Welcome to Episode 7 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

Today, Dr. Jha discusses the Pfizer vaccine, which is being rolled out in the United Kingdom this week. Also this week, on Thursday the federal Food and Drug Administration’s Vaccine Advisory Committee will hold a public hearing on Emergency Use Authorization for the vaccine, which the FDA is expected to grant. After authorization, Pfizer is expected to begin shipping the vaccine.

Dr. Jha explains why several weeks lapsed between Pfizer’s announcement of the results of clinical trials last month and the FDA’s action on approval for the vaccine, saying that intense study of the data contained in thousands of pages of documents took that long.

And the Brown dean on this week’s podcast examines the significant mental-health issues associated with the pandemic, both now and in years to come, and offers guidance on what people can do to stay mentally healthy.

Also, Dr. Jha today announced what will be a new weekly feature of the “COVID: What comes next” podcast: answering questions from the audience. If you have a COVID-related question, please send to [e-mail] with “Question for Dr. Jha” in the subject field. Depending on volume, Dr. Jha will get to as many questions as he can.

This weekly podcast is hosted by G. Wayne Miller, health reporter for The Providence Journal. It can be downloaded at

https://omny.fm/shows/covid-what-comes-next-with-dr-ashish-jha