April 16, 2021 • 26 mins
Whether it's pioneering vaccines or new technologies, women have made a significant impact in the medical field and our lives at large. In this episode, we highlight some women doing amazing work in the modern medicine.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. I didn't welcome to stuff.
I never told your production of iHeart Radio, said Samantha. Today,
I have a two part question for you. I think
we already talked about the first one. But were you
(00:25):
ever interested in a career in medicine? Yeah? Actually I
started out my college career with the idea that I
was going to be pre med. I knew I was
going to be premed. It also wouldn't along with I
wanted to be a missionary. But I wasn't going to
be a missionary without being actually helpful and actually saving lives, hopefully.
(00:45):
And then as I started doing all of my medical
courses slash all of the sciences, I realized how bad
I was at that and I barely passed chemistry. It
wasn't let me find another way to help. What was
your like goal? What was your How are you envisioning
a working in that field? I was envisioning becoming general practitioner,
(01:09):
being able to co out and service and travel and
help communities. I was thinking, you know, obviously traveling abroad
where there's less access, and I wanted to really be helpful.
Probably doctors without borders would have been my route and
all of that, thinking that I would be poor and hopefully,
(01:32):
you know, going out in the world and helping. That
was what I was envisioning. I see, I see, I see. Okay,
And the second part of my question is are you
or were you ever big into like medical TV shows? Yeah,
you know what, I think I caught up an e
er for a little while, and maybe it was the
soap opera bit that I liked George Clooney. Who doesn't
(01:52):
love George Clooney at that point in time, But I
did watch that for a little while. Scrubs really really
enjoyed Scrubs. Who doesn't love people being self deprecating as
well as saving lives and having some heart, you know?
But yeah, I did you Yeah, I didn't really, but
I did. I loved Scrubs and to this day, like
I can quote Scrubs, I have the soundtrack. I was
(02:15):
a huge Me and my friend group, we were really
in described and it's funny, like one of my favorite
episodes is the episode where they make fun of House.
But I've never seen House, so I didn't get half
the jokes, but I still I had watched a few
episodes of House, and I didn't get too caught up
in that. But yeah, I did you talk about soundtrack?
(02:37):
I have to know have you watched any of it
streaming since the original? I mean I owned the DVDs,
so you haven't watched the streaming because they changed the
music I don't know, share or whatever, but because I
watched it so much, I knew what music with when,
and now watching it on streaming, I'm like, wait, but
(02:59):
that's not how that. Let me tell you, Samantha Supernatural,
a lot of those songs and not the same, And
I'm always like, no, See, that's the one blessing that
I do have is I don't know that you can't Yeah,
you can't compare, that's true. But with Scrubs, I did
because I was in that Netflix era of getting the DVDs. Yeah,
(03:23):
oh yeah, and I would watch all the Scrubs through
Nextflix subscriptions. And now comparing it to our streaming network
and the fact that the songs have changed, like it's
it's so notable that it distracts me from the rest
of the show. Yeah, well, music is a really big
part of that show exactly. Well, yeah, of course, of course,
(03:43):
that's why I got a sound dress so good. I
remember when was Itt Grey's Anatomy and Scrubs both had
an episode in the same week that had the phrase
how to save a life and people were arguing about
who used it better, but so spectfully used it for
like a split second of like, no, not that song anyway.
(04:06):
Are we talking about this because I keep talking about that? Probably,
So today we're going to talk about women in medicine
and specifically modern medicine because more and more people are
getting the vaccine, which is very exciting, and yeah, we
wanted to highlight some of the more recent accomplishments of
(04:27):
women in this field. And yeah, we've done episodes on
women in nursing and medicine before, also women's pain being
dismissed on the other side of that, but we wanted
to showcase some women that you might not have heard
of doing some really amazing things in the field of
modern medicine. Yes, and we're all about giving flowers to
(04:48):
those that are still with us today, but we're want
to start out with some numbers. Yeah, So, throughout history
and despite obstacles, women have been behind medical innovations around
blood transfusions, organ transplants, and a lot of areas in
reproductive health. Since the medical field has long ignored women,
women of course, have had to make do for themselves. Yes,
(05:10):
and while they are still disparities in terms of gender
and race in the medical field, more and more women
are entering it and shaping it at all levels and professions.
