In early 2020, when the U.S. was confronting the first wave of COVID-19, with its health system starting to feel the strain, a Harvard physician had said on a morning news show: “We can either have a national quarantine now, two weeks, get a grip on where things are, and then reassess, or we can not, wait another week, and when things look really terrible, be forced into it.”
Almost two years later, the public health expert is saying, “pulling back on mask mandates for now is very reasonable,” as he advises keeping testing rates high for a possible new surge. The man is Indian-origin physician Dr. Ashish Jha, U.S. President Joe Biden’s newly-appointed COVID-19 response coordinator, who will replace Jeffrey D. Zients, a management consultant.
Dr. Jha’s appointment comes at a time when America is entering a new phase of the pandemic. After successive waves tested the limits of the country’s public health system and claimed over a million lives, COVID-19 numbers are now in decline. As three quarters of the country's population are vaccinated at least once, and as it closely watches for the threat of the new BA.2 variant driving a surge in Europe, Dr. Jha’s appointment signifies a strategic shift in the country’s pandemic response.
