>> Brad Smith, thank you for joining me once again
in the land of social distancing. Hope you're keeping well?
>> I am keeping well.
It's great to see from a distance of 2,300 miles Trevor.
I think that passes the six-foot cast with a little margin error.
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>> One group of
people who have truly
emerged as the heroes of this crisis are doctors.
These medical professionals, these doctors, are heroes because,
they're putting themselves in harms
way to keep everybody else alive right now.
You have an organization that you're very
passionate about and work with through Microsoft,
tell me a little bit about them.
>> Well, when you think about it Trevor,
this is a virus without borders.
It is spreading around the world.
Not surprisingly, one of
the most important organizations fighting
this virus is Doctors Without Borders.
So I'm really thrilled that we're here today with Avril Benoit,
the executive directors, the leader of Doctors Without Borders.
>> This is a time unlike any,
where the entire world is
dealing with the exact same crisis at the same time.
I don't think that's ever happened in human history before.
What are you experiencing as Doctors Without
Borders because you aren't experiencing it in one place,
you're experiencing it all over the globe?
>> We're overwhelmed to be honest.
This is brutal. We have operations in more than 70 countries.
I'm proud to say that our teams all over the world,
initially it started with, okay,
how can we do the infection control?
How can we maybe check how many supplies of masks that we have?
What can we do to make sure that
our own hospitals and medical facilities are going to be safe?
The answer is, it's a problem.
We have supply problems,
just like we have in some of the hospitals in
the US where you've got
medical staff looking at the shortage of masks,
looking at the shortage of gowns and
all the other personal protective equipment that they would
require to be safe in looking after these cases.
Then you've got all the other people who rely on
our medical services and who are vulnerable.
So just to say,
it's a heck of a lot of work and we're on it.
>> One thing we've noticed is that
the coronavirus genuinely has no border,
and so it experiences waves from nation to nation.
What do you think some of the concerns are that you have as
an international organization of
doctors that people may not even be considering yet?
>> Many of the places in the world that we work
right now are about to enter the peak season for malnutrition,
the peak season for malaria,
and it's it's going to make it very
complicated also because we haven't even
seen the full dynamic of this virus in many places.
This is the combination that we haven't seen yet and, of course,
we're being very attentive so that we can pay attention and sound
the alarm if we start to see trends emerging in that regard.
>> Brad, I want to bring you in for a second and chat you about
Microsoft's role in all of this and
what tools and resources you feel you've been
able to bring to them to try and help them with what they need.
>> Obviously, doctors in the field need to be with patients,
but you've got, Avril,
obviously people in offices who are working from home.
You've got a supply chain of
medical equipment you're trying to manage.
So for us to be able to work with you to provide Office 365,
Teams, basically the digital infrastructure.
We like to think of ourselves as the digital supporters and
first responders for the world's first responders
and that's what Doctors Without Borders is.
It's on global first respond.
>> What would you say are the two major areas that
your organization needs help with the most?
>> We're looking to really be able to protect our staff above all,
because once they're protected,
they can then help others.
So in terms of that local procurement of supplies for PPE,
that's an enormous help to us.
The other thing is, a lot of things are costing more.
Do you know that PPE now, for us,
for our procurement people trying to get
it cost 10 times more than normal.
The price gouging is
obnoxious and we're also having to organize our own cargo planes.
We can't just ship it the normal ways and it's an emergency.
So we have to go really fast.
Things are costing more,
and we really appreciate
all the support that we have from around the world.
We're privately funded.
So these donations which people can
make to our website, doctorswithoutborders.org,
we will make it go a long way and do everything we can to
respond to this unprecedented global health emergency.
>> Well, thank you so much for being on the front lines.
Honestly, it's something we've never seen before.
I hope more than ever,
people appreciate the people
who are willing to risk their lives to keep the rest of us safe.
So thank you so much for spearheading these efforts.
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