How can it be that with all the advances of science and medicine, the U.S. is fighting a virus with the old-fashioned tools of isolation and face masks? How and when will the Covid-19 pandemic end, and what will be the lasting impact? Nicholas Christakis tackles these issues in his latest book, Apollo’s Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live. Christakis, who lives in Norwich, Vermont, is Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale.

“I’m ashamed of how badly we have done,” Christakis says of the U.S. response. “We should have been preparing the American people for dealing with a very serious calamity that was ahead. We did nothing to prepare in a meaningful way. Our leadership failed us.”