Nearly half of Jon Samet’s tenure as the dean of the Colorado School of Public Health has been spent battling COVID-19, from modeling the virus’s spread to advising state and local leaders; he even found time to keep a regular blog with his thoughts on the situation. 

Now, at the tail end of his time as the school’s longest-serving administrator, Samet’s literally battling COVID-19, which he picked up after a wedding in Scotland. He’s doing fine, he said: He’s fully vaccinated and twice boosted. On his “Dean’s Notes” blog, he described the circumstances that led to his infection as only an epidemiologist could, with an assessment of a gathering’s ventilation (poor); of the virus’s prevalence in Scotland (one in 18 residents currently infectious); and of the cause of that high rate of spread (two highly transmissive subvariants). 

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When Samet became dean of the school in 2017, he committed to a five-year minimum term. The school – a joint effort by the state’s three large, public universities – was a decade old then. Five years have come and gone, half of them swallowed by COVID-19, and Samet has announced he’ll step down as dean once his replacement’s hired later this year. 

Back when he started, he had a strategic plan, much of it centered around strengthening the reputation, heft and pedigree of a nascent program. COVID-19 was “a diversion” from that plan, one that came right in the middle of his five-year commitment. Diversion or not, it was important, he said, because it helped the school establish itself further while cementing relationships with local and state public health officials.

Young faculty have been recruited, and, though Samet recommends that “nobody should pay attention” to U.S. News & World Report’s rankings, he still notes that his school now stands as the 19th best health graduate program in the country, out of nearly 200.

“We’ve accomplished a lot in five years,” he said. 

He’s not retiring – his laundry list of upcoming projects includes writing a book about research to finishing a project on radon and uranium mining that’s been in limbo for years – and will instead join the school’s faculty. His background is in respiratory health – he’s a pulmonologist by training and has focused on tobacco and secondhand smoke – and there’s plenty there to keep him busy for a while.

Still, his imminent step-back and the shift in the COVID-19 pandemic allow for some reflection.

He’s optimistic about the future of public health, even after two years of his field becoming a piñata for anyone looking to vent COVID-19 frustration. It’s become more professionalized since he started his career several decades ago: training’s improved, new tools and research methods are available. The scope of public health has grown, from sanitation inspections and posters about sexually transmitted infections to addressing the tobacco industry and, now, becoming the front-line of the COVID-19 response. 

That’s a silver-living to the pandemic, he said: It’s “brought a new prominence to public health and its persistence in the public eye.” The degree to which its been politicized and its findings and recommendations derailed by misinformation – those are the biggest surprises from the past two years.

He was surprised, too, by how “extraordinarily cynical” some politicians were to “politicize a fundamental tool of public health, whether it’s vaccinations or respiratory protection.” 

“It was really unfortunate,” he continued. “It cost lives.”

Pandemics have always been political – go back and look at 1918, he said – but this pandemic still stands apart.

He pointed to the dissolution of the Tri-County Health Department – the largest county-level health agency in the state – as evidence. The department was beset by political disagreements within its three constituent counties, and after they pulled out of the agency one by one, it will wink out of existence at the end of this year. 

Tri-County, he said, “is a great example of what has happened with politics and public health.”

It’s not the only one: Public health leadership from across the state – and country – “has taken a hit,” Samet said. Public health and medical groups “are burnt out” and have lost critical personnel. 

But he’s hopeful that the next generation of professionals, motivated by what they’ve experienced these past two and a half years, will step into the breach.

“The need for public health and for (ensuring we have a) public health infrastructure has been made more clear,” he said, “which should lead to strengthening. … This should be a moment where we’re stepping back, reflecting and thinking about what we need to do next.”

Is that happening? Even now, the United States is struggling to deal with a monkeypox outbreak that’s far milder than COVID-19, at a time when the nation should be well-versed in curbing disease spread.

Reinforcement of public health, Samet said, will happen “in a patchy way” nationwide. He said Colorado’s well positioned, praising the state’s health leaders and collaboration among local public health agencies. The state’s data systems need to be improved, as is true across the country, and the workforce needs strengthening, too. Ever the administrator, Samet said that the School of Public Health can help with both of those problems. It’s committed, he said, to serving this region specifically.

“I think we’ve learned, for one, that (public health) is an anchor, and we’re needed to protect population health,” he said. Vaccines and other responses pushed by health officials were “major contributions” that saved lives, whatever the public and politics may have said about them.

That’s the other thing: “We’ve learned (that) the public certainly did not understand public health at the start of the pandemic, or not much of the public,” Samet said. “I think that perception has been advanced. It’s been advanced favorably for the majority and unfavorably for the minority. I think one lesson we have is that we have to advance the understanding of public health and why it’s important.”

It’s a concept, in part, of public good for the public good. Wearing a mask protects you, but it also protects everybody around you. The idea that collective action is needed and important, Samet said – “somewhere, we need to explain that better.”