Numbers from indicate that the United States, one third of
active physicians are women, half of all new medical graduates
or women, percent of nurse practitioners of nurses, and sixty
(05:30):
three of physician assistance. We've also talked about how women
in medicine are more likely to experience issues around burnout,
wage gap, discrimination, lack of mentors, maternity leave, and toxic environments,
among other things, which are all issues that need to
be addressed and also not isolated to the medical field,
but definitely a lot of articles, especially during the pandemic,
(05:54):
have been written about burnout in particular, so that is
something that we need to keep an eye on. All Right,
let us start our list of women with Dr kiss
Mechia Corbette or doctor Kissy Corbett, who is a great
Twitter followed by the way, if you haven't started, tell
her she's fantastic. You should follow her absolutely. She is
(06:18):
a thirty four year old black woman who has been
at the forefront of the fight against COVID. Nineteen. Corbett
is one of the top scientists working on who has
been working on a COVID vaccine for the National Institutes
of Health. She and her team worked with pharmaceutical company
Maderna to pioneer and m RNA vaccine and this is
a vaccine that has an efficacy rate of over Recently,
(06:42):
when Dr Anthony Fauci was asked about the input of
African American scientists on the vaccine, Vauci responded, the very
vaccine that's one of the two that has absolutely exquisite
levels efficacy against clinical disease and almost epicacy against serious
to zas that are shown to be clearly safe. That
(07:02):
vaccine was actually developed in my institute's vaccine research Center
by a team of scientists led by Dr Barney Graham
and his close colleague Dr Kizmickia Corbett Our Kizzy Corbett
Kizzy is an African American scientist who's right at the
forefront of the development of the vaccine. Dr Corbett's talent, determination, curiosity,
and empathy manifested from a young age and she secured
(07:24):
awards and monetary funding for her university studies, and she
got a spot as an intern at the National Institutes
of Health. For her PhD, she studied immunology and microbiology
while also working as a research assistant studying viral infections
inten She took a post doc position at the n
i h's Vaccine Research Center. In January, Dr Corbett received
(07:47):
an email from one of her co workers basically telling
her in her teammates to buckle up that their training
was about to be put to use and yes, yes
it was. It was oh caustious. Dr Corbett has spoken
about her experience as a black woman, a doctor and
the importance of visibility. I felt like it was necessary
to be seen and not to be a hidden figure,
(08:09):
so to speak, she said. I felt that it was
important to do that because the level of visibility that
it would have to younger scientists and also to people
of color who have often worked behind the scenes and
essentially who have done the dirty work for these large
efforts towards a vaccine. This person who looks like you
has been working on this for several years, and I
also wanted it to be visible because I wanted people
to understand that I stood by the work that I
(08:31):
had done for so long as well. And she's also
been really vocal about the disproportionate impact of COVID on
Black communities. And I think every woman on here we
could do a whole episode on, like we're doing kind
of a brief bio in these but her story was
really inspiring and fascinating. And also, Maderna is the vaccine
(08:51):
that I am getting sofy Dolly pardon. Yes, that was
a legitimate act. So many good things to that, and yeah,
Dr Corbett has also been keeping a kind of thread
on her Twitter about her presenting about the vaccine, and
she has been a really big proponent in talking to
(09:13):
the Black community about what the vaccine is and because
let's be honest, there's a lot of distrust when it
comes to medicine in the black community, rightly so rightly so,
and they should be suspicious and I would be suspicious.
I am suspicious sometimes, I mean for sure. But she
has been on the forefront and trying to talk about
(09:34):
it and how it's important and what she did and
making sure that this vaccine was safe and also that
it was accessible. So kudos to Dr Corbett and now
we want to move on to Dr Rachel Sneerson born
in Worshap, Poland in nineteen thirty two, who earned her
medical degree from Hadassa Medical School at the Hebrew University
(09:55):
in Jerusalem, and she was best known for her work
on the hemophilist influence type or HIV, which is a
bacterium that was one of the principal causes of meningitis
and pneumonia and responsible for over three million serious illnesses
and over three seventy five thousand deaths and children around
the world. She came to work as an instructor at
(10:15):
the Albert Einstein College of Medicine for the Department of
Pediatrics and the Laboratory of Immunology. There she met Dr
John B. Robbins, who would move on to the Division
of bacterial Products in nineteen seventy four and then came
background to the National Institute of Child Health Development or
the n i c h D in three and it
was during this time Dr Schneerson and Dr Robbins were
(10:37):
able to help create the vaccine the use of conjugates,
which helped make the vaccines safer and more effective for
younger children and as young as believed two months old,
and this process of conjugating would later be used to
help create other vaccines for diseases such as whooping cough, typhoid,
and certain types of malaria and even anthrax. And through
(10:58):
her work she has received many different awards such as
the Albert Laska Clinical Medical Research Award in ninety six,
the World Health Organization Children's Vaccine Initiative, Pastoral Award, Infectious
Disease Society of American Citation Award, and was also elected
to the n i c h D Hall of Honor,
and she was eventually named as head of the Section
of Actual Disease, Pathogensis and Immunity with Dr Robbins and
(11:21):
finally retired in two thousand twelve. Wow. Yeah, that's a
lot of awards. They saved a lot of lives. And yeah,
by the way, the disease is fairly pretty much eradicated
and has not been seen by the new medical field
that they have not seen it since then. Dan, Well,
(11:41):
we have some more women we want to highlight, but
first we have a quick break for work from responsor
and her back. Thank you sponsored Okay, so now let's
(12:03):
talk about Mary Gaynan. Her story is amazing I can't
believe I hadn't heard it before. So after earning her
PhD in physiology, graduating from John Hopkins University School of Medicine,
and completing residency, Dr Gaynen began working at the Centers
for Disease Control of Prevention in nineteen seventy four, and
this is when only ten of medical graduates were women.
(12:27):
She started out in the Epidemic Intelligence Service or the
e i S, which is often described by her too
as the Medical FBI, where she studied global disease outbreaks.
