Erika Cheung | Whistleblower Who EXPOSED Elizabeth Holmes In 'The Dropout' | Where Are They Now? — Transcript

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1. 0:00when people lie on their deathbed i
2. 0:02rarely
3. 0:03expect that anyone will say i wish i
4. 0:06worked x more hours to generate y more
5. 0:08of revenue erica chung is the perfect
6. 0:11example of if you don't stand for
7. 0:13something you'll fall for anything she
8. 0:16is a modern day hero who spoke out
9. 0:19against the company that had attempted
10. 0:20to bully her into submission through
11. 0:23guerrilla style tactics
12. 0:25and now viewers get to see it all play
13. 0:27out on the screen with the hulu
14. 0:29miniseries the dropout
15. 0:31she and two other whistleblowers were
16. 0:33instrumental in the takedown of the
17. 0:35fraudster elizabeth holmes who collected
18. 0:38millions of dollars in investors money
19. 0:40on the promise of a machine that didn't
20. 0:42work
21. 0:43and now we see what erica has done since
22. 0:45her time at theranos and how she's
23. 0:47reacting to the ongoing trials today
24. 0:49we're covering erica chung one of the
25. 0:51three whistleblowers in the theranos
26. 0:53takedown tomorrow though you decide let
27. 0:56us know in the comments down below who
28. 0:58you think we should cover on the next
29. 0:59episode of where are they now while
30. 1:01you're down there it would be awesome if
31. 1:03you could like this video so we know to
32. 1:04keep making more just like it let's get
33. 1:06into it let's just skip from erica's
34. 1:08early life to how she got started at
35. 1:10theranos she graduated from uc berkeley
36. 1:13with a dual degree in molecular cell
37. 1:15biology and linguistics she had gone to
38. 1:18a career fair on campus and got a
39. 1:20successful interview with a small
40. 1:22company called theranos
41. 1:24at the time of erica's application the
42. 1:26company was just starting so she was
43. 1:28there from basically the inception and
44. 1:30creation of the company how erica had
45. 1:33been sold the concept of theranose was
46. 1:35that they had a machine called the
47. 1:36edison that only needed a single finger
48. 1:39prick of blood rather than hooking a
49. 1:41patient up to a needle and getting tubes
50. 1:43of it for testing
51. 1:44the idea was revolutionary and could
52. 1:47potentially open the door to tons of
53. 1:49advancement in medical science it also
54. 1:52meant that if you had a device that
55. 1:53allowed for more frequent and much less
56. 1:55invasive diagnostics and testing you
57. 1:58could potentially catch something in
58. 2:00patients that were in extremely
59. 2:02beginning stages saving countless lives
60. 2:05so erica got the interview and was put
61. 2:07on the team
62. 2:08she started out as a junior lab
63. 2:10associate she describes her first red
64. 2:13flag within the company as being when
65. 2:14she would sit in meetings reviewing data
66. 2:16with her co-workers and higher-ups her
67. 2:19higher-ups would request that they
68. 2:20removed the outlier or a data point that
69. 2:23wasn't like the rest to see if it helps
70. 2:25accuracy ratings
71. 2:27in math the outlier is often ignored but
72. 2:30when it comes to medical science the
73. 2:31outlier is a real patient rather than
74. 2:34just a random number
75. 2:35the real patient's blood sample was off
76. 2:38and they decided to ignore it to see if
77. 2:40it would let the accuracy ratings go up
78. 2:43another red flag was when erica was
79. 2:45testing patient blood samples for
80. 2:46prostate cancer she ran it on a
81. 2:48commercially available testing machine
82. 2:50and found that the patient had low risk
83. 2:53then she ran a blood sample on the
84. 2:54edison machine and the results jumped up
85. 2:57to having a high risk of prostate cancer
86. 3:00she ran it again on the edison and it
87. 3:02lowered to a concern then she ran it
88. 3:04third time and it was low risk the
89. 3:07numbers were all over the place and had
90. 3:09no reliability whatsoever
91. 3:12while the idea of a patient receiving a
92. 3:14false cancer diagnosis is heartbreaking
93. 3:16what's worse is if a patient receives a
94. 3:18false negative
95. 3:20what if someone has an extremely high
96. 3:22risk of prostate cancer but the edison
97. 3:24tells them it's low
98. 3:26that person will then take that
99. 3:27information and it could have
100. 3:28potentially life-altering effects when
101. 3:31she took her concerns to sunny belwani
102. 3:33he told her off stating that she didn't
103. 3:35know what she was talking about and that
104. 3:37she should only be doing what they pay
105. 3:39her to do which is essentially to lie
106. 3:42so she met with tyler schultz who is
107. 3:44also becoming disillusioned with the way
108. 3:46that the company was being run and they
109. 3:48went right to tyler's grandfather who
110. 3:51was on the board of directors and the
111. 3:52ex-secretary of state through the u.s
112. 3:55the elder schultz basically said that
113. 3:57while they both seemed smart and capable
114. 4:00much smarter and more capable people
115. 4:02were telling him this machine worked and
116. 4:04would revolutionize healthcare
117. 4:06erica quit the very next day she went
118. 4:08through a few weeks of a crisis where
119. 4:10she felt like she may have been
120. 4:11overreacting i mean everyone was telling
121. 4:14her she was and elizabeth holmes was
122. 4:16gracing every magazine cover like she
123. 4:18was a hero
124. 4:19then she got contacted by a journalist
125. 4:22at the wall street journal
126. 4:23while she was in the midst of speaking
127. 4:25to him about her concerns theranos
