Today marks five years since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic,

the day everything changed. In a quick succession of events, schools and businesses shut down,

lockdowns were put in place, travel halted, and hospitals were overcapacity with sick Americans

who hoped the virus would go away in a matter of weeks.

But it didn't. Globally, COVID-19 has killed more than 7 million people, including more than 1.2 million

Americans, in the process, leaving lasting marks on how we connect, work, and live. We're joined now by

Dr. Ashish Jha, Dean of Brown University School of Public Health.

He was the COVID response coordinator at the White House for former President Joe Biden.

Thanks for being with us. We appreciate it.

Thanks for having me back.

Yeah, it's so easy to think of COVID as something in the rear view, something that we've

moved beyond. And yet, 6,500 Americans have died from COVID since the start of the year.

What questions remain about the disease, about the virus, and effective treatment?

Yeah, so we're certainly in a much, much better place than we were five years ago.

And while it continues to be around and affect us, right now the population that's largely being

affected by COVID are the elderly and the immunocompromised who are not staying up to date on their

vaccine. So I do think we have a strategy for how to manage this virus moving forward that leaves

it not particularly disruptive and one that doesn't have to cause a lot of serious illness in death anymore.

What about long COVID?

What progress has been made in treatment on that front?

Yeah, I feel like this is something

that we just have not made as much progress as we need to.

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