美女免费一级视频在线观看

    1. <form id=BiMYPaeIF><nobr id=BiMYPaeIF></nobr></form>
      <address id=BiMYPaeIF><nobr id=BiMYPaeIF><nobr id=BiMYPaeIF></nobr></nobr></address>

      Are you ready for some football?

      The 2025 NFL season kicks off this week with the defending champion Philadelphia Eagles hosting the Dallas Cowboys on Thursday night.

      The highest linear TV ratings are usually delivered by live sports broadcasts and no entity is a more reliable generator for eyeballs than the NFL.

      It should then come as no surprise that drugmakers want to intensify their relationship with the league.

      Take, for example, Novartis was named the first-ever corporate pharmaceutical partner of the NFL in March.

      The announcement came one month after the Swiss pharma giant ran its first Super Bowl ad to raise awareness for breast cancer.

      While Novartis receives top billing as the lead pharma sponsor for the NFL, there are other health brands pursuing opportunities with players and franchises across the league.

      This week, we’re joined by Stacia Garner, VP of marketing at Edwards Lifesciences, to discuss the company’s partnership with the Los Angeles Rams to raise awareness of heart valve failure.

      And for our Trends segment, we welcome back Steven Madden to MM+M and dive into the ongoing turmoil at the CDC. 

      Music: “Deep Reflection” by DP and Triple Scoop Music.

      Check us out at: mmm-online.com

      Follow us: 

      YouTube: @MMM-online
      TikTok: @MMMnews 
      Instagram: @MMMnewsonline
      Twitter/X: @MMMnews
      LinkedIn: MM+M

      To read more of the most timely, balanced and original reporting in medical marketing, subscribe here.

      Note: The MM+M Podcast uses speech-recognition software to generate transcripts, which may contain errors. Please use the transcript as a tool but check the corresponding audio before quoting the podcast.

      Dear MM+M Podcast listener, I’ve got one question for you: Are you ready for some football?

      The 2025 NFL season kicks off this week with the defending champion Philadelphia Eagles hosting the Dallas Cowboys on Thursday night.

      Then, the Kansas City Chiefs play the Los Angeles Chargers in Brazil on Friday night.

      Live sports have been an advertising safe haven for pharma and health brands in recent years as the modern media landscape continues to splinter.

      The highest linear TV ratings are usually delivered by live sports broadcasts and no entity is a more reliable generator for eyeballs than the NFL.

      It should then come as no surprise that drugmakers want to intensify their relationship with the league.

      Take, for example, Novartis was named the first-ever corporate pharmaceutical partner of the NFL in March.

      The announcement came one month after the Swiss pharma giant ran its first Super Bowl ad to raise awareness for breast cancer.

      In addition to sponsoring the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game that aired late last month, Novartis is also supporting the league’s Crucial Catch initiative alongside the American Cancer Society and encouraging fans to make proactive decisions with their health.

      While Novartis receives top billing as the lead pharma sponsor for the NFL, there are other health brands pursuing opportunities with players and franchises across the league.

      This week, we’re joined by Stacia Garner, VP of marketing at Edwards Lifesciences, to discuss the company’s partnership with the Los Angeles Rams to raise awareness of heart valve failure.

      Garner discusses the in-person and social media elements of the Off the Sidelines collaboration with the Rams and how medical marketers can strategically pursue opportunities with sports franchises.

      And for our Trends segment, we welcome back Steven Madden to MM+M and dive into the ongoing turmoil at the CDC.

      Stasia, it’s wonderful to have you on the show. How are you doing today? Good, thanks. How are you? I’m doing wonderful. I appreciate you being on the show, especially here ahead of the NFL season kickoff on September 4th. Obviously, you and your organization have a special relationship with the league, specifically the Los Angeles Rams. Talk to me a little bit about the partnership between Edwards Life Sciences and the Rams. How that began, how it all came together, and where it’s going now with this latest initiative?

      I mean, honestly, it’s like any Cinderella story, Jack, where sometimes you’re just at the right place at the right time. And we had an opportunity a couple of years ago to continue some efforts that we were doing in the community to drive awareness around the significant effects of a part volunteer on a wide variety of communities and we just needed to find that right partner. And we did. We found it in the RAMS.

      It was It was completely by a stroke of luck, right place, right time where we had a connection in and we got some conversations on the books with some key folks over there and the magic happened in the room and the rest his history. I bet there’s a lot of folks in our audience and I kind of want to get into that later in the interview who look at this and say, I want to be able to coordinate with a pro sports team, let alone one that’s in the NFL. We’ll get to that part of it.

