Brown University’s Ashish Jha faces a real-world test of his pithy TV advice: If the government fails to secure enough vaccines and tests, forcing Americans into long waits, it’s his problem.
Dozens of faculty members had filed into a conference room in December 2018, prepared to vote they had no confidence in the dean of the public health school, until Jha talked them out of it. As Harvard’s global health leader, Jha warned his colleagues that publicly airing their concerns would weaken confidence in the school, with consequences for them all.
The longtime physician has admitted to friends that he’s never faced challenges like running a White House team and navigating the bitter partisanship that animates the nation’s capital. But his defenders say he’s more than well-equipped and point to episodes like the faculty rebellion, first detailed in ainvestigation, that they say show his political savvy and powers of persuasion, traits they insist will serve him in his new role, along with his pandemic expertise.
Jha, who officially begins his role with a tour of TV morning shows on Monday, inherits significantly different challenges than the ones that confronted the White House last January, when cases and deaths were spiking, few Americans were vaccinated and lawmakers agreed the virus was the nation’s top priority.
Now, it is his responsibility to shape that message in a job that was a crucible for his predecessors. Deborah Birx, the nation’s first coronavirus coordinator under President Donald Trump, was pilloried for failing to rein in his misstatements about the virus. Jeff Zients, the outgoing czar who Jha shadowed last week, faced pickets outside his house and calls to resign from advocates who said he failed to prioritize the global response.