
This post will attempt to answer the following question:
- What is known about the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines?
- Can you still get COVID-19 and be contagious after you are vaccinated?
- How can we find out if the vaccine prevents viral transmission?
It’s a normal part of human nature to adapt to whatever situation we find ourselves in. We get used to both the good and the bad if given enough time. It’s just how we’re designed and is essential for our well being. During this pandemic, however, it has become a sign of how bad things have become. In the United States, where case numbers are astronomically higher than just about anywhere else in the world (USA! USA!), we’ve been hovering near 200,000 new cases with a few thousand deaths every day for a couple of months now. We have become so numb to these numbers that we don’t flinch when we hear them. When the case rates drop to 150,000 we feel as if things are going really. Remember when 30,000 was a lot? Neither does anyone else.The adaptation and subsequent lack of shock at the numbers combined with pandemic fatigue, anger, and even denial fuels the desperation for an end. For better or worse, that end only comes when enough of us are protected through vaccination. Until that happens, there will be a transition period. It will be a period where a lot of people are vaccinated but not quite enough to prevent devastating surges like many parts of the country have seen over the past 2 months. How long this period will last and what it will look like remain to be seen. There is no negotiating with this virus.
Continue reading “Do I need to wear a mask if I’m vaccinated?”