      But I’m curious, walk us through the actual steps that go into this partnership with the Rams. You know, it’s one of those things where you have an in-person aspect to it. You have had a digital play, there’s advertising components. Talk about what that all looks like on an actual granular basis. Absolutely. Like any good partnership, it really starts with two organizations coming together and and saying, hey, let’s just put it out all out on the table. Um you know, what do you need? What do we need?

      And how we we bring those elements together in a way that you know is going to serve the broader community. Um so we we’ve tried and and frankly we failed um together at several things to you know continue to innovate and get to the elements of the program that we have today. And the elements of the program we have are uh you know number one, community-based. So, we go out into the local Los Angeles community in partnership with the Rams six times a year to conduct community screenings.

      Some of those are done at the stadium where we can bring Rams fans in to experience all of the elements of of the team.

      And sometimes those are out in the community where we can, you know, be where the the folks are that we’re trying to reach and we bring the Rams to them, which is such an incredible incredible opportunity A large part of what we do in educating the community also has to do with earned media and a lot of engagement with television stations and and bringing in spokespeople to really get the word out and make sure that folks know that we are going to be in their community providing this really amazing service for them for free.

      You talked earlier about obviously having successes but then also having joint failures too and that’s part of any sort of partnership whether you know on the professional side, personal side. I’m curious how in working with the Rams you’ve been able to determine like which aspects of the partnership are feasible. You know you’ve you’ve had elements of this involved players. Like how does that even work? work in terms of, like, it’s not just to we’re going to slap two brands together and say that’s a partnership. It’s like actually making it happen.

      One of the things I love about the Rams is is true to their ethos is they don’t look at their team as a sponsorship team. They look at their team as a partnership team. And even just simple language like that can completely change the dynamic of a relationship between between two brands.

      So really it starts with having that real-time dialogue, looking at each of event and saying, what went well for us, what didn’t go well for us, and how are we going to change, what we need to change in order in order to be more successful going forward. And so it’s very much a constant communication dialogue dynamic between us and the ramps to ensure that every single time we show up in the community, we’re doing it better, faster, smarter.

      There is no fail. There is only success or learning, and I think both of our organizations really buy into that ethos. And that’s why every time we come into the community, we’re doing it better, faster, smarter than the last time. And what happened some of those learnings too?

      Because obviously you’re dealing with again the most popular sports league, not only in America but some could argue the world, but you’re ultimately highlighting what is relative to other disease states and conditions, a pretty unknown or unrecognized condition heart valve failure. That’s one of those things where it’s like you’re trying to almost link up the two. Where it’s like we’re taking something very popular to to highlight something that’s more relatively obscure? Absolutely.

      I mean, heart valve failure from a disease state perspective, only affects a few million people here in the US. And so, from that perspective, it is a fairly rare disease state.

      And so, it in order for us to get our message out at scale, and in the way that these communities that we’re trying to reach will willingly receive that message, it’s extremely important to do so in partnership with a well-known organization that that only puts their equity and their brand behind other partners that they know are in it for the right reasons as well.

      And so, it’s been a really amazing opportunity for us to go into a community like Los Angeles and really deepen that awareness and that understanding of this disease and to be able to provide participants with needed education to participate more frequently and and from a place of empowerment because they’re getting information that perhaps maybe they otherwise may not have received if it weren’t for this effort. I am curious too for the sake of our audience.

      Like I think back to last year when there were the Paris Olympics, the Summer Olympics and there were so many health brands that we saw activating there. We saw Sanofi and Eli Lilly and the list goes on and I think that we’ve started to see this kind of change in terms of where health brands are really trying to find marketing opportunities and they’re going towards live sports. I’m sure people look and say I want to be with the Rams or I want to have whatever my team is in my my marketing stuff like that.

      How would you How would you advise leaders in our audience to go about starting off that conversation? Because it’s it’s not just one of those things where you just call up the phone and say, “Hey, I want to be in touch with our local baseball team or basketball team.” Like you really have to forge that relationship. Absolutely. I think first and foremost, any any marketer is is going to look at a situation where you’re always going to be somewhat cost constrained. You’re always going to be somewhat resource constrained.

      And so it’s a It’s incredibly important that you’re being very selective in those partnerships and and looking at those areas where you’re going to be able to get the most amount of that that scalability and that message into the market at a cost and a and a frequency that you need to from an ROI perspective.