128. 4:27decided to go on a witch hunt to
129. 4:29effectively silence all the former
130. 4:31employees who to them were breaking
131. 4:33non-disclosure agreements by sharing
132. 4:35company secrets
133. 4:38theranos intimidated erica threatening
134. 4:40her and her family with legal
135. 4:42ramifications if she not only talked to
136. 4:45journalists but also if she had any
137. 4:47contact with other employees both
138. 4:49currently working and not
139. 4:52private investigators were called to
140. 4:53follow her she was washed in her home
141. 4:56and so erica called a lawyer who told
142. 4:58her to report to a regulatory agency
143. 5:01she was so petrified about her physical
144. 5:03safety that she begged the agency not to
145. 5:05reveal her identity
146. 5:07remember she was 22 at this point and
147. 5:09this was her first professional career
148. 5:11so i completely understand that fear so
149. 5:14erica was the one to tip off the
150. 5:16scientific lab regulation company which
151. 5:18is basically the feds of scientific
152. 5:20ethical practices and what was going on
153. 5:22at theranos which is essentially the
154. 5:24sole decision that took down the company
155. 5:27her whistle blowing led the regulators
156. 5:29to shut down holmes's lab and prevent
157. 5:31them from sending their blood test
158. 5:33results to real patients
159. 5:35and so now after she effectively saved
160. 5:37lives we catch up to just exactly where
161. 5:40erika chung is now in 2021 erica
162. 5:43testified against elizabeth during her
163. 5:45trial she describes the constant
164. 5:47bullying and the culture of silencing
165. 5:49those who tried to speak up for their
166. 5:50rights and to advocate for patience and
167. 5:52reliable test results
168. 5:54being that she was the one who
169. 5:56instigated the takedown she was called
170. 5:58to provide proof of the private
171. 5:59investigators sent to harass her she
172. 6:02also provided proof of the emails that
173. 6:03were sent to her to effectively gaslight
174. 6:05her into thinking that she didn't know
175. 6:07what she was talking about all while she
176. 6:09held the date to show that quote the
177. 6:11accuracy of the edison machine was like
178. 6:13a coin toss
179. 6:15effectively she basically personally
180. 6:17handed elizabeth holmes the guilty
181. 6:18sentence as it stands now elizabeth
182. 6:21hasn't been charged yet but that's only
183. 6:22a matter of time
184. 6:24similarly with sonny belwani because he
185. 6:26was tried separately his trial is still
186. 6:29underway we don't yet have a sentence
187. 6:31for sunny but if elizabeth's guilty
188. 6:33status is any indication i can pretty
189. 6:35well say with some certainty that
190. 6:37sonny's will be as well
191. 6:39the two will also probably face jail
192. 6:41time and heavy fines for duping billions
193. 6:43of dollars out of investors for a
194. 6:45machine that didn't really exist they
195. 6:48lied and schemed their way on a machine
196. 6:50that barely worked
197. 6:52additionally i got most of the
198. 6:53information for this video in a ted talk
199. 6:56that erica conducted back in november
200. 6:582020 she has dedicated years of her life
201. 7:01to informing and advocating for
202. 7:03employees who speak up if they witness
203. 7:05something wrong within their company
204. 7:07she is the co-founder and ceo of ethics
205. 7:09and entrepreneurship and describes
206. 7:11herself as a quote medical researcher
207. 7:14turned technology an innovation
208. 7:16ecosystem builder
209. 7:17her work is dedicated to supporting
210. 7:19whistleblowers within their own
211. 7:20companies and protecting their legal
212. 7:22rights
213. 7:23as her linkedin states if erica has
214. 7:25emailed about someone concerned with
215. 7:27going public about their issues with the
216. 7:29company
217. 7:30she and her business will use their team
218. 7:32of lawyers to make sure that no rules
219. 7:34are broken under whistleblower
220. 7:35regulation so the threat of a lawsuit is
221. 7:38diminished
222. 7:39she also goes around the world giving
223. 7:41talks about her experience with theranos
224. 7:43she enunciates the need for employee
225. 7:45rights and safety to speak up within a
226. 7:47workplace she asks a question of her
227. 7:49audience quote what happens when the
228. 7:52vision is so compelling and the desire
229. 7:54to believe is so strong that it starts
230. 7:56to cloud your judgment about what
231. 7:58reality is
232. 8:00often times projects like this do more
233. 8:02harm than good because people are so
234. 8:04hyper focused on the goal and less on
235. 8:06how to achieve it which can lead to
236. 8:08damage to the world at large
237. 8:10the mission statement of the company is
238. 8:12quote to foster stronger cultures of
239. 8:14people who speak up and listen to those
240. 8:16who speak up it's interesting what erica
241. 8:18did with her brief but impactful time at
242. 8:20theranos and while very little if any
243. 8:22good came out of theranos itself it
244. 8:24would appear that erica is doing her own
245. 8:26great work and now you can watch the
246. 8:28real thing play out on hulu through
247. 8:30their miniseries the dropout which
248. 8:32documents basically the entire thing
249. 8:34from the inception of theranos to its
250. 8:36eventual downfall
251. 8:38thank you so much for watching this
252. 8:39episode of where they now i've been your
253. 8:41host sierra please don't forget to
254. 8:43subscribe to this channel so you can
255. 8:44remain updated when we post our next
256. 8:46video see you next time
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