Ashish Jha on Covid-19, the Path to Recovery, and Lessons Learned

Where do things stand in the US with Covid-19? How quickly might the rollout of vaccines improve the situation? What lessons have we learned about America’s biomedical infrastructure and society during the course of the pandemic? To discuss these questions, we are joined by Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health. According to Jha, the short-term situation is worrisome, with infections, hospitalizations, and deaths at their highest levels since the beginning of the pandemic. Yet, he argues, there are now grounds for optimism about 2021 thanks to the development of highly-effective vaccines, the increase in testing capacity, and improvement in therapeutics. Most important, the rollout of the vaccines now approved by the FDA should allow our situation to improve significantly during the winter and into the spring and summer (with additional benefit likely to come from more vaccine candidates gaining approval in the months ahead). Jha and Kristol also discuss broader questions regarding the pandemic, including the impressive capacity for development of biomedical technology as well as the challenges of governance and social solidarity.