      And so you know for us the NFL was just a very natural place for us to go because our focus is really in getting into underserved communities. These are, um, you know, communities that are not necessarily, um, able to, to get, uh, reliable access to health care that, you know, need, this important information, but they also need to hear it from a trusted source.

      And so the NFL was a wonderful, uh, you know, entry point for us and, and a very unified goal, uh, between us, obviously, and the Rams, which is what makes that partnership work. Uh, it’s not that we haven’t been approached by other sports teams. We’ve had, you know, reach out from from hockey or baseball or MLB, other areas that are interested to partner.

      But for us, it was about getting really clear on what is that strategic criteria and the partnership that was going to get us the access to the communities that we were trying to reach and do so in a trusted way and in a way that we could be proud of with a very symbiotic relationship. So you kind of start big and then you start to whittle yourself down to a very very small list of of people that fit all of those criteria. Absolutely.

      And I I want to ask you just from a marketer’s perspective because when the season kicks off on September 4th, Novartis is going to be the first pharmaceutical partner of the NFL and we saw, you know, the Super Bowl ad that they ran one, Pfizer ran a SuperBowl ad. Like there is this interest from health brands to get involved with the NFL. Can you talk a little bit just about and you were kind of underscoring it there as opposed to maybe other sports teams that have approached you, the value of being able to partner with, in this case, an NFL franchise, but with the league from a brand perspective.

      You know, look, the NFL is, to your earlier point, Jack, is one of the largest and most well-known, not only just in the US, but but globally, organizations. And when it comes to being able to get a message to a community in a trusted fashion and at scale. There really isn’t any other better organization to do that with than the NFL themselves.

      And that instant credibility, that instant ability to access these communities that you’re looking to serve with your messaging and your education, really it’s a it’s a no-brainer for us and it was something we knew we needed to do in order to get the message out to the degree that we needed to. I want to ask you a question in terms of what’s been the most fun in terms of this partnership. I know you’ve had a lot of different community events that you’ve hosted.

      You had the the ad that you ran with the Lakers and obviously the Rams mascot. Like what have you enjoyed most about this partnership that’s multi-years in the making? I love this question, Jack, because for a lot of brands, the the fun aspect or the rewarding aspect is is the partnership itself and you know the opportunity to do these really amazing cutting-edge programs with an NFL team.

      But I will tell you the thing that is most rewarding for me that when I lay my head on the pillow at night, I go look back and say this is this is something I’m going to remember as a career building moment.

      It’s actually sitting in those community screening rooms and seeing the local community being able to engage with our clinicians, being able to ask questions and have this unfettered access to doctors who are are able to answer their questions without being rushed and being pushed out of a, uh, you know, of a room and having those participants come back to us and say, “Thank you so much.” This was a life-changing event for me.

      I’m so glad that I showed up here today. I wasn’t sure, but now that I’ve been here, this is just spectacular and I got information that I’m going to go do something with and be more of an advocate for my health. That is why we do these programs. Absolutely. And and I think it goes about saying that obviously heart valve failure like so many other cardiovascular diseases and we’ve covered that extensively on the podcast. It’s just one of those things you just can’t mess around with.

      It’s not one of those diseases that you can ever overlook and so the opportunity to be able to go into those underprivileged historically marginalized communities is really meaningful in that sort of way. Absolutely. The communities that were looking to reach you know we we talk a lot about food desserts.

      There are healthcare desserts out there and there are a lot groups of communities that are just as affected as other patients that are just not getting access equitable access to care.

      And so when we can go into these communities in partnership with a wonderful brand like the Rams, and we can provide that education, access to free screening that otherwise perhaps they may not have had that they can take proactive steps in their health to potentially even avoid a significant diagnosis around cardiovascular disease, that is what this is about.

      It’s about getting equitable access to education, equitable access to screening and making sure folks can participate more fully and effectively in their healthcare journey. Definitely. And it’s one of those things too that you know I’m I’m here recording this interview in New York.

      You’re obviously based in California and the and the idea that even in these large metro areas, there can still be these disparity and issues relating to access and quality of care for patients is something that any health organization would want to be able to highlight and rectify. It’s good to see that you’re doing that on behalf of your work with the Rams. Station, it’s been wonderful having you on the podcast. I do want to ask one question. I am a huge football fan, a huge fan of the New England Patriots as plenty of our listeners probably know.

