- [Moderator] Good morning, everyone.
Welcome to a special Town Hall
with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
It's my pleasure to introduce
Chancellor Sam Hawgood.
- Thank you, Lisa and
good morning everyone.
I'm greatly honored this
morning to introduce
the Speaker of the United
States House of Representatives
and the representative of
California's 12th District,
the honorable Nancy Pelosi to
join us at UCSF this morning.
Speaker Pelosi thank you
so much for joining us
as you juggle the many
competing demands on your time
during this uncertain
and unprecedented moment
in our nation's history,
we at UCSF have been so proud
to have such a principled
and experienced leader
represent us in Washington
for so many years.
Never more so than now,
as our nation faces a
global health emergency,
an economic crisis, and a
long overdue racial reckoning.
Here in California we
have also been challenged
with devastating wildfires,
all pointing to the adverse
effects of climate change.
As we go forward together
to address these challenges,
we know your trademark
skill, courage, strength,
and resolve will help us through.
UCSF will continue to
do Al pot to prevent,
detect, trace, and treat
COVID-19 while driving forward
with new discoveries to help the nation.
And we hope that you will
continue to call on us
to partner with you in
your legislative efforts.
We are here to help in any way possible.
I know I speak for the
entire UCSF community
when I say thank you for being here today,
we are looking forward to hearing
more about your leadership
in the face of this pandemic,
lessons learned during your long tenure
in the House of Representatives
and how we can be helpful
advocates for science
and health policy in the months ahead.
Speaker Pelosi, I welcome you
to make a few opening remarks.
- Thank you very much Chancellor Hawgood
for your wonderful
invitation to be with you,
but more importantly,
for your years of service
to UCSF and your great
leadership now, as chancellor.
It's always a privilege to
visit UCSF this time virtually,
but never a time more urgently
than when we have so many crosscurrents
of how we meet the health
needs of the American people,
when we're in a fight about
respect for science as we do so.
I say that though,
remembering very clearly
decades ago when we in San Francisco
were blessed with the great intellectual
and health resource that UCSF
is when we took that terrible,
terrible taste of HIV AIDS,
right from the start that UCSF enabled me
when I came to Congress to
be able to have legislation
that led to the Ryan White Care Act,
where we could show that in San Francisco,
we had community-based research,
community-based prevention,
community-based care
because much of the work
that was done at UCSF.
So for a long time, UCSF
has been in the lead
in our nation in terms
of quality of ideas,
as well as implementation of them.
So as we come together now
at the time of a pandemic,
when you appropriately
referenced the wildfires,
which are a part of climate issue,
which is again another
issue where there is denial
of the science, it really
is very important for us
to kind to unify the country
around the beautiful,
beautiful gift that science is.
In the Congress sometimes
they say "Faith or science."
You have to choose between the two
and as a very devout
Catholic, I always say,
well, faith isn't science
is an answer to our prayers.
That's not always the answer they want.
But whatever you're talking about,
the answer is probably science.
Science in terms of health,
science in terms of preserving time,
science in terms of creating jobs,
science in terms of defending our nation,
protecting in terms of
sophistication in invention,
in order to protect our nation,
it's in every way and science
for our children to learn
about God's great creation.
So thank you for the
opportunity to be with you.
I really would love to
just get to questions
because there's so much going on here,
especially coming at a time when our State
is suffering from these fires,
the size of the grand Canyon,
the size of the State of Rhode Island,
the size of Rhode Island.
And we must at the same
time as the Gulf Coast
is being hit by hurricanes.
Again, we must address the climate crisis
and we can only do that through science,
science, science, and science.
So with that again, I
welcome the opportunity
to be with you.
We have talked over the years
about many of the aspects
of Congress and UCSF.
I'm so proud Jackie Spear and
I share the representation
of UCSF in the Congress
and we're proud to do so.
We're very proud of our
Mayor Breed in San Francisco
and what she is always doing,
but now in terms of
addressing the pandemic,
and we're very proud of Governor Newsom
and how he is leading us statewide.
We're not so proud about
how we're being led
the executive branch
on the national level,
but we are ever hopeful and prayerful
that we can get them on the right track.
We can talk more about that
depending on your questions,
but with that again, I thank
you for the opportunity
to be with you today.
I'm so proud to be associated
in any way with UCSF.
And I thank you for your leadership
in terms of the good
health of our community,
the intellectual resource
that you are to the world
and the job creator that you
are for our region as well.
So again, thank you.
And I welcome any questions you may have.
Let me thank Mark, we've
worked over the years together
and I look forward to
Francesca's questions
as we go forward.
Thank you Sam.
