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Dear NFL Alumni,
Welcome to NFL Alumni Health Newsletter, featuring CuraLink, a newsletter and interview series produced by the Cura Foundation that highlights critical issues in human health, unmet medical needs and the emerging innovations and technologies directed to address them. Each month, the world ’ s leading scientists, physicians, industry leaders, regulators and experts share potential solutions and exciting breakthroughs with our global community. Industry veterans also discuss ways to harness lessons learned to build a healthier future for all.
This month, we are honored to share an inspiring conversation with Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett. If you don ’ t already know, Dr. Corbett is one of the brilliant scientists responsible for the development of the life-saving COVID-19 vaccines. Dr. Corbett tells us how the universe aligned for her to combine her background in academic research, public health and health equity during the pandemic.
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A conversation with Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett
As SARS-CoV-2 swept the globe, Dr. Corbett and her team at the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institutes of Health rushed to design an effective vaccine against it. Just 66 days after the viral sequence was released, her team rapidly deployed the concept to industry partner Moderna for a Phase 1 clinical trial. The vaccine was shown to be 94.1% effective in Phase 3 clinical trials and went on to prevent severe disease and death for hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. Every step of the way, Dr. Corbett leveraged science for the public good — building trust in communities of color and combating misinformation on the national stage. She continually looks at the “ bigger picture ” beyond her lab and reminds each of us to use our talents to benefit all. Now, at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Dr. Corbett will continue to propel novel vaccine development for pandemic preparedness. The COVID-19 emergency may be over, but the legacy of Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett will live on. What inspired you to pursue a career in science and public health? Was there an experience that cemented your choice in becoming a viral immunologist? Initially, I was inspired by my mentor during my first internship when I was 16. At the time, I had no idea that he was a world-renowned scientist who
Kizzmekia Corbett, PhD, Assistant Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; Shutzer Assistant Professor, Harvard Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study; Associate Member, Phillip T. and Susan M. Ragon Institute and Former Research Fellow, Vaccine Research Center, National Institutes of Health
was also incredibly humble. He operated like an academic on a day-to-day basis, speaking, teaching or doing research. Every day, he was doing something different. He was a very dynamic person, and I was inspired by that to pursue a career in science. From a public health perspective, I realized in college that science can only do so much without public outreach, uptake and understanding. So I aspired to intertwine science and public health in my career. As for where viral immunology came from, I was in college from 2004 through 2008 during the HIV epidemic. It was very interesting to live in Baltimore, which is almost always in the top three U.S. cities for HIV infections and death. I saw what HIV was doing in the same way that many burgeoning scientists are seeing what coronaviruses are doing, which is sparking their interest. So I interned at the Vaccine Research Center ( VRC ) at the National Institutes of Health, because I felt like it would be good to study viruses. I ended up not studying HIV for multiple reasons and focused on other viruses like respiratory syncytial virus and later went to graduate school to work on dengue. My interest in coronaviruses was really piqued by the gap in the field. In 2014, the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus was heavily circulating in the Middle East. It became very clear that it could cause a pandemic. But the VRC was about to shut down its vaccine program for coronaviruses since, without a global need, there was not a high demand for that type of product. I felt like I was in the right place to work on something that wasn ’ t in high demand for which my interests really fit. It almost felt like the universe aligned. I ’ ve never opted to work on the “ sexiest virus ” at any time. I work on the thing that needs to be worked on. Neglected viruses are generally what attract me. How did each of these experiences inform the next? There was a point during the pandemic where I noticed all of my interests culminating. Take vaccine enhancement. This occurs when a vaccine can actually make you more sick if you get infected, because it causes you to develop a bigger infection. So in dengue, for example, you make a certain type of antibody that ’ s not protective. It still binds to the virus, but instead of binding, neutralizing and killing it, the antibody binds to it and brings it closer to the cell. Then the virus goes into a cell that it normally wouldn ’ t go into, and you get a superinfection.