      With the season kicking off, outside of obviously the relationship with the Rams, what are you most looking forward to? And I should tell our audience we are recording this one day after Taylor Swift announced her engagement to Travis Yeah Kelsey. So for many people that is the biggest thing that they’re excited about, but with the season kicking off, what are you most excited about? Gosh, I tell you, it’s just been such a pleasure to partner with Quinton and his dad, Carnell.

      And so I’m looking forward and sharing him on as much as we absolutely can to have a wonderful season as for the Rams. You know, we’re all Rams fans here at Edwards and looking forward to them having an amazing season season, again, under coach McBay. And honestly, for the future, it’s really about how do we continue to build and optimize on this partnership, not only with the Rams, but potentially other other teams and other their markets that we know are in desperate need for the work that we’re doing here.

      And for those who are listening to the podcast and maybe haven’t seen the clip on social media over Stacy’s right shoulder, you can see a Rams helmet there. So the the pride of the Rams goes deep at Edwards Life Sciences. Stacy, wonderful to have you on the podcast here. Thank you again for sharing all the insights and all the work that you do on on this front and we look forward to connecting again down the line. Thank you, Jack. It’s a pleasure.

      The camp Pay US, 40 over 40 awards returned to New York City on September 25th. We’re celebrating the leaders who’ve built the lasting careers and still push the industry forward. From breakthrough creative to bold innovation, these honorees set the standard for what comes next. Join us to connect, celebrate and be part of the story. Use promo code pod to save $100 off your ticket. Register at campaignus40over40.com. That’s campaignus40over40.com.

      So, this is the part of the broadcast, we’re usually talking about something that’s trending in the world of healthcare and we’re going to get to that because the CDC is actively on fire, but there’s some trending news out of the world of MMN and you want to hop in here with a voice that I’m sure people are familiar with? I don’t think anyone would remember my voice. That would be Steve Madden on his return to MMN. Let’s just start there. How you doing? I’m good. How are you guys been? I’m I think like they used to say about Richard Nixon, I’m tan, rested and ready.

      I I like I like the I like the comp of Nixon in this wave like coming back into the fold and everything like that. I’m sure there’s a lot of a lot we can unpack there. I know we all have a bunch of questions. I know you haven’t met here right before, so that’s going to be an introduction all itself, but you’ve you’ve worked with Les and I before. Obviously, you’ve now going to be working with Jameson, like how does it feel to be back when we start there? It’s a little bit surreal. I mean, it really is. Um and a whole bunch of different ways.

      When uh when I was gone, I was getting up very early in the morning to to go to my gig. And And what And what was the gig too for those who may be unaware? I was the second oldest life guard in New Jersey. I was also a swim instructor and an aquatic exercise instructor and a personal trainer.

      But I was getting up at 5:00 to go open a pool or to go to a gym that I worked at to set it up for the days the days workouts. So I actually got to sleep in a little bit this morning. I didn’t have to get up till 6:30, which was really nice. And then I you know, just like it was June 2024, I walked a mile to the train. I got on the train. Unlike 2024, the train was early. Um arrived in Penn Station early.

      I came in to the hay market office and sat at the high top where I had sat for five years, except for COVID. And a lot of the same people were here, and there’s a lot of new faces, but It was I got to tell you, man. It’s It’s It’s It’s kind of surreal and uh it’s also sort of surreal going to work with a shirt on. Again. Again, a lot we can unpack there. And as you noted too, some things stay the same, some things change.

      The Wi-Fi password here did not The change Wi-Fi but no No, the there Wi-Fi is consistency I asked for it and I was like oh that yeah that’s the that’s what it was 15 months ago. Surprise your phone didn’t automatically just connect? Or did you get a new phone? Um no, I definitely need a new phone. I’ve got the phone like from it’s just the screen is cracked and the selfies are are horrible and everything. That’s probably why the Wi-Fi wasn’t in the automatic connection there. Um I want to bring some other folks in here.

      I mean obviously you know since you left we’ve had some changes in leadership, changes in structure on the team. Jameson is here almost to the day. I think Yeah since we I was announced going to make that point that I started the day after Labor Day last year. So it’s almost exactly 365 days.

      Uh and I I’m so excited to to bring you in and I think you’re the perfect piece to to fill out this team because we needed somebody to come in here with experience in the industry who loves to write and that was the one thing that you know you really reiterated to me when we were talking about your return as you just want to write. And so I’m I’m I want to know what are you most excited about doing now that you’re back at MMN and in a different role where you can just focus on being a content creator?