- Well, thank you Madam Speaker
and you can see from the
grayness outside the window
here at Mission Bay that we
still have quite a bit of smoke,
but I think it's a more
fogged in smoke this morning.
So that's a good sign.
I'm so pleased that
you opened your remarks
with a reference back to the early 80s.
When we faced together
the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
And at that time it was also
difficult to get a coordinated
national response and
I'm very proud that UCSF
and San Francisco led the way.
And it's been very helpful
for us in this pandemic,
but can you comment a little bit more
on why lessons were not learned
and we're still facing
difficulties in coordinating
a national U.S. response to COVID-19?
- I'm trying to be,
I want this not to be a
political conversation,
try to be as shall we say,
evidence-based as possible.
And the evidence is that there was denial
when this pandemic
verse descended upon us,
there was denial.
It was called a hoax, that delay,
the denial and distortion
of what it was set us back.
The lack of a proper testing
from the start was again,
another setback but we're all hopeful
that it was not going to
become what it has been,
but being hopeful is one thing preventing
that from happening is another,
and there was just such denial.
Now we did have four bipartisan bills
that we passed to help to the extent that
we could find bipartisan
agreement very important.
And some of that money and
the Cares Act came to UCSF
and part of that is to
help students with tuition,
but none of it was really enough,
and that's why we need the Heroes Act now.
Again, trying to sound
as unifying as possible.
There are two things here at
work that are not so good.
One is an anti-science attitude,
and the other is an
anti-government attitude.
You don't believe in government.
You don't want to have
regulations with clean air,
clean water or whatever, and
you don't believe in science,
so you don't have to pay
attention to science,
and therefore, you don't have to govern.
So you're just where
you wanna be, nowhere,
in terms of progress for our country.
And I think that anti-governance,
'cause that costs money
sometime to govern,
and also it requires a
recognition for science.
So let's just hope that
rather than looking back,
that we can look forward and
hope that the public awareness
of all of this will
take us to a place where
we have unity around science.
Now, the last couple of
days have not been good.
Administration came forward
with an exaggeration
of what the plus initiative
that the FDA put forth
with a emergency use
authorization exaggerated
by the Commissioner, walked
back by the Commissioner.
But hopefully that will be
something that is a red light,
a flashing light that
says when we go forward
with other therapies or
with a vaccine, God willing,
and soon we pray that they
will not be fast and moose
with saying to the scientist.
We know efficacy and safety
are your requirements.
We have another one that
Trump said it's called speed.
Well, if speed is not an inch,
we wanted as soon as we
can possibly have it,
be efficacious and say not
one day sooner than that,
but not one day later than
it is and can meet the needs.
So again, anti-governance, anti-science,
that was part of it.
And it's really, I do
practice medicine on the side
as a grandmother and mother,
I put out benefit of diploma.
I'm always giving people
medical advice, free of charge,
whether they ask God or not,
I'm only now moving into
mental health sector.
So I cannot explain to you
the mentality that is at work
that chose to go this path.
But hopefully the more I see
Abraham Lincoln behind me here,
he said, "Public sentiment is everything,
"with it you can
accomplish almost anything,
"without it, practically nothing."
So hopefully now the public sentiment
that is out there about this,
the concern that people
have for their health,
they have for their children, et cetera.
We'll insist that the
administration do things differently
and that we can work
together as we go forward.
It should be unifying,
it shouldn't be dividing.
- All right, well if the
Regents of the University
change their policy and it allowed us
to give out honorary degrees,
we would be more than happy
to give you an honorary degree
in medicine or nursing or
any other health profession.
- I will virtually except that thank you.
- Okay, great.
In terms of advocacy for science,
the great research
universities of the country
and academic medical
centers across the country,
obviously stand up for science every day.
And we since the turn of the year,
really have turned our research might
to this new virus and
incredibly exciting things
are coming out of the labs here at UCSF,
as well as other universities
across the country.
History tells us that
COVID-19 will definitely
not be the last pandemic
that we experience
in our lifetimes.
And I've been thinking
and speaking to my peers
across the country,
how we could perhaps create a more unified
research university academic response
in working with the federal government
to prepare the country for
what we know will come.
And just any thoughts that
you have on that approach
as a supplement to the wonderful agencies,
such as the FDA and the
CDC, how universities
could help the federal government
and the people of the country
as we prepare for the
inevitable next time?
- I think that again, from
your great scientific mind,
a great idea on how we can go forward
to exploit all of the opportunities
that science has to offer
in a way that saves time
and benefits the American people.
We do have a bit of a model.
I had the privilege in the 1990s,
as a member of the
Appropriations Committee.
I was tasked with three other people,
I had Tom Harkin in the Senate,
I had Arlen Specter in the
Senate and John Porter Republican
in the house, the four of us were tasked
to double the NIH budget over five years.
