Are there any signs that if Trump is re-elected, he would be better able to handle a subsequent public health crisis?
I hope he learns his lesson, but I don’t see any signs that he’s going to change. We all have our fundamental personalities. He’s 78 years old, so I’d be surprised if he did anything differently.
At 83 years old and still as sharp-witted and energetic as you are, what do you make of the drama with President Biden?
Different people age differently. You can’t just arbitrarily pick a number and say when you reach this number, you can’t work at the same level you did before. For some, it’s 65. But for some, it’s 75. For some, it’s 85. When I was with President Biden in the White House for two years, he was a little slow, but he was very quick-witted and very analytical. I haven’t had any contact with him in 18 months.
So when you watched that debate, did you think, “That’s not who I served”?
That was not the Joe Biden I know, and it is clear to me how great a thing he did by stepping down. What a tremendous display of strength, humility, and a desire to do the best for the country.
There isn’t much mention of Vice President Kamala Harris in the book. What are your impressions?
Our interaction has been very good. She has been in the Oval Office on occasion to brief President Biden with Jeff Zients, the Surgeon General, the CDC director, and myself. She asks very insightful questions and is very sensitive to the situation.
Let’s talk about the current situation with COVID-19. When we first spoke in 2020, everyone, including you, thought that in four years we would not have high infection rates. But despite our desire to put it behind us, infection rates are high. What happened?
The novel coronavirus, due to its uniqueness, has fooled us for months and years. As a highly contagious respiratory virus, one would expect it to peak and then disappear. And that would be the end of it. But that didn’t happen with the novel coronavirus. Not only did it not disappear after a season, it continued to evolve new mutations. Even today, in July 2024, the novel coronavirus is causing a major epidemic. Two weeks ago, I was infected. Last week, the president was infected.
I ate it a month ago.
This is grim news. The good news is that people like you and me have had plenty of experience with the virus, including people who have been infected before and people who have had multiple vaccinations and booster shots. So while we’re not fully protected from infection, we are pretty well protected from severe illness. We’re nowhere near the levels of hospitalization and death that we saw in the first few months and years of this pandemic.
But aren’t we just one mutant away from plunging us into complete disaster?
It would have to be a very different, frightening mutant. It’s possible, but it’s becoming less and less likely. This virus evolves into multiple mutants. There’s alpha, beta, gamma, delta, and the first Omicron mutant developed in November 2021. Since then, many, many mutants have arisen, but all within the Omicron subcategory and not that different from each other. So if we stay in the realm where a little change is not enough to really take away from our protection, this is a virus that’s going to be with us indefinitely. For optimal protection, you’re going to need to get a booster inoculation like the new one coming out this fall.