      That’s That’s an awesome question because I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately. The I think the thing the single thing I’m most excited about again is creating, right? Um I’ve you have a lot of time by yourself to think when you’re a life guard. You sit and watch people and there’s only so much critiquing of someone’s stroke that you can do before your your mind wanders.

      And I started thinking about like you know it was almost 40 years that I 40 years ago that I started in journalism. And Journalism’s a weird thing, like you get promoted, I mean it’s completely different now than it was in the 80s, but you got promoted by demonstrating a strong ability to do the job that you were currently doing. rather than like, oh you you’re a really good writer. Like you should be an editor.

      Well, some some some of the worst editors in the world are are great writers and vice versa. And sort of the currency of advancement and I wanted to advance because I was an ambitious young man. Um I sort of gave up the thing I loved most that drew me to it and that was not just the writing but I love reporting. I love going out and talking to people and asking them nosey questions. questions. You’ve got a license as a a journalist to ask nosey questions.

      Um and I think that’s probably what I’m looking forward to the most is the reporting part of it. The writing part of it, that’s a little less fun. I think we all know you sit down at the at a computer and open a vein and and that’s called writing. But I think the interaction, the reporting, I love one of the things I love about Hey Market’s business model is the events.

      Um I really I really like the rubbing shoulders with people and seeing the whole industry come together and the sort of friction and the sparks that that come out of that. So very long answer to a very simple question, Jameson. Sorry. I’ll give the the plug for the events. We got MM&M Awards on October 9th, Media Summit on the 30th in October, and then AI Deciphered in November, mid-November.

      So three chances to come out and see Steve and all of us, but But also Steve, for those But all of us, but all of but all of us. It takes a village. Lesha, you also worked with uh Steve since I joined here too. Want to bring you into the fold there. Yeah, Steve. Um I’m curious during your time away, you know, I don’t know if it’s been a year or 15 months as you said.

      Um is there anything that you learned from your time away or sort of that time doing other things that gave you a new perspective that you’re excited to bring back to Eminem and implementing your new role here? That’s a great question.

      I think I think if I learn if I’ve learned anything, it’s the value of and this is going to sound really soft and mushy, but like the the value of of stillness and calm and what that does for the thinking process. You can’t writing is thinking and thinking is it fundamental to writing.

      But but being able to have a a clarity of thought and mind and purpose is huge. And it sounds like that sounds really lofty for a guy who was teaching little kids how to swim. But it would it’s it’s true. It it um just calmness and stillness and putting The other thing about being a life guard is you cannot have your phone with you when you do it.

      So being able to put the phone aside and focus was huge and just being able to unplug a little bit like that was does a does a mind a world of good. So, I think that’s one thing I’m going to try and hold on to. Yeah, that’s awesome. I’m always trying to reduce my screen time and and improve my attention span. So, sure that’s helpful for writing. Yeah, I hope so.

      You were talking a little bit earlier about being in this about 40 years and obviously span a number of different mediums and outlets and all that sort of stuff and it’s interesting. I it’s how I want to bring Hirae into the conversation is we brought on Hirae in November of last year and she’s made incredible drives as a reporter, editors, taking on the helm of our social media operation starting this fall. And so here I know this is an odd way.

      I guess this is kind of the most modern way of introduction but here is coming to us remotely today but here is Steve Steve here. Hey here I Have a good look. It’s nice to meet you. Sorry I can’t be there in person today to say hi but I’m sure we’ll meet I’m sure we’ll catch up yeah. Um no it’s great to kind of finally put a face to the name. heard so much, uh, so many great things.

      Um, my question to you is, yeah, Jack mentioned like I started last year kind of in this industry where I was just like learning so much about all these names that I’ve never come across before, all these agency names and I’m sure like with the new cycle so much has happened in the past year uh, within the healthcare industry space and agency space.

      I’m kind of curious about like how much of that you’ve kept up with over the last year and if there’s anything that’s happened in the space that’s kind of like surprised you or because you’ve have you have like so much experience in this industry as well. Um, yeah, anything that kind of like pinged you and you’re like, “Oh, okay, this is surprising or this is exciting now that I’m back.” Well, there we’re going to talk about the CDC later, right?

      Yeah, so I’m going to I’m going to set that aside um because that’s certainly that’s certainly eye opening.