We didn't know how to do it,
but we knew we had to start.
And how it relates to your point is that
we immediately brought
in all of the leadership
of the leading institutions
of higher learning
in our country including
UCSF of course starting with,
and being from Baltimore
to Johns Hopkins as well,
but all of the leading administrators.
And we said to them you
have a great alumni list,
you have boards of governors,
visitors, trustees,
whatever you call them,
who are influential in the community.
You all have to join us in
calling upon others in Congress
to support the funding, the
doubling of the NIH budget.
It was our belief and
it continues to belief
to this day, that is the best dollar spent
by the U.S. government.
The biblical power to cure,
and in the case, you
mentioned about a pandemic,
even more urgent, but
biblical power to cure.
And the dollar spent not only create jobs,
not only science jobs, but
electricians, plumbers,
carpenters, assistants, all
different kinds of jobs.
That's one thing, but create,
answer solutions, illuminations.
So, but with that, we also doubled
National Science Foundation,
the rest recognizing
the connection between
the hard sciences and
the ability to enlarge,
to magnify, to compute,
to help us get quicker down the road,
genome project and other things.
So looking at that on how
scientists came together
to get this done,
I think speaks to your suggestion in a way
that they will have ideas
about how it might work
from their perspective across the country
involving the entire, unifying the country
around this idea that never again
will the United States
of America fall short
and are leading the world in our response.
We had some of this in
the Obama administration,
which was dismantled in
the Trump administration.
Don't ask me why, I don't know.
But nonetheless, we even
have to go well beyond that.
And what you called for is
brilliant, it's exciting.
And I think it would excite leaders,
now you are exceptional,
but leaders in your field
around the country to look
forward to working with you
to get that done.
And if that requires
any legislative action,
let's do that,
but it certainly will
require legislative funding.
So I look forward (laughs)
to working with you on that,
it's so necessary, right?
I mean it's so obviously necessary
and thank you for that
brilliant suggestion.
- Well, thank you for your support
and thank you for the Heroes
Act that you push through
and the support for the NIH in that act.
And also the support for caregivers.
One of the real existential
challenge that we're seeing
evolve here at UCSF and I suspect is true
around the country,
is that we are potentially at
risk of losing a generation,
particularly of early career women faculty
in the research community,
as a parent and grandparent,
you understand the
pressures that caregivers
are feeling as result of COVID-19.
And it's been particularly impactful
on our early career women faculty
and we're trying to see what
we can do alone here at UCSF
to preserve the generation
of brilliant scientists.
But, I wonder if you have any thoughts
that the federal government
might be able to help there as well?
- Well, there has to be a recognition
that UCSF have long ago
recognize that the need to grow
the talent, involve women
diversity in the ranks
that have a brilliant, the
benefit of all of that thinking.
And I remember in the past,
when we've had budget
challenges coming to UCSF
and meeting not only with
your leading scientists,
but the folks who worked with them
and how they saw their career paths,
just demolished by the fact that
we would not have the federal funding
that would be necessary to support.
The money is really important in this,
because we don't fund as
many grants as we should,
we'd have to do more
and we are doing more,
but we need to do more because only then
will we reach the diversity
that we need to reach
as well as diversity in gender,
but also otherwise as well.
So to those young people,
and especially now with this,
because it's people are risking
their lives to save lives,
and now they may lose their jobs.
For them to go to work, they
may have to risk their lives
and bring something
home to their children.
Their children cannot go
to school because of the
actual is not happening is mostly virtual.
Then how are they going to go to work
unless we support them with childcare.
So we are making a massive
investment in childcare,
actually in the Heroes Act
we have about $55 billion,
$55 billion, but on the floor
of the House beyond pandemic,
we have $210 billion
both using the tax code
and using the appropriated
function and policy
to make health childcare available,
especially when we're
talking about parents
and their career path
scientifically, or even just
if they're not inventing
that caring for people.
And that is such a valuable
part of the good health
of our country.
So we see it all connected.
We see it connected
and greater investments
in our research and
development and the NIH
and extramurally as this
benefits institutions like UCSF.
Not that there's anything like UCSF
that is in the category
of and outside the walls
institution, but also
to recognize that again,
we always say, when women
succeed America succeeds,
for women to succeed,
all of dads take care of the
children too, by and large,
we want them both moms and
dads to have the childcare
they need to go forward.
We also have to have some
debt forgiveness and a better,
a more affordable way for the
education to happen in this.
And in the Heroes Act also we correct
what the State of California,
the State of Texas had
their own version of how
docs could take advantage
of a debt forgiveness, loan forgiveness,
and that hopefully this will become law
or this part of it will become law
even if the whole bill doesn't,
so that we can crack the Texas
California challenge there.
