Sally Susman

“And I think the joy around issues of diversity and inclusion equity is very important. You know for the first time. Pfizer started flying the Gay flag during June Pride Month at all of our facilities. We also started flying recently the Black Lives Matter flag.”<br />

“And in addition to the continuous, courageous and candid conversations, we have become much more transparent about our representation goals, and that is for primarily racial minorities, but it's increasingly including LGBT members. I mean, I saw that the state of California, and I believe it's in Nasdaq as well, have required greater diversity on boards. And I know you're fielding a lot of people for a lot of boards, and they included LGBTQ in that. And yes, it may be harder to identify, and there are pools where you can go fishing for great LGBT people, like forums like the Victory Fund or the Human Rights Campaign and sponsor their events or participate in some of their activities. Or you can just ask me because I know a lot of them… I know in a deep well of highly talented LGBTQ leaders who would be honored to have a chance to work in your companies or serve on your boards.”

“My company has four values: courage, excellence, equity, and trust. No, equity and joy. Sorry. Equity and joy. I always forget joy. And so it's not how does it relate to our politics? For example, our recent decision to go against the judge in Texas who said the FDA should not allow people to have the drug for abortion. We immediately came out against the judge and for the FDA.”

Q: “The question is about either your personal stance or the stance of Pfizer on gender affirming care, particularly for children and minors.” A: “We're for it.” Q: “Anything further you want to say about that?” A: “No, because I think it's a ridiculous issue. I mean, I don't mean to belittle the question, but people using healthcare as a political tool is unacceptable.”

Q: “What do you think we can do [about the spread of disinformation]? Do we need more arbiters of fact or what is the solution to that?” A: “Well, I think the solution is a work in progress, arbiters of fact, for sure. We also need governments around the world to have the capabilities to appropriately regulate it. I'm not saying it should be hyper regulated, but if people are giving out disinformation about health, about education, if some of this information is hurtful to children or other vulnerable people, it needs to be explored and protected. And going back kind of to where we started, I think companies, especially the tech companies, have a big role to play in this and they need to step up to the moment.”