Can vaccinated people meet relatives and friends? Here´s the answer

As the vaccine rollouts continue in the coming months, friends and families living in different states and countries are experiencing vaccination discrepancies. It is already occurring for me as my relatives live in Brazil.

 

Your 70-year-old mom may have gotten her shot, but you didn’t get yours yet. Or maybe because you’re an essential worker, you’ve been vaccinated while most of your friends are still waiting for the next stage. What does that mean for your in-person social life? Well, no matter your vaccination status, you’ll need to remain cautious.

 

“Until we know for certain whether you could carry the infection, even though you’ve been vaccinated, it’s probably a good idea to not throw your mask in the garbage”, says Marcus Plescia, MD, MPH, chief medical officer of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

 

Such precautions remain necessary because it’s still unknown whether or not you can catch the infection, be asymptomatic, and spread it after vaccination, explains Dr. Plescia. And with varied vaccination stages, we don’t all have equal protection. If you’re not vaccinated, you should stick to wearing a mask and social distancing even around vaccinated people.

 

“As far as we know, once you’ve been vaccinated and hopefully once we begin to approach herd immunity, then we are out of this immediate situation we’re in,” says Dr. Plescia. “[In the future,] you’d be more likely to just see little pockets of COVID-19, and it would be occurring in communities where a lot of people had opted out.”

 

Have you already been vaccinated? Reply yes or no, please.

 

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