But I thank you for
recognizing that our healthcare
is only as good as it is,
represents every aspect of our society.
And you would think that that is something
that everyone would encourage,
not only by the education
of our healthcare providers,
our scientists, but also by
including everyone in the loop
to have access to healthcare,
because we all learn from each other,
the epidemiology of it all
benefits, the more we know,
and that's the beauty of UCSF,
in a place so diverse as San Francisco
and California, and that
you learn from your patients
and your patients benefit from knowledge
as does every other person.
I always say the most
privileged person in America,
I don't care how rich he or she is.
They all benefit from by the
poorest people in America
having access to health care
because we learn from each other.
- Well, that's a great
transition to perhaps
the next question.
'Cause one of the things that
has been clearly underscored
by the pandemic is the
enormous disparities
in health outcomes, not just for COVID-19,
but more broadly across
almost any disease type.
One of the things that we have done,
and you may have read about in April
a group of our researchers
partnered strongly
with the community and did a
study of coronavirus infections
in a census tract in the Mission District.
That tract is 58% Latin X,
but we found that the incidents
of coronavirus infection
was 11 times higher than the city average
and 95% of the people who
tested positive were Latin X.
And I think this was the first study
to really underscore the
disparities in the pandemic.
And also underscore that for
testing to be successful,
it will need to be smart testing
along the lines of the
precision medicine initiative,
really test those populations that we know
are most challenged here.
And I hope that we could be of help to you
as testing strategies
continue to be developed,
how we can deploy this limited resource
in the most effective way possible.
So, any thoughts on how we
can help get that message out
that we need to do smart testing
as well as just universal testing.
- I appreciate that and I did,
I obviously was saddened and
stunted to see the results
of your study,
but it is indicative of what
is happening in the country.
And it was something that
I could use as an example
of some scientific research,
because people would say,
that's the anecdotal one.
I said, well, in appropriations,
and you've heard me say
the same so many times
the plural of anecdote is not data.
However, data is data and you had data.
So it was more than an
example of something.
It was a scientific and that
was, has been very valuable.
And I thank you for that.
Right now well in Heroes Act,
we have a large amount
of money for testing.
And what we wanted to do was to readdress
the fact that the disparity
for communities of color
is a total reality in all of this.
Unless we have testing,
tracing, treatment,
isolation, of course, wear
your mask and sanitation.
But those things that we
could do, public entities,
this is absolutely essential.
It takes money, but not
only is to take money,
it takes data.
So in the previous one of
the previous COVID deals,
we insisted that they get
the data, give us the data,
how communities work,
that when there were tests
were made, et cetera,
and what you did see,
not as much as we would
have liked them to do it.
But nonetheless,
the just publicly you see
that the communities of color
are hit very hard.
And there are many
deaths out of proportion
to the demographic, the number
of people in our country.
So, for us, when we're
talking to them and we say,
we insist if we're going to do this.
We want you to do it,
they don't wanna do it.
We want you to do it, but you
have to do it scientifically.
We have to keep track
of what has happened.
And they say, "Don't tell
them I told you that."
They say, "Do you know how hard it is
"to keep track of your needs?"
Yes, and that's why we have to do it.
Because if you wanna
have the smart testing,
we have to be able to use
our resources in a way.
And it's immoral.
It's immoral for us to proceed with this
without recognizing the
disparity in the communities
of color, you know that
better than anyone.
But we have to kind of convey
that to some people who don't,
shall we say, are not as
close to the public experience
as some of the rest of us are.
But I would welcome any
suggestions you have
about making that test is fine.
And what we're trying to do,
and the Bay Area will be a
sport intellectual source
for this is to have quicker results,
quicker results, the
quicker we get the results,
and then we can trace
when it has more meaning
because it isn't seven days later.
(Sam coughs)
So the testing and then trace
them and then the treatment.
Now they said to us testing
is overrated oh, really?
Treating, tracing is hard to do, yeah.
How are we gonna do the
treatment if we don't know?
So we have to quantify it all.
And again we want it to
have, to use your word,
the precision of exactly who was impacted
and how we can help.
And one of the big pieces of this is also
the isolation or keeping people separate
once they are once they are diagnosed.
'Cause I worked someplace,
I'm afraid to get tested because if I do,
I might lose my job or what,
how am I gonna go home?
And all of that, what it takes money,
but it saves lives and stop the spread.
We just have to recognize
that if we're going to crush,
we're gonna crush this
virus which we must do.
That it is going to take
resources scientifically spent.
