Welcome to Episode 16 of “COVID: What comes next,” an exclusive weekly Providence Journal/USA TODAY NETWORK podcast featuring Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health and an internationally respected expert on pandemic response

COVID: What comes next - With Dr. Ashish Jha

PROVIDENCE – “Fit and filtration” are the two most significant factors people should consider when buying masks for use during the coronavirus pandemic, Brown University School of Public Health dean Dr. Ashish Jha said on Tuesday.

Speaking during the weekly taping of the national “COVID: What Comes Next” podcast, Jha also stressed the importance of America taking the lead role in the global fight against the disease, declaring that vaccinating residents of all countries is necessary to limit the emergence of new variants. The U.S. is the only country able to take that lead, Jha said.

In his discussion of masks, Jha addressed issues including the merits of fabric versus paper, double-masking, and how best to assess the quality of products that many companies are now manufacturing – and how to be wary of counterfeit offerings.

“Two features of a mask are important and they both start with ‘f,’ fit and filtration,” Jha said. “Filtration is how well does the mask filter out droplets, aerosols, the little things that are going to have the virus in it. And then the second is how good is the fit. You can have a terrific mask for filtration, but if the fit is not very good, then basically you're going to end up blowing out virus or breathing in virus.”

Regarding KN95 masks, Jha said “some of them are terrific and some of them are counterfeit or not very good at all and it's hard to tell exactly which brand. I have personally avoided [them] because I can't figure out for sure which ones are the best and which ones are reliable… so I go for kf94s, made in South Korea.”

Jha weighed in on Astra-Zeneca putting the rollout of its vaccine on hold in South Africa after a trial of 2,000 people found it offered “minimal protection” against mild and moderate cases of the South Africa variant: the small size of the trail, the dean said, leads him to conclude that “it may not work, but it may work, and this trial wasn't big enough [for a definitive] answer.”

The larger issue, Jha said, is the need for residents of every country to be inoculated with existing vaccines or ones, such as Johnson & Johnson’s, expected to be available soon. This is the only way to stay ahead of the variants that have merged or could in the foreseeable future, Jha asserted.

“Variants don't arise randomly,” he said. “They arise in context where you're having relatively large outbreaks. To the extent that we look at this global pandemic and think our job is to vaccinate Americans and that's it, we are asking for trouble.

“Imagine that everybody in the United States is vaccinated and let's say it's summer or fall of this year. And then there are large outbreaks happening in Brazil or India or elsewhere. Those outbreaks could lead to new variants that could then end up subjecting all of us and making us all vulnerable again.”

Even strict travel restrictions cannot contain spread of COVID-19, Jha said. Global travel and commerce continue in this inter-connected world.

“So the way to keep on top of it, the number one strategy,” Jha said, “is to help everybody bring their pandemic under control and that actually requires an all-out government response” by all nations – a response led by America, Jha said.

“If everybody can get their pandemic under control, it dramatically lowers the risk of new variants,” Jha asserted.

Also Tuesday during recording of the podcast, available from The Providence Journal and the USA TODAY NETWORK, Jha answered a question from a woman who experiences food, medicine and environmental allergies and wanted to know if she should be vaccinated. He said that severe allergic reactions to the Pfizer and Moderna have been exceedingly rare.

“If you've had severe allergic reactions to medicines, I would definitely bring an EpiPen” to the vaccination site, Jha said. He also advised individuals with such concerns to first consult their physician.

For the dean’s full answer about allergies and more of what he said about variants, masks and other issues, please listen to the full podcast.

This weekly podcast is hosted by G. Wayne Miller, health reporter for The Providence Journal.