She was the only woman of thirty nine physicians. Through this,
she helped out on a smallpox eradication campaign and for
her work, the World Health Organization awarded her the Noble
(12:49):
Order of the Bifurcated Needle in nineteen seventy six. What
a name, I tell you what the name. But all
of this was after her application into volunteer with India's
smallpox eradication program was denied twice. She was told it
was because the World Health Organization and India weren't really
looking for women to volunteer. Thank you, So, Guynan asked
(13:13):
if India's Prime Minister at the time, who was a woman,
knew about this, and and after that, after Guiden was like,
asked about that, and then she was like, let me
speak your manager. She was given a spot on the
Operations Smallpox zero team, and apparently an elephant became a
(13:34):
part of their effort for transport over flooded rivers. I
really wanted to go away in depth into this, and
I was like, Anny, we have to make this one episode.
At the time she started researching sexually transmitted diseases. She
went back to the CDC two years later in to
work in the Veneural Disease Control Division as a clinical investigator.
(13:56):
Through her work in this field, she became known as
a national expert on genital herpes, which happened somewhat accidentally.
The media is sometimes called her doctor Condom or Doctor Herpies.
She basically she appeared in an interview where the chiron
below her was like std expert and she did not
(14:18):
know what was gonna say that, and then every other
news outlet contacted her. It was like, we need you
to come to talk about this. She was worried about
the reaction of her religious conservative mother when appearing on
TV to discuss sexually transmitted diseases. Apparently her mother never
even said sex, but after watching her on Sixty Minutes,
(14:38):
her mother allegedly said, congratulations, dear, your hair looked very nice.
Mother thing to do. Yes, I don't want to touch
on these other subjects, but your hair looks good. Won yeah. Yeah,
And guy didn't even turn down that appearance on sixty
Minutes because she was kind of frustrated with the media
(15:00):
is coverage of STDs and s t I S and
also she was worried about her mother, but the CDC
like pressured her into doing it. And she once said
after reporter asked her if you could get AIDS from
a toilet seat, quote, the only way that I know
you can get AIDS as if you sit on it
before someone else gets up. Uh yeah, she goes full
(15:20):
of those kind of comments. Dr Gaynan attempted to draw
attention to the AIDS epidemic in the nineteen eighties, but
found that the media was reluctant to cover it since
early reports seemed to suggest it mainly impacted the homosexual community. She,
along with the CDC, work to raise support and awareness
around AIDS. Dr Gaynen set up the CDCs AIDS Task
(15:41):
Force because of her work She was promoted in four
to the CDC's Associate Director for the Division of Sexually
Transmitted Diseases, and she became the CDC's first female Chief
Scientific Advisor. From five, she acted as Chief of Evaluation
for the country's HIV prevention program. She's a founding dean
(16:01):
at the University of Nevada Las Vegas School of Public
Health and has done extensive research into childhood leukemia. Her
work with AIDS was the topic of the book and
later HBO documentary and the band played on. Apparently, she
is only in one scene in the movie, where she
is baking a cake. Guinnan said of this, they didn't
(16:24):
know how to portray a woman scientist. In sten, she
published the book Adventures of a Female Medical Detective in
Pursuit of Smallpox and AIDS. That's a great title. I know,
I want to read it ready. Let's let's get it.
Maybe a book club, yes, think about how that would
translate to a book club. But and next we're going
(16:46):
to talk about Julie Linn Wong. Dr Wong not only
is a physician and public health specialist, but she is
an expert in robotics and space medicine. The Harvard and
educated doctor has made history by combining her knowledge of
robotics taken oology with modern medicine. In two thousand eleven,
Dr Wong founded the three D four m D with
the idea of using three D printers so empowered and
(17:09):
easily portable to print healthcare supplies in remote communities, and
by creating affordable three D templates, it would help create
low cost medical supplies on demand. And it's so small
it can fit into a carry on bag for easy
travel from global areas that are hard to get to
to even space. Dung right, and speaking of space, Dr
(17:31):
Wong was selected to participate in the thirty Days Simulated
Mission at NASA's Johnson Space Center in honor of the
thirty anniversary of the Space Shuttle challenger tragedy. Wong served
as the mission's flight engineer and then in astronauts actually
used a three D printer for medical supplies using her
blueprints from three D four m D, so they were
(17:51):
able to actually create like finger splinters and all of
that while in space, which what I know. And by
the way, my partner, who loves three D printers and
has three was very excited when I started talking about this,
and she didn't stop there. She founded the Medical Makers,
which is a network to bring others to build and
(18:12):
use their skills and creativity to continue to fight for
humanitarian issues and build sustainable solutions through technology all over
the world. I love this. I feel like that's another
great example of when you specialize in a thing, like,
don't limit yourself to that one field, right, it can
work in different spaces. And also she seems to be
(18:33):
the overachiever that I'm scared of that. I'm like, oh
my god, You're the one everybody talks about that can
do everything. Don't be scared. Don't be scared. We do
have a few more women we want a spotlight, but
first we have one more break for word from a sponsor,
(19:04):
Avery Back. Thank you sponsored. And early on the episode
we talked about the amazing works Dr Corbett did that
helped develop Maderna, but we also wanted to look at
the biologists that laid down the groundwork to help develop
that as well as the Fiser bio intech vaccine, which
is Dr Katie Corrico and Dr Carrico originally came from
(19:24):
Hungary moved to the US in her early twenties, and
though she's now being recognized for her titles work, she
was barely making it through in the world of academia
until recently, and like many in the field, she had
difficulty in getting both funding or even being properly compensated
for her work. As a colleague stated quote, when your
idea is against the conventional wisdom, that makes sense to
(19:46):
the star chamber, but it's very hard to break out.
