Karen S. Lynch, EVP, CVS Health & President at Aetna & Larry Merlo, President and CEO at CVS Health

Well, Deborah, thanks for the question, and it's great to be here with everyone. Look, as we think about all of the things that we're prepared for, and I think every company in America has things like disaster recovery plans, a common denominator for those plans is often times they're geographically concentrated, they're time-based in that they have a beginning, they have an end. And you know, this is very different what we're experiencing with the pandemic. It's coast to coast, quite frankly, it's across the globe. And as we sit here in this tremendous period of uncertainty, it certainly is not time-based. We don't know when it will end. And as a company, at the same time while this pandemic has been going on, we're about 20 months into transforming our business with CVS Health and Aetna coming together as one company. We have been working to become a more diversified health services company with the strategic goal of meeting people where they are in terms of providing more accessibility, making it simpler to use and access health-related services, and in doing so, help individuals achieve their best health and reduce overall healthcare costs. So the pandemic really became an opportunity to reprioritize elements of that transformation journey to deliver health services, create new solutions, and make them accessible in non-traditional settings. And said another way, it really brought our strategy to life in a much more meaningful way. And all of this points to the fact that CVS Health, our CVS pharmacies within our business unit, is much more than just a drugstore. And it really speaks to the strength of the diversification that this business model brings in terms of working across our three core businesses to drive new solutions.

Well, Deborah, a lot of this goes back to where we started the conversation. Our journey has been to bring a new kind of healthcare company to the marketplace, and the pandemic has accelerated our transformation. And that is allowing us to meet the needs of our communities, our customers, our clients in very meaningful ways. And we are seeing a very dramatic shift towards what I'll call multi-channel integrated health delivery. We've used the word omnichannel as it's related to commerce for the last few years. I think we're now defining what omnichannel means for health. And it really fits our strategy nicely. It's what this new company is built for in terms of meeting people where they are, whether it's in their community, in their home, or in the palm of their hand. And it's interesting, Deborah, a lot of people have talked about the future, questioning the future of bricks and mortar. And we're building this intersection between digital or virtual offerings and our physical assets to create a more holistic experience, an end-to-end experience. We were talking to someone not that long ago, and they used a phrase that stuck with me. They said, 'Larry, when you think about healthcare, it is a contact sport in that eventually there's many things that you can start digitally, you can be treated, diagnosed digitally, but eventually in healthcare, you have to touch someone.' And we also know that many of the healthcare experiences are very personal in nature, and people want to be able to have that face-to-face interaction. And all of what we're talking about here underscores that our strategy is the right one, not just in meeting some of today's new needs, but those new needs will become new normals and really help to define the future of healthcare.

Well, Deborah, it's a great question. And there's absolutely no question that the pandemic has hit Black and Brown communities especially hard. And this has been further magnified by an overdue reckoning of racial inequality across all aspects of our society. And at CVS Health, we have long recognized that how long you live are often shaped by where you live. And analysis has shown that social determinants of health, whether you're describing housing, education, employment, access to healthy food, healthy living, that they are linked to increased risks of COVID-19 infections and unfortunately death. Our reach into communities across the country and the established trusted relationship we have built with community health organizations has allowed us to act quickly to be an important part of the solution. And we have leveraged those existing relationships to quickly build a system to provide testing solutions to some of the more underserved, hardest-hit communities across the country. And as we've done that and look at the positivity rates of COVID, we've seen it more than two times the positive infection rate of state averages, just as an example of what we've seen. Other examples, since 2015, CVS Health and our foundation have provided more than $10 million in grants to the National Association of Free and Charitable Clinics and its members. And it's these clinics that have become a primary site of care for many community members that have been affected by COVID-19. Deborah, as we think about what's next, I also see the importance and the role that we can play in fostering reliable public health information. And you look at some of the data that's coming out from the research that's being done, we've seen several polls that now speak to the African-American communities as being the least likely to say that they would get a COVID-19 vaccine once it becomes available. And the partnerships that I alluded to with community health organizations and experts, together we can help promote the importance of inoculation across all communities in an effort to achieve herd immunity. And then, Deborah, one of the things that I think we're particularly proud of, it's something very new. We have been a founding partner of the Black Information Network. It is a new news service from iHeartRadio that was dedicated to providing a trusted source of news coverage with a Black voice and perspective. So Deborah, just wrapping up on this theme, as an organization, we've committed about $600 million to build on existing programs to make new investments to address racial inequality and social determinants of health in Black communities and reinforce existing programs that have worked in terms of providing solutions. And that includes providing pathways to the workforce and creating sustainable careers. So we're quite proud of the actions that we've taken and the role that we can play again in being part of the solution.

Well, Deborah, first of all, I know I speak and our entire executive management team, we could not be prouder of our 300,000 CVS Health colleagues. You think about the challenges that we've had as a country and in our professional lives as well as the impact that it's had in our personal lives. And our colleagues have stepped up in unbelievable ways to be an important part of the solution in the communities that we serve across the company. And they truly have brought our purpose of helping people on their path to better health to life in meaningful ways. And for that, we can't thank them enough for their commitment to our organization. Yeah, Deborah, I think back to your question. A lot of it goes back to, I think we've established this theme that we have a diversified business model and the breadth and strength of those assets and the strategy that we're well on our way, it does allow us to continue to lead and to respond to the challenges and the opportunities as they arise. And we touched on the role of telemedicine today, we touched on the role of testing. And I think we're all keeping our fingers crossed and let's speak with a bit of optimism that our scientists will find the vaccine and continue to pursue treatments for COVID. And we will play an important role in that distribution strategy to achieve widespread access for millions of Americans across the country. And I think we've demonstrated that with what we've been able to do in terms of standing up testing solutions in communities across the country. And it's hard to believe that almost 4 million people now have been tested at CVS pharmacies across the country. And I will say, as we think about that vaccine, members of our CVS Health team have been involved in the various task forces that have been formed that are responsible for planning both the distribution and administration of the vaccine once it's available. And Karen, I'll flip it over to you.

Thank you. Thank you, Deborah.