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Now that more than 12 percent of Americans have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and the federal government has pledged to increase the number of vaccines getting into people’s arms, many of us are wondering what that all means for those of us that have had the vaccine and for the people we love. Can I go out after getting the vaccine? Do I still need to wear a mask? Can I still pass COVID-19 on to my family, even if I’m vaccinated?
While more and more data is coming out about the currently available and developing vaccines, here’s what we know so far about your immunity after the COVID-19 vaccine.
How long after getting the COVID-19 vaccine are you immune?
There are two COVID-19 vaccines available in the Unites States right now made by Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech and both require two doses given weeks apart. The Pfizer vaccine reduces risk of infection by 50 percent after the first shot and Moderna’s reduces risk by 80 percent, according to Scientific American.
The vaccine is not fully effective until about two weeks after the second dose, which means you could still become infected by the virus between the first and second shot, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. After both doses, clinical trials showed that the Moderna vaccine was 94 percent and the Pfizer vaccine was 95 percent effective.
But, according to the information available, that doesn’t mean that you can throw off your mask, have a party, and hug your friends.
How safe am I after the COVID-19 vaccine: Can I still spread COVID?
Even after vaccination, you should be careful, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told KSDK news.
“You may be protected against clinically recognizable disease, but you could still get infected and have virus in your nasopharynx that potentially could be spread to another person,” he warned.
The reason health experts aren’t definitively telling the public that it is or is not possible to pass COVID-19 on to someone else after being vaccinated is because they don’t know. COVID is a new disease and the vaccines were developed in record time. That means that researchers are still figuring it all out.
Do I still need to wear a mask after getting the COVID-19 vaccine?
You sure do, according to the CDC and health experts. There’s not enough information available to say that it’s safe to take your mask off around people who are not vaccinated.
The CDC recommends the following even after getting the vaccine:
- Wear a mask over your nose and mouth
- Stay at least six feet away from others
- Avoid crowds
- Avoid poorly ventilated spaces
- Wash your hands often
Mask or no mask, Los Angeles writer and Mom.com contributor Donna Schwartz Mills can't wait to get the vaccine in her arm.
"I have a friend with metastatic breast cancer, who got her first dose last week. And I am scheduled to get mine next week (I'm just three months shy of turning 65, so was surprised when my healthcare provider invited me to schedule it now). And yes, I'm very excited about this so I can resume my old life," she said. "And right now, the idea of shopping for groceries in person in the store is truly exciting."
Can you get the COVID-19 vaccine after having had COVID?
Yes, says the CDC. And you should. Although it’s not common, there have been reported cases of reinfection.
A COVID-19 infection produces antibodies, but those start to wane over time, pediatric infectious disease specialist Dr. Frank Esper of the Cleveland Clinic said on Cleveland Clinic.org.
“I expect that mostly everyone, including people who may have had a bout with the virus earlier on in this pandemic, are probably going to get vaccinated. Again, antibodies are waning and the immune system is going down. So, maybe the vaccine will give your immune system a boost. And we definitely know that the immune system loves boosting your first infection — it has a big response, but then it goes away fairly quickly. But if you get a second infection, that tells your immune system, ‘Hold on. This is something I’m going to be seeing a lot of.’ When that happens, your immune system goes into a second round of protection that lasts a lot longer than the first round of protection. And so giving the immune system a boost, even if you’ve had the infection, is probably going to be something that’s going to happen.”
So let’s say we’re lucky enough to be in the 12 percent of people to get two doses of the vaccine. But what about the other COVID variants we keep hearing about?
Does the COVID vaccine protect me against the new COVID variants, like the one found in South Africa?
As if the coronavirus weren’t scary enough, in the last couple of months new variants of the virus began mutating around the world. In South Africa, the new variant is now the dominant strain, and last week the government there stopped the rollout of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine because it wasn’t working against the new strain, according to The New York Times.
The new variants have been found in more than 30 states and appear to be more transmissable. To fight the new variants will mean modifying vaccines, Dr. Fauci told the Washington Post on C-Span, and stopping the spread of the virus. How can that happen?
“The best way to prevent the evolution of mutations is to supress the replication of the virus in the community, which means we need to vaccinate as many people as quickly as we possibly can and as efficiently as we possibly can,” Dr. Fauci said.