Again, with the data to see
the results of what is working
so that we can again,
make sure and be ready for
when there is a vaccine,
God willing soon or therapies
that they just don't go to,
shall we say the whitest richest
people that anybody knows,
but they go to everyone,
everyone, everyone in our community.
It is something we have to pray over
because not everybody shall we say
has the benefit of having
UCSF in their district
and understanding that this not the,
you can save a lot of time, money
and lives if you start
from a scientific basis.
- Well, thank you.
Thank you for that
understanding and leadership.
I'm going to ask just one more question
before I hand it over
to vice chancellor Vega
for taking questions from the audience.
And this is perhaps a
little more personal.
You've been in Congress
now for many decades
and have seen many different leaders,
leadership style, role
models, anti role models.
Could you comment briefly on
how your approach to leadership
has changed over time and what lessons
you've found most useful
for aspiring leaders?
- Well, first for aspiring dealers,
I would say the best
advice I ever received then
Mr. Chancellor is to be
yourself, be yourself.
Authenticity is everything in what we do.
You know that scientifically,
but authenticity
and be who you are that you
there's nobody like you,
you are the unique you, can
make your special difference.
So over the years, when I never
intended to go to Congress,
I never intended to run for public office
I'm basically a very shy person.
Well, I used to be anyway and (laughs)-
(indistinct)
with Congress and I
thought I'm never gonna run
I've five kids, but by
then my children were
four of them were in
college five and six years,
five and six years say, so
that's why the children,
the children, the children
are my three most important issues
in terms of their health, their education,
the economic security of their families
and they're the safe,
that means gun safety
to environment in which they
can thrive and world at peace
in which they can reach their fulfillment.
And so it's about the children.
One in five in America lives
in poverty, I say that again.
Did you say what guidance would you get?
Know your, why?
Why do you want to be engaged
in whether it's science
or public office or
whatever the military would
know your why?
When you know your why that
gives you the confidence
that what you know about that subject
and the judgment you bring to it,
and the plan you have to make a difference
will attract so much support to you
because it is authentically
you, genuinely you,
uniquely you, so know
your power in that regard.
And the more diversity, the better
I say that with all the respect
in the worlds are my
dear husband and brothers
and all the rest.
It's not that we're better
women are better or whatever.
It's just you need the
diversity of opinion there.
So, I never intended to run,
then they asked me to run.
So I ran, I won, oh my gosh.
And now I'm going to Congress
never intended to run
for leadership, but
after a period of time,
people came to me and said,
you should run for leadership.
Now I love my appropriations committee.
They brought a chair, Jeff,
they committed that fund,
the NIH and the rest.
And that borne up, I
loved my committee work
and intelligence, there were two places
I was poached, intelligence
and appropriation
by and large, largely bipartisan,
not highly partisan committees.
And then I am deciding
to run for leadership.
And here I am, but it
wasn't a path that I was on.
But in terms of over the years, 33 years,
this summer, I'm 33 years in the county.
It's about respecting other
people's points of view.
You always, I took that to the Congress,
I was raised in a political
household and we were Democrats,
but we respected other
people's points of view.
And that was part of being a Democrat.
Telling American, proud of our heritage,
devoutly Catholic, still in
all, still in all (laughs)
fiercely patriotic, fiercely patriotic
as ethnic groups tend to be.
And in our case, staunchly democratic.
We saw that as part of
our thing do unto others,
the gospel of Matthew and the rest.
So again, not to convey
my point of view to you,
but you, you are authentic
you is what you have to be
when you go there.
And whatever it is, whether it's military,
corporate America, academia,
politics, whatever,
just know, beat it, just
bound you who you are,
know your power because there's
nobody, nobody like you.
So again, consensus building.
When I see now that,
which today, this week,
the 100th anniversary of
women having right to vote,
they worked so hard, they
fought, they struggle,
they fought.
And when they won, people said,
"Women given the right to vote.
"No, they weren't given
anything (laughs) fought for it.
And they won it and it was important.
And we stand on their shoulders
of how courageous they were
to get that done.
But the fact is, is that, as I said,
not that women are better than men,
but the diversity at
the table is essential.
And women, as I might,
just to your question
that I see are more consensus building.
Listen, we listen and respect
other views and try to see,
people say to me, "Oh, you
really round up your troops
"like hurting cats."
No, it's not like hurting cats at all.
It's about building consensus,
listening to what they care about,
how we shape our best
possible way forward.
So know your power, listen,
they can build your consensus,
but to women, especially I say, be ready.
'Cause I didn't think for a minute
I will be going to come and never go
when I would run for
leadership, but I was ready.
- Well, that's great advice
to all those listening.
