Journalist, author Ryan Prior inspires audience to ‘find their moonshot’

Nearly six years after the outbreak of COVID-19, many people have gotten sick from the infectious disease, recovered and returned to normal life. But for millions of Americans, they got sick and stayed sick.

2025 Ramsey Lecture.

Ryan Prior, journalist, author and University of Georgia alumnus, was one of them. In November, he joined the UGA College of Public Health as the guest speaker for the 2025 Ramsey Lecture. The lecture was co-sponsored by the School of Public & International Affairs and Grady College of Journalism & Mass Communication. It was a chance to bring together students, faculty and staff from across campus to learn more about the long-terms effects of COVID-19 on our healthcare system, economy and more.

“I encourage all of us to consider both the human stories and the science and policy implications behind long COVID. This issue sits at the intersection of systems, science and equity. It reminds us while why interdisciplinary work matters and why partnerships across the colleges and university are so vital,” said Marsha Davis, dean of the UGA College of Public Health.

In February 2021, Prior, a graduate of the School of Public & International Affairs, the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and the Morehead Honors College, was still suffering symptoms months after testing positive for COVID-19.

“You probably have heard of Long COVID being a condition that is characterized by fatigue and brain fog,” said Prior. “I would rather tell you it is something more like a total deadness in the body, where it feels as though your body’s ability to create energy has been compromised at the very cellular level. It felt like it was impossible for me to form a coherent thought.”

Dean Marsha Davis (right) attending the 2025 Ramsey Lecture.

Prior’s experience and the stories of other people who have suffered from Long COVID drove him to write The Long Haul: Solving the Puzzle of the Pandemic’s Long Haulers and How They are Changing Healthcare Forever, which was released in 2022. While writing his book, Prior spoke to people who could no longer pursue their passions because of their ongoing, debilitating symptoms.

“It’s these most important parts of ourselves oftentimes get taken by an illness,” Prior said.

But the focus of Prior’s book isn’t the challenges these long COVID victims face. Instead, it highlights how they’re speaking up to address gaps in science, care and policy.

“It’s a story about the millions of people who are living with the long-term effects of COVID-19 and also about the possibilities that they could change the healthcare system forever,” he said.

Students and other attendees had the opportunity to ask questions during the 2025 Ramsey Lecture.

During the lecture, Prior referenced President John F. Kennedy’s historic 1962 speech about landing a person on the moon, which inspired the term moonshot to describe a monumentally challenging yet worthy endeavor.

“During the COVID-19 pandemic, the most important moonshot was Operation Warp Speed that became the fastest ever development and deployment of a vaccine in all of history. That was what it looked like to organize the best of our energies and skills,” said Prior.

He also pointed to the Long COVID Research Moonshot Act, which would provide the National Institute of Health with $1 billion in annual funding for 10 years to support long COVID research. It was introduced in Congress in 2024 but has not passed.

Prior challenged his audience to think about their own moonshots and the impact they could make, in their communities, the nation and even the world.

“Think about the way regular people experience regular problems that change their lives and how they turn that into a solution that can affect millions of other people,” said Prior.

“You’re telling stories designed to change the world,” said Matthew R. Auer, dean of the School of Public & International Affairs. “I appreciate that along with this idea that you don’t have to be a formal organizational leader to make an impact—that you can develop these leadership skills through your lived experience.”

Prior ended his lecture with a call to action.

“Change-making requires new mindsets and an adaptive mindset,” said Prior. “One of the things that I hope that you can take with you is to figure out how you can use moonshot thinking in your own life and how you can use that to be a change agent for the rest of your life.”

By Mackenzie Patterson