For many Americans, the first generation of vaccines promised a return to normalcy that proved fleeting. AshishKJha46's recent D.C. summit, and the scientific advancements it highlighted, previewed the return of that promise. MrJDWalsh reports
Dr. Ashish Jha walks into the briefing room to speak to reporters at the White House in April. Photo: Doug Mills/The New York Times/Redux Dr. Ashish Jha walked into one of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building’s most ornate reception rooms in late July and took to the podium to address a group of biotech executives, government officials, public-health experts whose Twitter followings have hockey-sticked over the past two years, as well as thousands of people streaming live online.
As Americans stumble through the current, somewhat-difficult-to-define phase of the pandemic, Jha’s decision to invest so much time and energy in yet-to-be-proven vaccines may be puzzling. But so is the country’s immunological and political landscape. Some 78 percent of Americans have received at least one COVID shot and 70 percent have been infected with COVID, a significant portion of whom were vaccinated.
Jha, 51, was born in one of the poorest states in India. His family moved to Toronto, then to New Jersey when he was a child and didn’t start speaking English until they immigrated to Canada when Jha was 9. As a kid, Jha wanted to be a journalist, though that ambition never progressed past his high-school newspaper. Instead, he studied economics at Columbia and medicine at Harvard.
Jha won’t predict when the vaccines he has staked so much on will be available. He concedes that they won’t be around by the end of this year, but he won’t rule out 2023, which even some of the vaccine summit attendees say is extremely optimistic. “I think the speed with which science and technology can move when you have the concerted effort of the federal government working with industry, working with academia, is extraordinary,” Jha says.
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