      But um how what happened what’s happened with GLP-1s really like so when I walked out on the 7th Avenue on July 1st, 2024 um Novo, Nordic and and other manufacturers were riding high on on the success of this class of drugs and the gas has come out of that.

      Not not the use in the application of it because it’s certainly so effective and and widespread now. But the the way the profits came out of it have been that that’s been fairly amazing. That and this is the inevitable comment about AI. Seeing what AI has done. I’ve got long story, but I’ve got three kids who are recent college graduates and they had a hell of a time finding work.

      One of them still is because of what AI has done to entry-level jobs. And what I’ve been really surprised at how AI has been used in some, not all, but some ad categories where it’s just so obvious that it’s AI and they’re like, “Yeah, we don’t care. We’re going to do it anyway. We’re just going to put it in.” That’s been kind of surprising to me.

      What’s not surprising is the fact that like from my perspective AI and design is still not anywhere near where it needs to be and still needs the human guardrails for sure. But I think I think fine reasonable minds could disagree on that. So those are probably the biggest things that the continued impact on the tech platforms on the on the agencies.

      And and the and media outlets, like what what these things can do. I think that’s that’s what we’re going to be talking about in the next year. Mhm. Yeah, for sure. And that’s also something I think we’ve all kind of like touched on with our reporting, especially like the GLP-1s AI. Um so really interested and excited to have your perspective now that you’re back. Thanks. It’s good to be here.

      And I wanted this is kind of both a question for you but also for Jameson as well because I think there’s plenty people in our audience who see you coming back into the fold and they say, all right, like, this is a full roster of MM & M and what is that next iteration of the brand looked like and I’m sure it’s conversations that the two of you have had in terms of what that next generation of MM&M looks like, you want to give our audience a little bit of an idea of what the plans are. Yeah, I can start on that one. I mean, we’ve we’ve been working to it over the past year.

      The summer was kind of slow, but I mean, what you’re going to see out of us is really the goal to have one really 10 pull story up on the site a day supported by multiple pieces of the news or campaign write-ups, but for every reader to know that they can come to MMN every day, get a morning newsletter and have one piece of really solid strong reporting to take to your day because like we recognize you don’t have 10, 20, 30 minutes to spend with a trade publisher anymore.

      So like if you’re going to spend 5 or 10 minutes with us, we got to make it that best 5 or 10 minutes possible. And so we want to make sure that every day you have something you can take back to your job and feel like you’re smarter because of it and have bits of information that your colleagues are going to wonder where you got that from. And that’s kind of the goal is we’ve got four really talented people on this team who really know the industry inside and out and I think we’re going to really deliver that for audiences moving forward.

      And you see yourself in that too? So in the Navy, one of the most important positions on a ship is the executive officer. the executive officers number two, right? It was kind of the person who execute what the command wants to do and I see myself helping Jameson with that and I see myself as a as a key contributor. But you know this is this is an opportunity that allows me to get back to what I love to do best and what I feel like I do best.

      And you know someone like Jameson has a much better I’m not a digital native. I remember the first time ever sat down at a computer. We talked about this when we had lunch at at the Hill Country. And someone who’s thinking more digitally like that in a native way, in a fluent way, can it can benefit me by saying having that experience to say like hey this is what you need to be focusing on and how you need to focus on it.

      And then me saying okay and here’s how I think I can bring my skill set to help you execute that vision. So I think that’s how I see myself fitting in here, but seeing the brand continue to evolve has been has been pretty cool. I mean it’s and it’s changed a lot in 15 in 15 months. Very obvious looking through the agency 100 you’re you put your imprint on it Jamison already so Thank hold you.

      on I hope that’s a compliment Absolutely No I think it was so you know it’s wonderful to have you back on you know you were the guy that hired me so that’s it’s it’s odd in that That sort of way, you know, just it the way things go in the That’s right. I’ve I’ve hired I hired three of the four people in this room. Yeah. Wow. Forgot about that. That includes you fits. The The quiet one over here. But no, it’s wonderful to have you back in.

      I’m very excited kind of to Jameson’s point of this ongoing mission of reimagining what MMN can be and delivering that value prop to our audience and something that’s very cool. So I hope that we’re going to be able to get your writing in sooner than later, you know. Yeah, well, going to find out about what I’m going to be writing in about two hours. So that’s I have some ideas too. That’s a That’s a message to all of our listeners to go check out the site and and see Steve’s by line showing up plenty often.