I'm now going to turn it
over to vice chancellor,
Francesca Vega to moderate
a question and answer
if you're open to that Madam Speaker.
- My pleasure, thank
you, nice talking to you.
- Thank you, thank you so
much for this conversation.
Francesca over to you.
- Great, thank you, Chancellor Hawgood
and thank you so much, Madam
Speaker for your leadership
engagement and steadfast support
for science public health.
And of course for UCSF.
There has been a lot of
interest in today's conversation
with you across the UCSF organization.
We currently have nearly
4,000 participants.
- Yes.
- Yes, and we have received
some great questions
from our communities
since the session began.
So I will jump into it.
We will start with a
question from Melissa Truong,
who was beginning her sixth
year in the developmental
and STEM cell biology
program here at UCSF.
Melissa, the floor is yours.
- [Melissa] Thank you for
taking the time to meet with us
Speaker Pelosi and for
always being a great advocate
for science.
My name is Melissa Truong
and I'm a graduate student
studying developmental biology at UCSF.
And my research looks at how
cells send and receive signals
during embryonic development
and how the skills can really go right,
in cancer diseases.
And I do this research in
what's called a wet lab,
which means that my experiments
must be done in the lab
with cells and mice.
When COVID-19 four slides
that UCSF's to shut down,
researchers had to
immediately scrap experiments,
stop reading mice and
freeze down their cells.
As the lab slowly reopen,
it will take months
to get these experiments back on track
and recover from the shutdown.
However, we're also facing a
whole new set of challenges
with labs operating at 25% capacity.
Incoming graduate students
are not able to learn
experimental techniques and rotating lab.
Senior graduate students and
post-doctoral researchers
are unable to find jobs due
to university hiring freezes,
in particular, those with
young children at home
are really struggling to juggle childcare
and the means of research.
All of this to say that trainees
and early career researchers
are acutely impacted
by this pandemic.
And by the research on topics like cancer,
neurodegenerative
disorders and heart disease
have been delayed.
And trainees will have
to stay longer in labs,
putting additional strain on NIH grants.
My question is this, as
you continue to negotiate
with the Senate and administration
for additional COVID-19 funding,
is there support for
increasing research funding
to ensure a robust recovery
for the American research enterprise
and assistance for
early career scientists?
- Thank you for your question as we're sad
but clear description of a challenge
that the pandemic places
in terms of research
and the opportunity for
everyone to participate
because of labs being shut
down or lack of childcare.
And the connection of all of that.
But let me just say that,
as we had been saying,
science is the only way
we're gonna crush this virus.
So we have to make up for
whatever laws there is.
And in the Heroes Act,
we have $4.7 billion
in part, the National Institutes of Health
in part to make up for the lost research.
We want supplements for research, grants
and contracts affected by COVID-19,
emergency relief for support,
emergency support personnel,
regulatory accommodation,
for existing grants
and contracts and just the
practical aspects of it.
And we can only do that
well, we have the money,
the policy, as well as your experience,
your experience just as
you described it there
is a roadmap to some of the
things that we have to be sure
are not excluded, but
are very much prioritized
and how we write the law.
And then there's certain things
that apply to people individually.
In other words, what we do
on childcare and the rest
and how the tax code impacts people
for expenditures they're making
that they might not have had
to make where they're still
using policy, appropriations
and the tax code, how we
not only in macro sense
address the problems
that you have described,
but in the personal sense, help people
pope in a very good way,
and again, not to sacrifice the
wellbeing of their children.
'Cause they say people are
saving, working to save lives,
risking their own lives.
And again, at the risk of losing
their scientific opportunity or their jobs
associated with that.
So I thank you for your question
and as with the Chancellor
Hawgood suggestion
about how we establish something
to be ready for the
pandemic that could be next,
that this, what you're
describing helps us prepare
for that as well.
So I look forward to
continuing that conversation.
Melissa, thank you.
- Thank you Melissa for
that important question.
Now we'll turn to a question
that we've actually received
again and again, from our UCSF community
and that's as advocates for
science, health and community,
what can we at UCSF do to
help the democratic process
during the pandemic?
- Well, vote will be a good thing.
You used the term earlier, public health.
I do think that this a pandemic
appoints to the need for us
to have a greater emphasis
on the importance,
as well as the budgeting priority
for public health system,
we may need to have a community like
a civil conservation group
or with healthcare workers,
this time tracing, but beyond that.
That is culturally,
appropriate, linguistically
prepared to reach out to
everyone in our communities,
and not only to meet their needs,
but to invite their leadership
into meeting the needs
of our entire country.
And so I would say that again,
if you wanted to find something
that was everything was about
health, that was about jobs,
that was about children and their future,
that was about a sense of community,
that was about recognition
of the beautiful diversity.