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There was fear that the COVID-19 vaccine might cause you to make those types of antibodies because of some very old, antiquated and, frankly, untrue data. Vaccine enhancement doesn ’ t happen with coronaviruses, but it can occur in dengue, which I spent 5 years of graduate school studying. So when we had to prove that it would not happen with coronaviruses, I realized my dengue background overlaps with this moment. Meanwhile, the social aspects of health were overlapping, too, because Black and Brown people were becoming sicker and dying more from COVID-19. There was also the outreach portion to my work, which I was doing all along, but particularly in college around HIV. I think back to when I agreed to go on TV for the first time in mid-April 2020. The numbers around racial and ethnic disparities and the outcomes of COVID-19 were starting to come out and I realized: I need to talk. People need to see my face. They need to know that we ’ re working on this vaccine. People need to feel a little bit of hope. Some might say that when it comes to these viruses or diseases that science and public health are not that connected. But it all came together during the pandemic. I felt like I was supposed to be there. Your work at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases laid the groundwork for Moderna ’ s COVID-19 vaccine, which saved millions from severe disease and death. Initially, how did it feel when you realized the vaccine was effective? The moment was mid-February or so when we got the first animal data back. It ’ s simple: you vaccinate mice and then you test their blood to see how many antibodies they have against the virus. And we saw a very whopping response. We realized that the vaccine was doing something. When I rewatch that first TV
appearance on CNN in April, I feel like I may have come off a little bit hopeful and confident in saying: “ We ’ ll have a vaccine. Don ’ t worry. ” But I had seen the data, which the world hadn ’ t yet. That moment set the stage for the amount of hope I had going forward. It was hard to work in those conditions with isolation and the world shutting down ... at one point there were 3,000 people dying per day. But we knew we had something, so we kept pushing.
People and organizations often suffer from “ pandemic amnesia ” as outbreaks resolve. What lessons do you hope the scientific community and the general public will learn from the COVID-19 pandemic? How do we prevent another pandemic? One of the most important lessons that I want the scientific community to understand is that our work is bigger than us. Oftentimes, as scientists, we are so focused on a single question. There are people who spend 30 years working on one protein or gene, for example. Young Dr. Corbett in the lab
“ We always have to look at the bigger picture. ”
The pandemic helped a lot of virologists, immunologists, public health practitioners and doctors out of their immediate comfort zone and forced them to look at the big picture. Many people who were studying HIV, influenza or other viruses could easily transfer their work into coronaviruses. But they would have never thought about it previously.
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Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett with Barney Graham, MD, PhD, a physician-scientist, immunologist and former Deputy Director at the Vaccine Research Center. Drs. Corbett and Graham were recognized as Federal Employees of the Year in 2021, receiving the Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals for their work developing the COVID-19 vaccines while at the National Institutes of Health
The other lesson is how important our voices are. Hearing a scientist talk about their results directly on CNN was something I had never seen before. There is a different ring to that. I think that the public really appreciated that. We have a long way to go, but I do think that we made some progress on science communication. For the general public, I want people to take heed of what it means to critically think through your health decisions. A pandemic is a very sensitive time. Every single day, you had a choice of whether to be isolated or not. You had a choice to go into crowds with or without a mask. You had a choice to heed guidelines or not or to take a vaccine or not. Every decision is an individual risk assessment. Oftentimes, the best way to determine the risk is to process what you know and attempt to work through what you don ’ t know by asking questions or finding the answer through research. I don ’ t think that we had ever experienced that critical thinking on this scale or frequency. The pandemic presented a very immediate life or death scenario and made people more cognizant of their health. We should keep that critical attitude. Do you think misinformation makes that difficult for people? Absolutely. It ’ s critical for people to understand how to find and discern information, as well as distinguish between credible and non-credible sources. In the early days of the vaccine rollout, there was a supposed nurse who claimed that she had gotten Bell ’ s palsy from her vaccination. She made a viral video. But it was fake, and people reposted it without thinking. One viewer searched the online nurse registry and discovered that this nurse didn ’ t exist. It ’ s those very simple fact-checking tactics that we have to make people aware of. You would very seldom hear a scientist say this, but misinformation has a place. For everything that is true, there is something out there that is false. It would be unfair for scientists to think that we could be allowed on these huge platforms with our data and what we consider to be the truth without other people being allowed to share
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what they consider to be true. Sometimes there is malintent, but often people actually believe what they believe because of anecdotes they hear. So I am a fan of platforms being open. It is on each of us to make sure that we discern information appropriately. It is also on our educational systems and communities to make sure we teach discernment. How do we most effectively fight misinformation? During the pandemic, if I got on Twitter to correct something, for example, there were 20 people coming at me from all different angles. They didn ’ t hold back. They attacked the science, and they also attacked the person. Oftentimes, scientists, doctors, public health practitioners and the government thought we flew above that. But there comes a point where you can ’ t. We don ’ t have to be combative or talk down to people, but we do have to directly correct mistruths. We should say I ’ m from the President ’ s office — and that is not the same as a quasi- expert. Sometimes we were too timid or too politically correct in our approach to misinformation. With the political climate and real-time access to information, that can be read as unknowing. How can we prevent another pandemic? There are multiple layers to how a pandemic starts. The truth is that this pandemic could have been prevented. Maybe the spillover or those initial infections could not have but the full spread could have been prevented had we locked down sooner or been quicker to identify the virus prior to it emerging in humans. That is the key: having some level of surveillance of zoonotic reservoirs, whether it be bats or farm animals or other animal populations. Making sure that we ’ re on top of emerging viruses is a hefty task. It isn ’ t so fun, from a scientific perspective, because 99.9% of the time, you don ’ t find anything. But some really good surveillance of zoonotic reservoirs will help us to identify risks and be more aware of the changes. In health care, if the emergency room or intensive care units look different week to week, then something ’ s happening in your immediate community. A healthcare provider should not necessarily be tasked with figuring that out. But there does need to be an alert system to tell experts who can take it seriously and address it swiftly. Data shows minority populations were hit harder by COVID-19. What should people know about these health disparities, and what can public health experts and healthcare providers do to achieve health equity? When various populations are affected unequally by an issue, we often talk about it in a way that is accusatory of the people who are different. We have to reframe that. I am trying very hard to make academia do this. People always ask: “ How can we encourage more people of color to become scientists? ” But why would you want to join the scientific community if you are a person of color when that environment is unwelcoming to you? This is the same with healthcare disparities. The geography of health is different from one neighborhood to another. I ’ ve seen this in places I ’ ve lived like Boston and Baltimore. So we need to focus on how we can make people ’ s environments better, so they can live longer and healthier lives. When it comes to healthcare disparities, many people do have genetic components that influence their risk of conditions like high blood pressure or diabetes. But there are also social and economic components as well as lack of access to primary care, the infant mortality rate and differences in prenatal care that are at the population level.