But today she's being recognized for her breakout studies in
m r n A, which is the quote genetic script
that carries the DNA instructions to each sales protein making chenery.
Just to give an explanation, um and things to her
continued work with m r n A, she has helped
create a path through these different vaccines, and Dr Vacchy
(20:08):
stated quote, it is already transforming COVID nineteen, but also
other vaccines HIV, and people in the field are excited influenza, malaria,
and he's talking about how it's going to help create
vaccines for these different things. And Dr Kurico never held back.
She was known for her intensity and dedication and working
on her research. Her husband talked about how she was
(20:29):
constantly working, whether it was night and day or even
the weekend, and he actually broke down her pay as
being less than a dollar an hour for all the
time she has been on it, But apparently she just
didn't care about the money, it was about her work.
She earned her PhD at the University of Sega, then
moved to Philadelphia in n to continue her research at
Temple University, and she did continue throughout her career, though
(20:52):
she would be rejected and continually overlooked. She worked with
different colleagues and different avenues until finally she and Dr
Wiseman were able to show progress in their work and
we're able to get grants from both Madonna and bio
in Tech, And on November eight the testing show that
the m r n A that she's been studying actually
offered powerful immunity to COVID nineteen, and she and Dr
(21:13):
Weisman were able to get their vaccine publicly during a
press conference on December eighteen, and she was applauded as
well as he was by their peers when they made
the announced but hey, the people who helped create this
vaccine is here, so they were given a round of
applause by their coworkers, and she apparently celebrated with just
(21:33):
the box of googers, which she ate all by herself.
Not really sure why that was the way they put it.
I guess maybe she wasn't able to and she told
her husband that it worked, and her responses I thought, so,
I thought that was really fun because it just seemed
like she had been working so hard, to the point
that she had changed hands essentially of who was working
(21:54):
with her and her advisors, and she never stopped even
people were like this is not working, we don't care. Yeah,
she believed in it. Yeah, and because of heart, we
were able to get a vaccine so quickly. Yeah. And
I think because there's been some publicity obviously about people
who have been working on the vaccine, and so stories
about her have come out recently, and I feel like
(22:16):
she really wants an HIV vaccine, Like that's what right
driving her. Apparently during one of her conversations with one
of her staff members that she was working with, said
can you get a vaccine for Chip? She's like, yeah,
I can do that, and she has and I think
she continued to work for that. So that's amazing. Yeah,
very determined. So now let's end with Dr Francoise Barre Saci,
(22:41):
who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in
ten quote for their discovery of human immuno deficiency varus.
Born in Paris, France, in nine, Dr Barret Sinacia loved
nature from a young age, and in her words, her
path was determined to largely by what her and her
family could afford. She started volunteering at Paris's Institute Pasteur
(23:04):
and by nineteen seventy five she had earned her pH d.
In nineteen three, she along with Luke Montaigner, discovered the
retrovirus that would later be called human immuno deficiency virus
or HIV, which was proven to be the cause for
AIDS that year. She was the first author on the
(23:25):
paper that reported on this discovery. She had been researching
retroviruses since the nineteen seventies. She headed up her own
lab at the Institute Pasteur in where she launched several
programs looking into HIV AIDS, including vaccine research. She is
in charge of the regulation of a retroviral infection unit
(23:46):
at the Institute Pasteur in Paris, where she's also emeritus professor.
She was elected to the French Academy of Science in
two thousand nine, and from fourteen she became President of
the International Aid Society. She's been prolific when it comes
to papers as well, offering or co authoring over two
hundred and seventy original publications and lots lots lots more.
(24:07):
Her discovery and part led to the development of life
saving drugs that saved millions of lives. However, more than
thirty eight million around the world live with HIV and
not all of them can get treatment. So Dr barre
sees work continues as well, which I think I feel
like we see in all of these women this dedication
and determination And just to say, I know that we
(24:30):
did not always put the doctor before their name, but
it's their respect, is their respect. Honestly, this is amazing stuff.
We're talking about the amount of achievement that they've done,
the amount of work and blood, sweat and tears I
can't imagine they've had to do, and even to fight
to be there and to be hard. And then the
(24:50):
fact that they had to work to be taken seriously
and continue have to work to be seen even is
a whole other conversation. Yeah, the level of impact they've
had on our everyday lives, often unnoticed or unspoken about.
Is really it's amazing the work that they've done. We
(25:11):
could definitely go further in depth. Let us know about
something you want, and we know there's so many more
stories we could talk about, so if you have any suggestions,
as always, please send them all away. Yes, you can
email us at Stuff Media, mom Stuff at i heeart
media dot com. You can find us on Twitter at
(25:32):
mom Stuff podcast or on Instagram at stuff I Never
Told You. Thanks as always to our super producer, Christina Heyo,
thank you, thank you, and thanks to you for listening
Stuff I Never Told You. Protection of I Heart Radio.