I always say in San Francisco
the beauty is our mix,
in my Congress, I say our
diversity is our strength.
Our unity is our power.
We can't leave it unless you
respect all of the elements
of that diversity.
So I would say right now,
the most important thing
is for people to vote
and to do so early enough
so that their vote is counted as cast.
We're having a fight in the
COVID and the Hero's Act
over the census and how
that count will take place
and the timing of it and the
timing of the reporting of it.
So there's some elements right
now without sounding partisan
I'm just giving a civics lesson here
where there is not a full appreciation of
why we need to have an honest count
in terms of our census and
why people shouldn't be afraid
to sign up because of some
statements that are made
by some and why we have
to have an honest count
in our election so that it is legitimate
and that we have to ignore
fear-mongering that says,
we're going to not be able
to deliver your mail on time.
Don't pay attention to
that, just vote early,
just vote early, again, know
your power and all of this.
And again, if there's one thing
that would emerge from this
in addition to what the
chancellor have suggested,
which is excellent, excellent,
I can't wait to get to
work with him on this,
as well as what Melissa was saying,
or the ramifications of all
of this is that your comments
about the public health service
and how important that is.
But for that to succeed, we have to have
public policy in place.
And for that to happen,
people who are running
for office have to hear
from their constituents,
why this is important
and hold us all accountable for that.
I see Mark on the line.
- Yeah, Speaker Pelosi I'm
here to officially thank you
for taking time with us today
on behalf of the nearly 4,000 people,
but really on behalf of all of us at UCSF,
this whole community, the Bay
Area, the State, the nation,
we're so grateful for your leadership.
You've always been there
for us, always listened.
And I think what, you've, what people,
what they admire what you're doing now,
your history of helping the
underserved in this country
and helping in healthcare
is just unsurpassed.
And while we call it Obamacare,
there's a little asterisk that
says it's really Pelosi care
because you made that
happen and it has changed
and improved the lives
of millions of people.
So, on behalf of all of us,
please accept our deep gratitude,
admiration, we sleep better
at night knowing you're there.
So thank you Speaker Pelosi.
- I appreciate your saying that.
And none of what would have happened
without the courage my House Democrats,
but none of it would have happened
without the intellectual
resource that you are,
that you UCSF and I thank you
for that and your recognition
that our diversity is our
strength in our community
and how we learn from each other,
but how we need to serve
each other as well.
Right now we're fighting
for the Affordable Care Act in court.
We're fighting for preexisting conditions,
we're fighting for all of that.
So the fight never ends,
but at the same time,
we're figuring out how
we could expand the bill,
come January, and we'll
be in touch with you
as we all constantly to see
what suggestions you all have.
I thank all of you for what you do,
yet has blessed you with
the intellectual curiosity
and capacity to follow your dreams
and in doing so in the scientific path,
to make a difference, to
make progress for our nation.
And so to UCSF I say, thank
you and to the women out there,
congratulations 100 years
since we've had the vote,
we now have to use the
vote to make a difference
so that we can improve the
world for the children.
Thank you Mark, Thank you
Sam, thank you Francesca.
Thank you.
- Thank you Speaker Pelosi.
I'm going to ask as you
leave us Speaker Pelosi,
I'm gonna ask the rest of the participants
to hang on for a little bit.
We have a few other items
we wanna cover today.
So let me just go to that very quickly.
I think we have time for Keith Yamamoto,
our special advisor to the
chancellor on science policy
and strategy, and Natalie Albert,
our executive director for
federal government relations,
to give you a quick overview
of our federal government priorities.
But there's one thing I
want to ask all of you
who are watching this,
how you can get engaged
in something that's really important.
It's local, it affects us at UCSF.
We will need federal help with it,
we're going to need state help with it,
we're going to need local help with it.
And that's the rebuilding of
our Parnassus Heights Campus.
We are entering a critical phase
in the comprehensive
Parnassus Heights plan
as you will hear about
it includes the hospital,
research buildings,
really the modernization,
and turning our campus into
a true, beautiful campus,
but we need everyone to get engaged now,
this will be going to the
regions for action in early 2021.
And I would like to ask all of you,
if you are willing to be an
advocate for the science,
for the teaching, for
the community service,
for dealing with health equity,
for dealing with healthcare
services for people who need it,
to go online and text Parnassus,
you see it right here,
to 52886 that will give you
a link on how to sign up,
or you can go to ucsf.edu/cphp/advocate.
Because what we need from all
of you is to join our advocacy
efforts to take UCSF
even to the next level.
With that, let me turn
it over to Natalie Albert
and Keith Yamamoto.
