The new White House scientific adviser wants to have a vaccine ready to fight the next pandemic in about 100 days after recognizing a possible viral outbreak.
Miami World / telemundo51
In his first interview after being sworn in on Wednesday, Eric Lander painted a rosy near future in which a renewed American emphasis on science not only better prepares the world for the next pandemic with plug-and-play vaccines, it also changes the way medicine fights disease and treats patients, slows climate change, and explores space more. It even released a “Star Trek” reference.
“This is a time in so many ways, not just health, that we can rethink the fundamental assumptions about what is possible and that is true in climate and energy and in many areas,” Lander told The Associated Press.
The new White House scientific adviser wants to have a vaccine ready to fight the next pandemic in about 100 days after recognizing a possible viral outbreak.
In his first interview after being sworn in on Wednesday, Eric Lander painted a rosy near future in which a renewed American emphasis on science not only better prepares the world for the next pandemic with plug-and-play vaccines, it also changes the way medicine fights disease and treats patients, slows climate change, and explores space more. It even released a “Star Trek” reference.
“This is a time in so many ways, not just health, that we can rethink the fundamental assumptions about what is possible and that is true in climate and energy and in many areas,” Lander told The Associated Press.
Lander took the oath on a 500-year-old fragment of the Mishnah, an ancient Jewish text documenting oral laws and traditions. He is the first director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy to rise to the cabinet level.
Lander said that President Joe Biden’s elevation of the scientific position is a symbolic demonstration that “science should have a seat at the table,” but it also allows him to have high-level conversations with different heads of agencies on research issues. .
Lander is a mathematician and geneticist by training who was part of the Human Genome Mapping Project and directed the Broad Institute at MIT and Harvard. He said he is particularly focused not so much on this pandemic, but on the lessons learned from it to prepare for the next one.
“It was amazing on a level that we were able to produce highly effective vaccines in less than a year, but from another point of view you would say, ‘Wow, a year a long time,’” although in the past it would take three or four years, Lander said. “To really make a difference, we want to do this in 100 days. And many of us have been talking about a goal of 100 days from the recognition of a virus with pandemic potential. “
“It would mean that we would have had a vaccine in early April if that had happened this time, in early April 2020,” Lander said. “It makes you gulp for a second, but it’s totally doable.”
Scientists were working on so-called multipurpose and out-of-the-box platform technologies for vaccines long before the pandemic. They are considered “plug-and-play”. Rather than using the germ itself to make a vaccine, these platforms use other molecules to transport a germ’s genetic code to the body. That’s what happened with the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 shots that use messenger RNA as a carrier.
Beyond being optimistic about facing future pandemics, Lander wonders about the implications for preventing cancer.
“Perhaps the same kind of experience about moving much faster than we think applies to cancer,” said Lander, who during the Obama administration was co-chair of the Presidential Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. A company has already been working on that.
In fact, the pandemic and telehealth brought patients to the doctor in some way. Lander said he is reinventing “a world where we rearrange a lot” for more patient-centered healthcare, including community health workers who check people every few weeks on their blood pressure, blood sugar and other chronic problems.
Two of Lander’s predecessors praised him. Neal Lane, scientific adviser to President Bill Clinton, said that Lander is “perfect” for the pandemic because of the need for international strategy and agreements. Obama’s chief scientist, John Holden, called him “a Renaissance man.”
Lander’s confirmation was delayed for months as senators sought more information about his meetings with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, who was accused of sex trafficking, as well as Lander’s comments that were thought to downplay the contribution of two award-winning scientists. Nobel.
After visiting Greenland on a pleasant 72-degree day, Lander called climate change “an incredibly serious threat to this planet in many, many ways.”
Still, Lander said he was more optimistic now than he and others a decade ago because “I see a way to do something about it.”
Lander noted a drop of around 90% in the costs of solar and wind energy, which now makes them as cheap as the fossil fuels that cause climate change. But what is also needed, he said, is “an explosion of ideas” to improve battery life and provide carbon-free energy that is not dependent on the weather. Those innovations need federal incentives that are part of Biden’s jobs package, he said.
Reducing methane is key to fighting climate change, Lander added, but first improvements in technology are needed to determine where methane is leaking from.
As for space, Lander said it was too new to comment on whether the goal should be to head to the Moon or Mars. The Obama administration diverted NASA from the Bush-era plan to send astronauts back to the moon and was more aimed at Mars or an asteroid. Not only did the Trump administration focus on the moon, it set a goal by 2024 for a landing on the new moon.
“Are we going to go to the moon and are we going to go to Mars and are we going to the moons of Jupiter? Sure. I think it’s great to think about the exact order or talk about it, ”Lander said.
He cited “Star Trek IV: The Journey Home” when Captain James T. Kirk’s love interest asked him if he was from outer space. He replied, “I’m from Iowa, I just work in outer space.”
Lander adds: “That was a funny line on ‘Star Trek IV,’ but the people of Iowa are really going to say that.”
