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With the spread of the COVID-19 vaccine nationwide, more and more people find themselves more protected against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. However, just because you were lucky enough to be vaccinated does not mean you can return to the pre-pandemic lifestyle—at least not yet.
Assoc said: "Your new vaccine will protect you from serious diseases, and it is very likely that you will not get COVID-19 at all." Professor Emily Landon of the University of Chicago School of Medicine. "But you may still have mild or asymptomatic infections, which may still cause a series of infections and complications in other people."
Langdon is an infectious disease doctor who has become one of the main authorities in the state's response to the pandemic. He emphasized the importance of achieving "herd immunity" once a high percentage of the population is immunized-or infected with COVID-19 , Or get the vaccine. In this case, there are few cases, and they have been low because there are not enough susceptible people to spread the virus.
Before that, you need to continue to take precautions in certain situations (such as wearing a mask and keeping your distance).
"In the next few months, it is expected that things will become more and more'normal'," Langdon said. "But this will not happen overnight. There may be bumps along the way." In the following Q&A, She discussed what you can do safely after vaccination and what steps you should still take to protect yourself and others.
Vaccines make you immune, not invincible. The COVID-19 vaccine currently available in the United States provides significant protection against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. But, like anything, they are not 100% effective. Current data show that the effectiveness of mRNA vaccines is about 94% to 95%. This means that people who have been fully vaccinated may still be infected with COVID-19. Although we know that people who are fully vaccinated will not get as sick as they did when they were not vaccinated, you may still find mild or asymptomatic cases of COVID-19. If this happens, you will be able to spread the virus to people who have not been vaccinated.
As the vaccine continues to spread and more and more people are vaccinated, the risk of infecting mild cases or spreading them to other people will decrease. We will also learn more about the advantages and disadvantages of different vaccines in different situations.
Although vaccines provide a high level of (but not all) protection against COVID-19, they also take time to reach a full level of protection. Both Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines require two doses and need to be administered in specific increments. The first dose provides good protection, but you won’t get full and lasting protection from the vaccine two weeks after the second dose. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine only requires one dose, but it also takes time to exert its full protection. Don't think that you are fully protected two weeks after your final vaccine (Pfizer and Moderna) or your only vaccine (Johnson & Johnson).
Because they are so new, we have no data on how long the protective effect of the vaccine will last. But based on our knowledge of coronavirus and mRNA vaccines, we think you may need boosters in the future; we don’t know when or how long.
If we want to see the post-COVID era come faster, we need two things: more vaccines and more people vaccinated.
Diseases need people to spread. Therefore, the more people are vaccinated, the safer each person will be. Although things are moving in the right direction, we know that restrictions should not be lifted until the incidence of COVID-19 in our community decreases. This will not happen unless more people get and can get the vaccine.
Vaccinating yourself is great, and even if you still need to take precautions, it does give you peace of mind.
The latest CDC guidelines say that fully vaccinated people can stay with other fully vaccinated people without wearing a mask. The country’s highest public health agency also stated that in some cases it is safe for a fully vaccinated person and an unvaccinated person to spend time without a mask indoors-provided that the unvaccinated person is from the same household and There are no high-risk health conditions. (If there are people in multiple families who have not been vaccinated, or those who have not been vaccinated are at high risk, everyone should continue to wear a mask. It is best to meet outside.)
If you live with or take care of people who have not been vaccinated, you should still limit contact without wearing a mask so that you don’t turn into serious illnesses that may be mild for you bring home.
As cases in your area decrease and vaccination rates increase, close contact with others becomes safer, but new variants may still bring another surge. We are about to end this marathon, and now is not the time to withdraw early. Cases are declining in most parts of the country, but they are still high. The combination of the high number of cases and the ever-increasing level of vaccination has formed an epidemiological soup that can breed new variants that are resistant to vaccines. We absolutely don’t need that obstacle at the end of the game, so please continue to protect yourself and your loved ones.
Just like you did at the beginning of the pandemic, make sure you always follow the rules and guidelines in the community, and talk frankly with family and friends about them and your risk tolerance as we get out of trouble.
——Adapted from the story first published by UChicago Medicine.
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