- Hello everybody,
I'm Natalie Albert,
I handle Federal Government
Relations for UCSF
and as UCSF liaison to
the federal government.
It's my job to advocate
for some of the policies
that we were talking about
in the conversation today,
I work to support UCSF's mission
to educate, heal, and discover.
So that means working
to increase investments
in biomedical research,
promoting UCSF's contributions
to healthcare and innovation,
and serving as a resource
to both policymakers in DC,
but also to you all the UCSF community.
There are lots of ways for
you to influence policy
in your roles at UCSF.
In addition to our UCSF
advocates campaign,
which I think we're gonna hear
about for in a few minutes,
you will, let's see, our
students faculty and clinicians
can also share their
research and expertise
by meeting with policy makers,
by participating in legislative briefings
and by weighing in on legislation
and regulations that impact
the work that you do.
So just please look to me and
to my colleague, Amy Alden,
who handles State and Local
Government as resources
that you can contact if you
hear from an elected official,
who's looking for more information
or if you wanna learn more about
opportunities to advocate for UCSF
at the federal State and local levels.
So as you may guess, for
the last six months or so,
most of UCSFs federal
advocacy has been focused
on the government's
response to the pandemic.
We've been sharing UCSF's
research in clinical expertise
with members of Congress,
including Speaker Pelosi
and leaders of the Department
of Health and Human Services
to help shape all kinds of policy,
including the expanded
tele-health policies
that have been so widely used at UCSF,
as well as helping to
address the disproportionate
impact of COVID-19 on communities of color
and helping to better target
Healthcare Provider
Relief Fund distributions.
We've also been working to help mitigate
the impact of lab closures,
which Keith Yamamoto will discuss
with you in just a minute.
So as we look forward towards the election
and the final months of this Congress
addressing the impacts of the pandemic,
we'll definitely still be
among our top priorities
as it will be for our
nation's policymakers.
However, Congress is
also quickly closing in,
on September 30th, which is the deadline
to fund the federal
government for FYI 2021.
So in addition to the stalled COVID-19
supplemental funding package,
Congress is also gonna be under
increasing pressure to pass
an annual appropriations bill.
That includes a lot of
UCSFs key priorities,
including important
investments in education,
research and healthcare.
So a lot remains uncertain
about what the next
Congress might look like.
But we're looking forward to
working with Speaker Pelosi
under her leadership to push
them of our top priorities,
which include ensuring
access to vital research,
including fetal tissue research,
working on an infrastructure
package that supports
the growing needs of our
medical and research community.
And then protecting DACA and undocumented
and other vulnerable
members of our community.
Just to name a few of the things
that we'll be looking to do
in the coming year.
We'll need your voice and your advocacy
to accomplish these goals
and we hope you'll consider
joining us in our efforts.
And with that, I'll turn
it over to Keith Yamamoto,
special advisor to the chancellor
for science policy and
strategy to talk about our work
to increase federal
investments in research.
Thanks Keith.
- Thanks, Natalie.
And thanks all of you for
staying on board here.
I'll just wanna say a few words
where our time is limited,
but a few words about our
research advocacy efforts.
I'm gonna focus on Washington, DC.
We're also active at the
State level but in DC,
we're really actively in conversations
with members of Congress,
including Speaker Pelosi of course.
But also with elements
of the administration,
the Office of Science
and Technology Policy,
which is the president's
office of science,
the Department of Health
and Human Services,
of which NIH is one (faintly speaking)
to respond to the Melissa
Trump so well documented
in her question to speaker,
the effect of the shutdown
was devastating in really
stopping all research
that's not related to COVID-19.
And of course, really putting a stop.
- So unfortunately it
looks like we lost Keith.
So what I would like to do real quickly,
unless Keith can rejoin us, we
have just a few minutes left.
I wanted to just very briefly,
of course, thank Natalie and Keith,
I'm sorry that we lost
Keith and I wanted to
thank all of you for joining us here today
for this very important discussion.
This was just a snapshot
of the advocacy priorities
that we have in front of us.
Now is the ask of all of you.
And that's ensuring that
our voice is indeed heard,
and we are aware of all of the
opportunities that we have,
within the UCSF community to get engaged.
So make sure you check
your voter registration
and you update that information.
We also have a couple of
upcoming virtual events,
I think would be very helpful.
I want to ensure that you
are educated and well versed
on the priorities, some
of what you heard today,
and other ways that we can engage
to ensure that UCSF voice is heard.
We need to vote early
and safely of course.
So here's some information for you.
I want to acknowledge Allie Jones,
who is part of the community
and government relations team,
and is managing the various
voter engagement efforts
across the UCSF organization.
Thank you everybody, we appreciate it.
