Ashish Jha, the dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health, served as the White House Covid-19 response coordinator from March 2022 to June 2023. On Monday, after delivering the keynote for an infectious disease symposium at the University of Michigan, Jha sat down with Undark to discuss what the country got wrong, and what it got right, during the pandemic.
The interview also touched on Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the politics of public health. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
