“You want to actually begin by trying to understand why people are where they are. And then if you think that they’re in a place that puts themselves and their families at risk, you want to try to appeal to them and move them. I think calling people anti-vaxxers, yelling at them, screaming at them, cussing, saying that they’re causing the pandemic to continue— I don’t know that it moves anybody in a positive direction. I think it just makes people feel more entrenched. And I want to end the pandemic and do it with our society as much intact as possible.” – Dr. Ashish Jha, episode 237 of Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso
This week, Dr. Ashish Jha returns to the show with a hopeful pandemic update. He helps us understand the Delta variant surge (4:04), how to better engage with the unvaccinated (7:30), school reopenings this fall (14:19), breakthrough cases (17:26), and the ongoing debate over mask mandates (19:35). He also addresses looming questions around booster shots (21:49), herd immunity (23:12), and the timeline for FDA approval (24:16).
Before we go, he walks us through his day-to-day (26:52), how he’s processed the past 18 months (28:58), and the remarkable nature of these vaccines (30:31).
Show notes
- Follow Dr. Jha on Twitter.
- Read his Q&A with The New Yorker.
- Listen to our most recent conversation with Dr. Jha in January 2021.
- Track the U.S. coronavirus case count on The New York Times.
Illustrations by: Krishna Shenoi