He completed his infectious diseases fellowship and Masters of Science in epidemiology at Stanford University, and is currently a post-doctoral researcher.
[14] Karan is the co-editor of the book, Protecting the Health of the Poor: Social Movements in the Global South,[15] with ethicist Dr. Thomas Pogge.
[1] Karan was a member of the Crisis Standard of Care Committee, and also worked on the allocation of scarce resources in the state response, including ventilators and Remdesivir.
[1] Prior to the first COVID-19 surge, Karan wrote about the need for doctors to discuss code status with their high-risk patients in advance to plan for end-of-life care given high rates of ventilator deaths.
[26] He opined against the early xenophobia against Asians;[27] in favor of a diverse range of expert voices in pandemic response;[28] and warned that stigma could obstruct the success of contact tracing efforts.
[30][31] Karan and Dhillon also penned op-eds warning against the reopening of professional sports given high levels of community transmission of COVID-19 at the time;[32] the need for smarter, targeted lockdowns in high-transmission counties;[33] the use of rapid antigen tests for epidemic control;[34] and the need for stronger public health outbreak investigations and contact tracing to understand why COVID-19 transmission was ongoing despite implemented control measures.
[39] In late January 2021, he was quoted in a CNN interview with Sanjay Gupta that if all Americans wore N95 equivalent masks for four weeks, "This would stop the epidemic".