opportunity, this time.Resources we discussed:https://postera.ai/covidhttps://www.alpha-lee.com/https://www.gofundme.com/f/covidmoonshothttps://covid19-hpc-consortium.org/projects/5e8be82df1a9290078584cf4

This year, I sat down with Roy Bahat at CogX, a large global technology conference, that this year was completely virtual. Roy and I used this time to reflect on everything that has happened since the start of the pandemic. What many don't know is that a catalyst for the technology industry's response to the crisis in the early days was a WhatsApp group that Roy and I were a part of. We shared what it was like in those early days, how we got involved and what we need to do now to make sure we build a better world on the other side. This is the first ever live tapping of Out of the Crisis. It was recorded on June 9th, 2020.

Fred Turner is a scientist and biotech CEO who, like so many during this crisis, felt an obligation to act when the pandemic hit. In a matter of days and with the help of his friend Celine Halioua, Fred pivoted his startup, found a research lab, and relocated his entire operation from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Now, Fred and his team at Curative are testing thousands for COVID-19. Fred and I discussed his pivot, how he managed to get up and running within days, what those first tests were like, and what more we need to do to get widespread testing adopted in this country.

Jeremy Howard is not a lobbyist, politician or a doctor. He is a data scientist. And yet, he is one of the main reasons that governments across the US are telling citizens to wear masks outside. To understand how this came to be, I spoke to Jeremy about his background, the data supporting masks, other country's experiences with masks, and the various trends the data is showing.

Hannu Rajaniemi is most know for his work as a science fiction author. However, recently, he has taken his talent for seeing the bigger picture and turned it towards finding a solution to the pandemic. In the early days of the crisis, Hannu rapidly pivoted his cancer vaccine startup Helix Nano to focus on developing an mRNA vaccine for COVID-19. But he has as not stopped there. Hannu has also put together a proposal for a Vaccine Manhattan Project, calling for the coordination of public, private and nonprofit sectors to create a vaccine for COVID-19 in a matter of months. This project is ambitious, but it may be the best shot at mitigating the damage the virus could have on our society.  In this episode Hannu and I talk about his background, the biological mechanisms at work when a virus attacks our cells, the different types of vaccines, and the need for a Vaccine Manhattan Project.

Sydney, Frank, and Ryan have been friends for a long time. So when the crisis hit and Sydney was thrown into the frontlines as a pediatric nurse, Ryan and Frank wanted to help.What started out as a pizza party for Sydney's team, has now turned into one of the largest organizations coordinating meals for frontline workers across the US. I asked the three founders of Frontline Foods to share how they got started, the impact they have had so far, and where they want to take the organization from here.Hosted on Breaker.