Dr. Ashish Jha, who shepherded the US through the potent Omicron variant of Covid-19, will be stepping down June 15 from his role as the White House Covid czar to resume his role as the Dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health.
His departure comes as the White House restructures its Covid-19 response team after the May 11 end of the Public Health Emergency. Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who guided President Joe Biden’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, announced her departure May 5 and is scheduled to leave her post June 30.
In a statement released June 8 afternoon, President Joe Biden thanked Jha for his 15 months of service to the nation amid one of the largest crises the country has faced.
Saved and Improved Lives
“When I took office, our nation was facing a once-in-a generation pandemic, hit with a virus that changed everything. Thanks to my Administration’s whole-of-government approach, we now have the tools to manage COVID-19 and the virus no longer controls our daily lives,” said Biden.
“For the last year, I have relied on Dr. Ashish Jha to help me do just that as the White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator. As one of the leading public health experts in America, he has effectively translated and communicated complex scientific challenges into concrete actions that helped save and improve the lives of millions of Americans.”
“I extend my deepest thanks to Ashish and his family. We are a stronger and healthier nation because of his contributions to public service,” said Biden.
In a June 8 interview with The Wall Street Journal — which first broke the news of Jha’s departure — the physician and public health expert said the country was better prepared now for whatever the virus brings, including an expected surge in cases this winter.
We Have Made Progress
“First and foremost, the administration — and it really was a team effort — got the country to a much better place on Covid,” Jha said in the interview. “We’ve now had a sustained period of time with low deaths and hospitalizations. Excess mortality has been down to zero in the past couple of months. As for the impact of Covid on our lives now, we have made a lot of progress.”
Jha said his focus had been making sure the country was prepared for future Covid-19 surges because the virus has shown an ability to continue mutating. The US and countries around the world are now facing the Arcturus variant whose symptoms include pink eye.
’Weaknesses in Health Care Systems’
In a statement released by Brown’s School of Public Health June 8, Jha said: “ We are in the world drastically altered by the Covid-19 pandemic. For all we have accomplished to reduce illness and save lives, Covid-19 has exposed the weaknesses in our public and health care systems.”
Early on in the pandemic, Jha appeared at an Ethnic Media Services news briefing and said the US had one of the “worst responses to Covid of any country in the world.”
“We have had an incredible amount of misinformation spread through social media outlets like Facebook, and federal and state political leaders who have largely adhered to that misinformation and have failed to take science as the primary driving principle,” he said, criticizing the Trump Administration which was at the helm.
“This is all about the biology and the math, and if you decide you’re going to ignore the biology and the math, it is unlikely you will do well,” said Jha at the EMS news briefing.
Dr. Bob Wachter, chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco and a key voice on the Covid-19 pandemic, said Jha’s departure from the White House was yet another shift to “a post-Covid world.”
“Ashish has done an amazing job balancing different voices/forces to create thoughtful Covid policies that have saved lives & helped us return to today’s new state of ‘normal.’ Kudos,” tweeted Wachter.
