You Have Your Second Vaccine Dose, Now What?
You Have Your Second Vaccine Dose, Now What?
When you make a choice to have the vaccine against the COVID-19, it doesn't mean that life will go back to normal immediately. You will still have restrictions even having the vaccine. Face masks and physical distancing will always be a part of your life for a while.
Why Still the Mask?
As frustrating as it is, wearing a mask will continue even as more and more people are being vaccinated. It takes time to reach the state of herd immunity. Between 50% to 80% of the population will need to be vaccinated before getting to this normalcy level.
The other reasons for continuing to have to wear a mask after vaccinating are:
- The vaccine takes some time to work. The 94% to 95% rate of effectiveness won't be reached until after the second dose. With the second dose, it will take a few weeks to be effective. After the first dose, there is only a partial immune response.
- At this stage, it isn’t possible to tell who the 5% will be that the vaccine still lets them at risk, or they don’t respond to the vaccine. People who have already been vaccinated could be asymptomatic spreaders. One of the reasons for more research is to see if the vaccines can prevent the virus from being spread.
- Vaccinated people may still become infected but not have symptoms and then spread the virus to unvaccinated people. So, suppose people who are vaccinated don't continue to wear face masks until more people have the second vaccine. In that case, the virus can continue to circulate.
- The vaccination has a great chance of protecting you against getting the virus. But people who have a compromised immune system or can’t be vaccinated still need to be protected. There is a possibility that people with chronic diseases or compromised immune systems won’t find the vaccination to be as effective as those who are healthy.
- The doses are limited, and having access to the vaccine is difficult at this time. The experts say to have everyone get the vaccine, over 330 million just in the United States, may not happen until the winter of 2022. At that point, herd immunity will almost be assured.
- There are other new strains of the COVID-19 that have developed. Although research is still being completed on whether the vaccination will prevent these variants, there aren’t real answers yet.
- Wearing masks will help to protect you and your loved ones against the new strains. These new strains are said to be about 50% more contagious than the original COVID-19 strain. So wearing masks and continuing to social distance is ongoing for everyone's safety even with the vaccine being given.
- The public health measures of mask-wearing, social distancing, avoiding crowds, and all the other measures that have been taken will need to be continued. It not only decreases the risk of the virus but seems to be working on lowering the number of flu cases as well.
There is a race going on at the moment between whether people’s immune system can control the virus with the vaccine. Or if the virus will replicate or change faster than it can be stopped.
The vaccines are a step in the correct direction, but having life go back to “normal” isn’t happening yet. Wearing a mask, washing your hands, social distancing, and not being in large groups, especially not masked, is still essential at this point in life.
Life will become normal once again, but it will take all of us to make that happen.
If you or a loved one need in-home care, we here at Right at Home are a phone call away. Call us today.
