David Kessler reflects on nearly three years of fighting a pandemic and its political fallout.
A former FDA chief who served under two presidents of different parties, David Kessler was someone who instinctively understood both science and politics. | Jason HenryWhen a terrifying new virus shut down the country in March 2020, Joe Biden turned to David Kessler for advice.
Then presidential nominee Joe Biden attends a coronavirus briefing at The Queen theater in Wilmington, Delaware. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images Then that weekend I got a phone call from [Biden policy director] Stef Feldman, who asked if I’d be willing to brief the boss beginning that Monday, and would I do it with [now-Surgeon General] Vivek Murthy? He was being briefed by his economic team and national security team, but he realized he didn’t have a public health team.
“The majority of Americans, they can live with Covid,” said David Kessler. “It was a terrifying disease, and for the majority of Americans that’s no longer the case. That’s all good news.” | Andrew Lichtenstein, Mario Tama/Getty Images; Rogelio V. Solis, Erin Lefevre/AP PhotoYou spent a good deal of time briefing President Biden when he was still a candidate. What is he like in those kinds of intimate settings?Vivek and I, it was just the two of us.
Top: President Joe Biden receives his updated COVID-19 booster in the South Court Auditorium at the White House. Bottom: Anti-vaccination protesters demonstrate outside a FEMA vaccination site on its first day of operation in a parking lot at Valencia College in Orlando, Fla. | Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images; Paul Hennessy/AP PhotoA lot of things contributed to people’s feelings about the virus and the vaccines.
I’ve lived this before. In 1952, with the first data that smoking caused cancer. The mantra of the industry was, “not proven, not proven, not proven.” It created enough doubt that it gave people a crutch who didn’t want to quit. It gave them a reason to continue to smoke. Was the federal response as good as that, uniformly? No. But I think there were some very exceptional bright spots. John Mascola, who ran the [National Institutes of Health’s] Vaccine Research Center, was also highly strategic. There were some extraordinary examples that people should be very proud of. I think there’s always areas where not having the data soon enough and not being set up to get that data soon enough also had real costs.
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