“ People should not feel ashamed of what ails their community. ”
That ’ s often what happens. There are communities now who are hiding their opioid epidemic, because it ’ s shameful to them. They don ’ t know that the pharmaceutical industry is involved, the medical community is involved based on the way that medicines have been prescribed for decades and that access to these drugs often depends on where you live. It is harder to get heroin in some places as opposed to others. So you really have to release the self-blame and come out of that shame. It ’ s the first step to freedom. When you think that disease or poor health is predestined because of where you are coming from or your family history, it ’ s harder to wrap your mind around the possibility of change. Releasing that shame also helps you to
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speak about it differently to your physician. It helps you to realize that you have the ability to change the outcome. Oftentimes, when one pandemic comes it doesn ’ t wipe out other ones, but it does push other pandemics to the backburner. COVID-19 pushed HIV to the backburner. I heard this story of a young man who came into the emergency department dying from AIDS. When asked why he hadn ’ t come sooner, he said: “ I figured it was AIDS. ” You would think that would prompt him to come to the doctor, but he felt so much shame. And he died. I just want people to release the shame that prevents them from seeking help. You recently joined the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Can you share your central objectives in leading the Corbett Lab? What do you hope to accomplish in the next stage of your career? Science-wise, I have a high goal. By the end of my career, whether I do it or not, I would love for there to be, not necessarily a cure, but equity of health outcomes for
Dr. Corbett and Dr. Graham, former Deputy Director at the Vaccine Research Center, with the scientists at the National Institutes of Health Vaccine Research Center responsible for the development of the life-saving COVID-19 vaccines
the common cold — the school of viruses that includes coronaviruses. This will most likely be achieved through vaccination. Coronaviruses are a problem that we live with because people think that there ’ s nothing we can do differently. But 50,000 people a year die from the flu in this country. I want to improve that during my career. I used to always say that if I get a Nobel Prize, it ’ s going to be for curing the common cold. From a legacy standpoint, I would like for the doors that I ’ ve opened for women and young Black women in the sciences to remain open. I want people to have it easier than I did, to avoid the glass ceilings and not have to fight. I had to achieve a body of work that most people, in general, will not have accomplished in their lifetime just to get a job, which is not even a tenured position. This is a fight that I would not want anyone to have. It has informed who I am today. But resilience is exhausting, and it is actually not necessary. You want to be successful, well-rounded and empathetic without having to be torn down in the process. Many young people, especially young Black Americans, look up to you as an inspiration. What do you hope youth learn from your accomplishments and commitment to public service? I hope they learn that you can be yourself. No dream is too big. But part of the reason why people don ’ t have big dreams is because they feel like the type of person that they are would never be able to achieve them. Be yourself and do the best that you can, and it will all work out. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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Insights, Perspectives & Ideas
PEPFAR at 20 — A Game-Changing Impact on HIV in Africa The New England Journal of Medicine, July 2023 In 2003, antiretroviral therapy ( ART ) transformed AIDS into a chronic condition in industrialized countries. However, in sub- Saharan Africa, fewer than 50,000 of the 27 million people living with HIV had access to it. President George W. Bush launched the President ’ s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief ( PEPFAR ) in 2003 in 15 countries with high HIV burdens. As of 2022, PEPFAR-supported programs have resulted in around 20 million people receiving ART, 25 million lives saved and several countries nearing or achieving new treatment targets. PEPFAR is a great example of a bold, data-driven international initiative that was able to succeed by sustaining local ownership and participation.