For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the I Heart
Radio app Apple podcast already listen to your favorite shows
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. I didn't welcome to stuff.
I never told your production of iHeart Radio, said Samantha. Today,
I have a two part question for you. I think
we already talked about the first one. But were you
(00:25):
ever interested in a career in medicine? Yeah? Actually I
started out my college career with the idea that I
was going to be pre med. I knew I was
going to be premed. It also wouldn't along with I
wanted to be a missionary. But I wasn't going to
be a missionary without being actually helpful and actually saving lives, hopefully.
(00:45):
And then as I started doing all of my medical
courses slash all of the sciences, I realized how bad
I was at that and I barely passed chemistry. It
wasn't let me find another way to help. What was
your like goal? What was your How are you envisioning
a working in that field? I was envisioning becoming general practitioner,
(01:09):
being able to co out and service and travel and
help communities. I was thinking, you know, obviously traveling abroad
where there's less access, and I wanted to really be helpful.
Probably doctors without borders would have been my route and
all of that, thinking that I would be poor and hopefully,
(01:32):
you know, going out in the world and helping. That
was what I was envisioning. I see, I see, I see. Okay,
And the second part of my question is are you
or were you ever big into like medical TV shows? Yeah,
you know what, I think I caught up an e
er for a little while, and maybe it was the
soap opera bit that I liked George Clooney. Who doesn't
(01:52):
love George Clooney at that point in time, But I
did watch that for a little while. Scrubs really really
enjoyed Scrubs. Who doesn't love people being self deprecating as
well as saving lives and having some heart, you know?
But yeah, I did you Yeah, I didn't really, but
I did. I loved Scrubs and to this day, like
I can quote Scrubs, I have the soundtrack. I was
(02:15):
a huge Me and my friend group, we were really
in described and it's funny, like one of my favorite
episodes is the episode where they make fun of House.
But I've never seen House, so I didn't get half
the jokes, but I still I had watched a few
episodes of House, and I didn't get too caught up
in that. But yeah, I did you talk about soundtrack?
(02:37):
I have to know have you watched any of it
streaming since the original? I mean I owned the DVDs,
so you haven't watched the streaming because they changed the
music I don't know, share or whatever, but because I
watched it so much, I knew what music with when,
and now watching it on streaming, I'm like, wait, but
(02:59):
that's not how that. Let me tell you, Samantha Supernatural,
a lot of those songs and not the same, And
I'm always like, no, See, that's the one blessing that
I do have is I don't know that you can't Yeah,
you can't compare, that's true. But with Scrubs, I did
because I was in that Netflix era of getting the DVDs. Yeah,
(03:23):
oh yeah, and I would watch all the Scrubs through
Nextflix subscriptions. And now comparing it to our streaming network
and the fact that the songs have changed, like it's
it's so notable that it distracts me from the rest
of the show. Yeah, well, music is a really big
part of that show exactly. Well, yeah, of course, of course,
(03:43):
that's why I got a sound dress so good. I
remember when was Itt Grey's Anatomy and Scrubs both had
an episode in the same week that had the phrase
how to save a life and people were arguing about
who used it better, but so spectfully used it for
like a split second of like, no, not that song anyway.
(04:06):
Are we talking about this because I keep talking about that? Probably,
So today we're going to talk about women in medicine
and specifically modern medicine because more and more people are
getting the vaccine, which is very exciting, and yeah, we
wanted to highlight some of the more recent accomplishments of
(04:27):
women in this field. And yeah, we've done episodes on
women in nursing and medicine before, also women's pain being
dismissed on the other side of that, but we wanted
to showcase some women that you might not have heard
of doing some really amazing things in the field of
modern medicine. Yes, and we're all about giving flowers to
(04:48):
those that are still with us today, but we're want
to start out with some numbers. Yeah, So, throughout history
and despite obstacles, women have been behind medical innovations around
blood transfusions, organ transplants, and a lot of areas in
reproductive health. Since the medical field has long ignored women,
women of course, have had to make do for themselves. Yes,
(05:10):
and while they are still disparities in terms of gender
and race in the medical field, more and more women
are entering it and shaping it at all levels and professions.