      But if we want to transition over to the other news of the day that it’s happening outside of these four walls, the chaos of the CDC and I know that a lot of people have had their vacations planned, out of office, all that sort of stuff and so they may not have been privy, but just to get people up to speed before we kind of dive into where things stand as of Tuesday, September 2nd at midday.

      The Trump administration had requested that Susan Montez, who was the first CDC director to step down from the role or be fired, she refused used, basically said to the White House, “Fire me.” And they did. And it set off this chain reaction of people, you know, basically seeing this as a power play for RFK Jr. to consolidate power ahead of the vaccine season that we’re going to have with all the respiratory illnesses. You think of the flu, RSV, COVID.

      And then we had on top of all of this, we have Trump coming out last night, I think it was at this point. It was on Monday. Uh saying that the pharma companies need to prove their COVID vaccines and they very nebulous, ambiguous way, prove their effectiveness and prove their value to consumers beyond all of the studies and research that is out there a plenty.

      And then the nine living CDC directors either acting or permanent in function wrote an op-ed saying that in the New York Times saying that RFK Jr. is a danger to public health in America. So there’s a lot going on here. I feel bad for Hirai and Leshik because they literally just wrote a piece about the first six months of RFK Jr. that went up days before this all happened. So, I sympathize with you on that front. But Lesha, why don’t I go to you?

      Because you have both of you have written that piece like and you covered the moderators news when that was coming out. What do you make of where things stand currently? Yeah, so I mean RFK Jr. has obviously been taking a vaccine skeptics. Some might say anti-vaccine approach this entire time that he’s been secretary of HHS. Back in May, the CDC dropped the recommendation that pregnant women and healthy children receive COVID shots.

      He fired all of the members of the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee and then hired his own hand-chosen members, including some vaccine skeptics to take those places. There’s been a lot of mixed signals coming from federal agencies on vaccine policy because as we know Cece Moneris was fired for disagreeing with Kennedy on his anti-vaccine push.

      I will note also in the last week, the FDA did approve the latest versions of the COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax. But there are limited authorizations for them. So Moderna’s shot is only authorized for people six months and up. Pfizer’s for ages five and up and Novavax’s for 12 and up, but only if they are at a high risk of being severely ill.

      So this is a pretty big break from previous US vaccine policy which recommended an annual COVID shot for all Americans six months and up, and you did not need to have an underlying condition to get it. So, it’s unclear how that access is going to change for regular Americans who want to get their booster shots this year. Um, that’s kind of remains to be seen how hard it is to be able to get one. There’s been a number of events and just in the last week that has happened.

      I think pharma companies have remained quiet on it so far. Pfizer and Moderna has not commented directly on all of this turmoil. Their shares did go up slightly after they did receive the new authorizations for their booster shots despite the limitations. I imagine they’re planning on just trying to stay the course, which is what they’ve been doing this entire time.

      And I guess that’s a question of it’s the question of the day really and Steve I’ll throw it over to you is like is stay the course enough when you have this level of upheaval at the federal level and it’s a significant part of their business is selling these vaccines like is that enough? Is that something that you can survive on? I don’t know. There are times when I when I wonder like why pharma doesn’t come out swinging. You know? Um and and just say like you’re wrong.

      But then I can think of literally hundreds of billions of dollars hundreds of billions of reasons why they why they don’t do it. But it’s also smart to just kind of stay the course because yes there’s upheaval but who knows what’s going to happen this afternoon? I mean it’s just so hard to tell. It’s so hard to plan on anything. The um management style of the day is chaos and you can’t you cannot predict chaos.

      So just sort of like staying in the middle of the road, keeping your head down, staying quiet making the vaccines, knowing that in some manner shape or form they will be used this year. This is a question just is by whom and who pays for them. Yeah, and then we’ve seen and maybe James and this is on ramp for you to come in as we’ve seen we were talking about it earlier is Cracker Barrel got enough trouble just for changing their logo and they’re not the ones that are somehow affecting health policy in this country.

      Like it is it is a tough position of being as a company when you’re in the middle of a culture war, especially one that affects people Yeah, I mean this administration has shown that you know they will retaliate against anybody who stands up against them.

      It’s not like 2016 to 2020 where companies for the most part could withstand any kind of you know comments from the administration but it’s it’s an entirely different climate now and you know these all seem like small fights that they’re picking with pharma for the most part and so there’s really no reason to you know jeopardize something larger right now if you’re you’re some of these companies.

