Reports of two promising covid-19 vaccines doesn’t mean we ‘magically,’ quickly return to normal - The Washington Post

For many Americans chafing to return to normalcy, recent reports that at least two experimental covid-19 vaccines are highly effective come as welcome news in the midst of a frightening surge of infections and deaths.

The answers await more research into the vaccines, how they can be distributed and how many people are willing to get them.

“What that says to me is that people will have to keep wearing masks at least until spring.

Scientists still don’t know how long vaccine-induced protection will last, for example, or whether inoculations can block actual infection, or only prevent the onset of disease.

“But until we know more about how long protection lasts and the extent to which people are protected,” he says, “it’s important to continue to use all the tools we have to keep the virus in check, and that means masks, social distancing and ventilation.”.

Andrew Badley, an immunovirologist who chairs Mayo Clinic’s covid-19 task force, says the return of any normal activities depends on numerous factors, including how many people get vaccinated.

Also, we still don’t know the durability yet,” referring to how long protection will last “or the level of protection of different subgroups of people at risk,” such as the elderly or those with underlying medical conditions.

Because it is still unclear how long protection will last, public health officials don’t know whether boosters will be necessary, and, if so, how frequently.

“Since all risks are relative, I would think that if you are vaccinated with a 95 percent effective vaccine and your son is also vaccinated, the relative risk of you or your son getting infected or infecting one another would be so low, [although] not zero, that you could feel relatively comfortable in hugging your son,” he says.

Microbiologist Peter Palese, an expert in RNA viruses who chairs the department of microbiology at Mount Sinai’s Icahn School of Medicine, is optimistic these vaccines will prove effective against both infection and disease.

“The biggest danger is that people will think we are done with this, but we are dealing with two studies with the first two months of results, when vaccines look their best,” Schooley says.

“There may be some loss of protection over time, and people need to pay attention to them over the long term.”.

But even if the vaccines prove fully effective, they won’t do much to curb the spread of infection and disease if people refuse to get the shots.

“We do not yet know if we need to vaccinate 50 percent or 90 percent of the population in order to see a positive impact of the vaccines on community transmission,” Badley says.

There are people who are skeptical about what we know about these vaccines right now, and would rather wait and stay home and take their chances.

“Even with a highly effective vaccine, if only half the population gets vaccinated, the protection at the community level would not be adequate and certainly not optimal.”?

“It may be, as more people get vaccinated, the risk of getting infected becomes lower,” Schooley says.

“People who are at risk of dying if they get infected may want to wear a mask for a really long time — remember, people who are older and have underlying conditions, and are at the greatest risk for getting sick — may be least likely to robustly respond to the vaccine.

“Smallpox is the only infectious disease eradicated by a vaccine, and it took almost 200 years from the time the disease was discovered,” he says

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