Numbers from indicate that the United States, one third of
active physicians are women, half of all new medical graduates
or women, percent of nurse practitioners of nurses, and sixty
(05:30):
three of physician assistance. We've also talked about how women
in medicine are more likely to experience issues around burnout,
wage gap, discrimination, lack of mentors, maternity leave, and toxic environments,
among other things, which are all issues that need to
be addressed and also not isolated to the medical field,
but definitely a lot of articles, especially during the pandemic,
(05:54):
have been written about burnout in particular, so that is
something that we need to keep an eye on. All Right,
let us start our list of women with Dr kiss
Mechia Corbette or doctor Kissy Corbett, who is a great
Twitter followed by the way, if you haven't started, tell
her she's fantastic. You should follow her absolutely. She is
(06:18):
a thirty four year old black woman who has been
at the forefront of the fight against COVID. Nineteen. Corbett
is one of the top scientists working on who has
been working on a COVID vaccine for the National Institutes
of Health. She and her team worked with pharmaceutical company
Maderna to pioneer and m RNA vaccine and this is
a vaccine that has an efficacy rate of over Recently,
(06:42):
when Dr Anthony Fauci was asked about the input of
African American scientists on the vaccine, Vauci responded, the very
vaccine that's one of the two that has absolutely exquisite
levels efficacy against clinical disease and almost epicacy against serious
to zas that are shown to be clearly safe. That
(07:02):
vaccine was actually developed in my institute's vaccine research Center
by a team of scientists led by Dr Barney Graham
and his close colleague Dr Kizmickia Corbett Our Kizzy Corbett
Kizzy is an African American scientist who's right at the
forefront of the development of the vaccine. Dr Corbett's talent, determination, curiosity,
and empathy manifested from a young age and she secured
(07:24):
awards and monetary funding for her university studies, and she
got a spot as an intern at the National Institutes
of Health. For her PhD, she studied immunology and microbiology
while also working as a research assistant studying viral infections
inten She took a post doc position at the n
i h's Vaccine Research Center. In January, Dr Corbett received
(07:47):
an email from one of her co workers basically telling
her in her teammates to buckle up that their training
was about to be put to use and yes, yes
it was. It was oh caustious. Dr Corbett has spoken
about her experience as a black woman, a doctor and
the importance of visibility. I felt like it was necessary
to be seen and not to be a hidden figure,
(08:09):
so to speak, she said. I felt that it was
important to do that because the level of visibility that
it would have to younger scientists and also to people
of color who have often worked behind the scenes and
essentially who have done the dirty work for these large
efforts towards a vaccine. This person who looks like you
has been working on this for several years, and I
also wanted it to be visible because I wanted people
to understand that I stood by the work that I
(08:31):
had done for so long as well. And she's also
been really vocal about the disproportionate impact of COVID on
Black communities. And I think every woman on here we
could do a whole episode on, like we're doing kind
of a brief bio in these but her story was
really inspiring and fascinating. And also, Maderna is the vaccine
(08:51):
that I am getting sofy Dolly pardon. Yes, that was
a legitimate act. So many good things to that, and yeah,
Dr Corbett has also been keeping a kind of thread
on her Twitter about her presenting about the vaccine, and
she has been a really big proponent in talking to
(09:13):
the Black community about what the vaccine is and because
let's be honest, there's a lot of distrust when it
comes to medicine in the black community, rightly so rightly so,
and they should be suspicious and I would be suspicious.
I am suspicious sometimes, I mean for sure. But she
has been on the forefront and trying to talk about
(09:34):
it and how it's important and what she did and
making sure that this vaccine was safe and also that
it was accessible. So kudos to Dr Corbett and now
we want to move on to Dr Rachel Sneerson born
in Worshap, Poland in nineteen thirty two, who earned her
medical degree from Hadassa Medical School at the Hebrew University
(09:55):
in Jerusalem, and she was best known for her work
on the hemophilist influence type or HIV, which is a
bacterium that was one of the principal causes of meningitis
and pneumonia and responsible for over three million serious illnesses
and over three seventy five thousand deaths and children around
the world. She came to work as an instructor at
(10:15):
the Albert Einstein College of Medicine for the Department of
Pediatrics and the Laboratory of Immunology. There she met Dr
John B. Robbins, who would move on to the Division
of bacterial Products in nineteen seventy four and then came
background to the National Institute of Child Health Development or
the n i c h D in three and it
was during this time Dr Schneerson and Dr Robbins were
(10:37):
able to help create the vaccine the use of conjugates,
which helped make the vaccines safer and more effective for
younger children and as young as believed two months old,
and this process of conjugating would later be used to
help create other vaccines for diseases such as whooping cough, typhoid,
and certain types of malaria and even anthrax. And through
(10:58):
her work she has received many different awards such as
the Albert Laska Clinical Medical Research Award in ninety six,
the World Health Organization Children's Vaccine Initiative, Pastoral Award, Infectious
Disease Society of American Citation Award, and was also elected
to the n i c h D Hall of Honor,
and she was eventually named as head of the Section
of Actual Disease, Pathogensis and Immunity with Dr Robbins and
(11:21):
finally retired in two thousand twelve. Wow. Yeah, that's a
lot of awards. They saved a lot of lives. And yeah,
by the way, the disease is fairly pretty much eradicated
and has not been seen by the new medical field
that they have not seen it since then. Dan, Well,
(11:41):
we have some more women we want to highlight, but
first we have a quick break for work from responsor
and her back. Thank you sponsored Okay, so now let's
(12:03):
talk about Mary Gaynan. Her story is amazing I can't
believe I hadn't heard it before. So after earning her
PhD in physiology, graduating from John Hopkins University School of Medicine,
and completing residency, Dr Gaynen began working at the Centers
for Disease Control of Prevention in nineteen seventy four, and
this is when only ten of medical graduates were women.
(12:27):
She started out in the Epidemic Intelligence Service or the
e i S, which is often described by her too
as the Medical FBI, where she studied global disease outbreaks.