Why Cancer Treatments Might Not Work Very Well for Older Adults Undark, June 2023 Older people are more likely to be diagnosed with cancer than younger ones. Clinical drug trials, however, exclude older participants for a variety of reasons. Yet, cancer treatments effective in younger people can be toxic in older individuals. Jyoti Madhusoodanan explains that physicians treating geriatric cancer patients often tweak the dose or duration to limit side effects. Dr. Supriya Mohile, a geriatric oncologist at the University of Rochester thinks that the geriatric assessment, a tool to determine a person ’ s biological age, “ needs to be implemented until we have better clinical trial data. ” This may help mitigate under-treatment of those who might benefit from chemotherapy and over-treatment of those at risk of serious side effects.
Brain Waves Synchronize When People Interact Scientific American, July 2023 Collective neuroscience, or the study of how brains work together, is a rapidly growing field of research. When people converse or share an experience, they exhibit high degrees of brain synchrony. Researchers are mapping its choreography ( rhythm, timing and undulations ) to better understand its benefits. Lydia Denworth explains: “ Without synchrony and the deeper forms of connection that lie beyond it, we may be at greater risk for mental instability and poor physical health. With synchrony and other levels of neural interaction, humans teach and learn, forge friendships and romances, and cooperate and converse. We are driven to connect, and synchrony is one way our brains help us do it. ”
AI & Machine Learning in Medicine NEJM AI, July 2023 The NEJM AI journal editors curated a collection of articles from NEJM Group publications exploring the rapid impact and ethical considerations of artificial intelligence ( AI ) in medicine. The articles cover AI use in clinical applications, imaging interpretation, infectious-disease surveillance, collaborative workflows and real-time diagnostics. The NEJM AI journal, set to launch in early 2024, aims to provide a platform for rigorous evidence, resource sharing and thoughtful discussions on AI integration in medicine.
How Plastics Are Poisoning Us The New Yorker, June 2023
The Retrievals Serial Productions and The New York Times, June-July 2023 A five-part podcast narrative series by Susan Burton explores the events unfolding at the Yale Fertility Center where patients experienced excruciating pain during and after a surgical procedure called egg retrieval to be used for in vitro fertilization. The staff members were unaware of the real cause: a nurse stealing fentanyl and replacing it with saline. This series tells the stories told about women ’ s pain, as well as how it is tolerated and interpreted, including the ways in which it may be minimized or dismissed.
To preserve elephants, tortoises and coral, celluloid ( plastic ) was invented in 1865. Now, these same creatures as well as others are threatened by plastic waste. Large pieces pose hazards such as choking and intestinal tract perforation. When plastic degrades, microplastics, smaller than five millimeters, are formed and can both leach and attract chemical carcinogens. Plastic waste is found floating in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the Mariana Trench and human placentas. Matt Simon, author of A Poison Like No Other: How Microplastics Corrupted Our Planet and Our Bodies says, “ So long as we ’ re churning out single- use plastic … we ’ re trying to drain the tub without turning off the tap. We ’ ve got to cut it out. ”
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About NFL Alumni Health
The NFL Alumni Association ( NFL Alumni ) was founded in 1967 and is the oldest and most recognizable national organization of retired professional athletes. NFL Alumni consists of former NFL players, coaches, executives, spouses, cheerleaders, and associate members. To support the NFL Alumni triple mission of “ Caring for our Own, ” “ Caring for Kids, ” and “ Caring for Our Community, ” NFL Alumni Health is improving the health and wellness of NFL Alumni members, as well as the public at large. NFL Alumni Health is a wholly-owned subsidiary of NFL Alumni offering informational resources, programs, services, and other offerings for NFL Alumni members and the general public. Learn more at https://nflalumnihealth.org/
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Cura ’ s mission is to promote health equity and improve the health and wellbeing of all. Cura encourages holistic approaches to health, examining the whole person and their mind, body and soul. We promote earlier interventions and focus on prevention, elimination of social disparities in health and enhancing access to care so no one is left behind. Cura has created and grown its own global network of scientists, physicians, medical specialists, leaders of faith, academic institutions, patient advocates, philanthropists and industry personnel that tackle the most pressing issues in health. We utilize a cross-disciplinary approach to prevent and vanquish disease by building bridges, fostering collaboration and embracing people of all faiths, cultures and nationalities without prejudice. We achieve our goals by creating partnerships, campaigns, events and touchpoints that break down silos, educate, foster collaboration and encourage innovation while keeping the patients in mind.
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If you have any questions or feedback, please contact: curalink@thecurafoundation.com Newsletter created by health and science reporter and consulting producer for the Cura Foundation, Ali Pattillo, consulting editor, Catherine Tone and associate director at the Cura Foundation, Svetlana Izrailova .
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