      I think the moment a significant crisis does happen, I I would hope that they would then finally take a stand on something because at some point we could be looking at a new infectious disease, a bad flu season and we we need these companies as as a society to be able to take the proper stand for science because right now from 2016 to 2020, you could still trust CDC to, you know, give accurate information, even if there was disinformation coming from the rest of the administration.

      But now, anything you that comes out of the CDC, it’s it’s hard to trust what they’re going to say. And I can give you just anecdotal information. I spent Labor Day up in Maine with my wife’s family and and had multiple people there like you cover healthcare and stuff and they’re like, what are your thoughts on this next round of COVID vaccines with the flu shot or whatever? And I was like, if it’s out there, you should get it. But they were even pleading to me. They’re like, “There is this misinformation and I hear one thing or another. And that’s tough just for a lay person to be able to to navigate on a day-to-day basis.

      If you got a job, if you got kids, full-time responsibilities, you’re not going to be looking at like, oh what’s the latest thing the CDC just put out there? And there’s just so much to be able to to go through and I feel like that’s where our audience comes into play as being able to cut through that, but it’s tough. I don’t know how you do it. Alesha, I want to throw one more question over to you because you you did I think it was a couple of years ago you interviewed Mandy Cohen who at the time was the director of the CDC and you know you’ve covered a a number of different.

      We talked about it when HHS earlier this year rescinded the wild to mild campaign. Like we’ve seen the CDC certainly during the Biden administration really come out there and and try and be proactive in that sort of way and we’re seeing that rescinded. We’re seeing the the very public pushback. Like just what do you make of that as somebody that’s been reporting on this for a while like this kind of mixed messaging we see coming out of CDC?

      Yeah, I mean I remember when I spoke with Mandy Cohen, who is the previous CDC director, she had a big emphasis this on restoring trust in the public because there’s been a mistrust for a while like during the COVID pandemic, there was a lot of flip-flopping from federal agencies and COVID guidelines, if you remember all of that. And so there’s been sort of like a public health crisis on on the communication side of things and like trust the public kind of mistrusting federal agencies that’s been going on for a while.

      Mandy Cohen really really felt strongly about trying to restore that. Kennedy is obviously taking a completely different way of doing it, claiming that he’s going to restore trust by pulling back all vaccine guidelines, but it seems like his communications are all over the place and nobody’s really sure what’s going on. As Steve mentioned, it’s just like absolute chaos every day. Things are changing on a day-to-day basis.

      So it doesn’t seem like he has a very clear policy on communications and like a consistent communications policy when it comes to trust. No, and I totally get that and that’s something too I think just for our audience’s sake, something to keep an eye out for Senator Cassidy, who was one of the deciding votes getting RFK Jr.’s nomination out of committee before the full Senate.

      He has called on the upcoming vaccine meeting, the ASAP meeting to be delayed in mid-September, that hasn’t been confirmed yet, but he has gone out there publicly to call for that. And RFK Jr. is going to testify in front of the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday. So that’s going to be his first public remarks since this entire controversy unfold over the past week. It’ll be interesting to watch. Don’t know what’s going to happen. And to Steve’s point, it could all change by the time that you’re listening to this, it could all be undone and and completely in left field.

      So, something that our audience needs to be focused on, we’re certainly going to be focused on it from a reporting perspective and getting thoughts from leaders across the industry in terms of how you navigate the unnavigable, is that a word? Yes. Yeah, we’ll go with that. I look to you. It is now. It is now. You You made the Navy comment, I’m going with the ship metaphor, so we’re good to go there. Thank you for joining us on this week’s episode of the MMN podcast. Please be sure to listen to next week’s episode, we’ll be joined by a special guest. Take care.

      The MMN podcast is produced by Bill Fitz Patrick, Gordon Feller, Lesha Bushek, Ira Rickraj, and Jack O’Brien. Great review and follow every episode wherever you listen to the podcast. And be sure to check out our website mm-online.com for the top news stories on the pharmaceutical industry and medical marketing agencies.

      The campaign US 40 over 40 Forbes return to New York City on September 25th. We’re celebrating the leaders who’ve built the lasting careers and still push the industry forward. From breakthrough creative to bold innovation, these honorees set the standard for what comes next. Join us to connect, celebrate, and be part of the story. Use promo code pod to save $100 off your ticket. Register at campaignus40over40.com. That’s campaignus40over40.com.