She was the only woman of thirty nine physicians. Through this,
she helped out on a smallpox eradication campaign and for
her work, the World Health Organization awarded her the Noble
(12:49):
Order of the Bifurcated Needle in nineteen seventy six. What
a name, I tell you what the name. But all
of this was after her application into volunteer with India's
smallpox eradication program was denied twice. She was told it
was because the World Health Organization and India weren't really
looking for women to volunteer. Thank you, So, Guynan asked
(13:13):
if India's Prime Minister at the time, who was a woman,
knew about this, and and after that, after Guiden was like,
asked about that, and then she was like, let me
speak your manager. She was given a spot on the
Operations Smallpox zero team, and apparently an elephant became a
(13:34):
part of their effort for transport over flooded rivers. I
really wanted to go away in depth into this, and
I was like, Anny, we have to make this one episode.
At the time she started researching sexually transmitted diseases. She
went back to the CDC two years later in to
work in the Veneural Disease Control Division as a clinical investigator.
(13:56):
Through her work in this field, she became known as
a national expert on genital herpes, which happened somewhat accidentally.
The media is sometimes called her doctor Condom or Doctor Herpies.
She basically she appeared in an interview where the chiron
below her was like std expert and she did not
(14:18):
know what was gonna say that, and then every other
news outlet contacted her. It was like, we need you
to come to talk about this. She was worried about
the reaction of her religious conservative mother when appearing on
TV to discuss sexually transmitted diseases. Apparently her mother never
even said sex, but after watching her on Sixty Minutes,
(14:38):
her mother allegedly said, congratulations, dear, your hair looked very nice.
Mother thing to do. Yes, I don't want to touch
on these other subjects, but your hair looks good. Won yeah. Yeah,
And guy didn't even turn down that appearance on sixty
Minutes because she was kind of frustrated with the media
(15:00):
is coverage of STDs and s t I S and
also she was worried about her mother, but the CDC
like pressured her into doing it. And she once said
after reporter asked her if you could get AIDS from
a toilet seat, quote, the only way that I know
you can get AIDS as if you sit on it
before someone else gets up. Uh yeah, she goes full
(15:20):
of those kind of comments. Dr Gaynan attempted to draw
attention to the AIDS epidemic in the nineteen eighties, but
found that the media was reluctant to cover it since
early reports seemed to suggest it mainly impacted the homosexual community. She,
along with the CDC, work to raise support and awareness
around AIDS. Dr Gaynen set up the CDCs AIDS Task
(15:41):
Force because of her work She was promoted in four
to the CDC's Associate Director for the Division of Sexually
Transmitted Diseases, and she became the CDC's first female Chief
Scientific Advisor. From five, she acted as Chief of Evaluation
for the country's HIV prevention program. She's a founding dean
(16:01):
at the University of Nevada Las Vegas School of Public
Health and has done extensive research into childhood leukemia. Her
work with AIDS was the topic of the book and
later HBO documentary and the band played on. Apparently, she
is only in one scene in the movie, where she
is baking a cake. Guinnan said of this, they didn't
(16:24):
know how to portray a woman scientist. In sten, she
published the book Adventures of a Female Medical Detective in
Pursuit of Smallpox and AIDS. That's a great title. I know,
I want to read it ready. Let's let's get it.
Maybe a book club, yes, think about how that would
translate to a book club. But and next we're going
(16:46):
to talk about Julie Linn Wong. Dr Wong not only
is a physician and public health specialist, but she is
an expert in robotics and space medicine. The Harvard and
educated doctor has made history by combining her knowledge of
robotics taken oology with modern medicine. In two thousand eleven,
Dr Wong founded the three D four m D with
the idea of using three D printers so empowered and
(17:09):
easily portable to print healthcare supplies in remote communities, and
by creating affordable three D templates, it would help create
low cost medical supplies on demand. And it's so small
it can fit into a carry on bag for easy
travel from global areas that are hard to get to
to even space. Dung right, and speaking of space, Dr
(17:31):
Wong was selected to participate in the thirty Days Simulated
Mission at NASA's Johnson Space Center in honor of the
thirty anniversary of the Space Shuttle challenger tragedy. Wong served
as the mission's flight engineer and then in astronauts actually
used a three D printer for medical supplies using her
blueprints from three D four m D, so they were
(17:51):
able to actually create like finger splinters and all of
that while in space, which what I know. And by
the way, my partner, who loves three D printers and
has three was very excited when I started talking about this,
and she didn't stop there. She founded the Medical Makers,
which is a network to bring others to build and
(18:12):
use their skills and creativity to continue to fight for
humanitarian issues and build sustainable solutions through technology all over
the world. I love this. I feel like that's another
great example of when you specialize in a thing, like,
don't limit yourself to that one field, right, it can
work in different spaces. And also she seems to be
(18:33):
the overachiever that I'm scared of that. I'm like, oh
my god, You're the one everybody talks about that can
do everything. Don't be scared. Don't be scared. We do
have a few more women we want a spotlight, but
first we have one more break for word from a sponsor,
(19:04):
Avery Back. Thank you sponsored. And early on the episode
we talked about the amazing works Dr Corbett did that
helped develop Maderna, but we also wanted to look at
the biologists that laid down the groundwork to help develop
that as well as the Fiser bio intech vaccine, which
is Dr Katie Corrico and Dr Carrico originally came from
(19:24):
Hungary moved to the US in her early twenties, and
though she's now being recognized for her titles work, she
was barely making it through in the world of academia
until recently, and like many in the field, she had
difficulty in getting both funding or even being properly compensated
for her work. As a colleague stated quote, when your
idea is against the conventional wisdom, that makes sense to
(19:46):
the star chamber, but it's very hard to break out.
But today she's being recognized for her breakout studies in
m r n A, which is the quote genetic script
that carries the DNA instructions to each sales protein making chenery.
Just to give an explanation, um and things to her
continued work with m r n A, she has helped
create a path through these different vaccines, and Dr Vacchy
(20:08):
stated quote, it is already transforming COVID nineteen, but also
other vaccines HIV, and people in the field are excited influenza, malaria,
and he's talking about how it's going to help create
vaccines for these different things. And Dr Kurico never held back.
She was known for her intensity and dedication and working
on her research. Her husband talked about how she was
(20:29):
constantly working, whether it was night and day or even
the weekend, and he actually broke down her pay as
being less than a dollar an hour for all the
time she has been on it, But apparently she just
didn't care about the money, it was about her work.
She earned her PhD at the University of Sega, then
moved to Philadelphia in n to continue her research at
Temple University, and she did continue throughout her career, though
(20:52):
she would be rejected and continually overlooked. She worked with
different colleagues and different avenues until finally she and Dr
Wiseman were able to show progress in their work and
we're able to get grants from both Madonna and bio
in Tech, And on November eight the testing show that
the m r n A that she's been studying actually
offered powerful immunity to COVID nineteen, and she and Dr
(21:13):
Weisman were able to get their vaccine publicly during a
press conference on December eighteen, and she was applauded as
well as he was by their peers when they made
the announced but hey, the people who helped create this
vaccine is here, so they were given a round of
applause by their coworkers, and she apparently celebrated with just
(21:33):
the box of googers, which she ate all by herself.
Not really sure why that was the way they put it.
I guess maybe she wasn't able to and she told
her husband that it worked, and her responses I thought, so,
I thought that was really fun because it just seemed
like she had been working so hard, to the point
that she had changed hands essentially of who was working
(21:54):
with her and her advisors, and she never stopped even
people were like this is not working, we don't care. Yeah,
she believed in it. Yeah, and because of heart, we
were able to get a vaccine so quickly. Yeah. And
I think because there's been some publicity obviously about people
who have been working on the vaccine, and so stories
about her have come out recently, and I feel like
(22:16):
she really wants an HIV vaccine, Like that's what right
driving her. Apparently during one of her conversations with one
of her staff members that she was working with, said
can you get a vaccine for Chip? She's like, yeah,
I can do that, and she has and I think
she continued to work for that. So that's amazing. Yeah,
very determined. So now let's end with Dr Francoise Barre Saci,
(22:41):
who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in
ten quote for their discovery of human immuno deficiency varus.
Born in Paris, France, in nine, Dr Barret Sinacia loved
nature from a young age, and in her words, her
path was determined to largely by what her and her
family could afford. She started volunteering at Paris's Institute Pasteur
(23:04):
and by nineteen seventy five she had earned her pH d.
In nineteen three, she along with Luke Montaigner, discovered the
retrovirus that would later be called human immuno deficiency virus
or HIV, which was proven to be the cause for
AIDS that year. She was the first author on the
(23:25):
paper that reported on this discovery. She had been researching
retroviruses since the nineteen seventies. She headed up her own
lab at the Institute Pasteur in where she launched several
programs looking into HIV AIDS, including vaccine research. She is
in charge of the regulation of a retroviral infection unit
(23:46):
at the Institute Pasteur in Paris, where she's also emeritus professor.
She was elected to the French Academy of Science in
two thousand nine, and from fourteen she became President of
the International Aid Society. She's been prolific when it comes
to papers as well, offering or co authoring over two
hundred and seventy original publications and lots lots lots more.
(24:07):
Her discovery and part led to the development of life
saving drugs that saved millions of lives. However, more than
thirty eight million around the world live with HIV and
not all of them can get treatment. So Dr barre
sees work continues as well, which I think I feel
like we see in all of these women this dedication
and determination And just to say, I know that we
(24:30):
did not always put the doctor before their name, but
it's their respect, is their respect. Honestly, this is amazing stuff.
We're talking about the amount of achievement that they've done,
the amount of work and blood, sweat and tears I
can't imagine they've had to do, and even to fight
to be there and to be hard. And then the
(24:50):
fact that they had to work to be taken seriously
and continue have to work to be seen even is
a whole other conversation. Yeah, the level of impact they've
had on our everyday lives, often unnoticed or unspoken about.
Is really it's amazing the work that they've done. We
(25:11):
could definitely go further in depth. Let us know about
something you want, and we know there's so many more
stories we could talk about, so if you have any suggestions,
as always, please send them all away. Yes, you can
email us at Stuff Media, mom Stuff at i heeart
media dot com. You can find us on Twitter at
(25:32):
mom Stuff podcast or on Instagram at stuff I Never
Told You. Thanks as always to our super producer, Christina Heyo,
thank you, thank you, and thanks to you for listening
Stuff I Never Told You. Protection of I Heart Radio.
For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the I Heart
Radio app Apple podcast already listen to your favorite shows
Stuff Mom Never Told You News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Samantha McVey
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.