After almost a year of the COVID-19 pandemic and security measures to fight the virus, many people wonder if vaccination will also bring the end of masks and social restrictions.
The reality, however, is quite complex: although this time of pandemic may seem eternal to us, the truth is that SARS-CoV-2 is a new virus, and the approved vaccines against it have just been developed, so that still much remains to be known about the type of immunity they confer.
Many people wonder, for example, why it is necessary to continue wearing a mask after being vaccinated. First, it seems that the vaccine protects us, if we become infected, from developing a serious and life-threatening disease . This is a big step but, as the professor and researcher in Immunology at the International University of La Rioja (UNIR) Carmen Álvarez-Domínguez tells us: “As long as the virus continues to circulate everywhere, even if you are vaccinated, you can become infected. You probably pass the infection in a mild way, or you don’t even know you have it, but you could transmit the virus to other people ”. That is, vaccinated people could become infected and not develop symptoms, and we already know the dangerous role that asymptomatic patients play in the spread of the virus. “So, given the situation we have with such a high viral load in the environment, the logical thing is to continue with the same security measures, since the pandemic has not ended,” recommends the expert.
Unmasked gatherings of vaccinated friends?
Another frequently asked question is the possibility of, once a group of family or friends is fully vaccinated, meeting with more relaxed security measures. However, we return to the same thing: the virus can continue to circulate in these social gatherings. “That would be nice if we all lived in a closed bubble where only our friends and family are. But that is not the reality, you can meet only with a small group of people, but that is the personal sphere, then you will go out to buy, or you will go to work, to class, in public transport, etc. ”, indicates Álvarez- Dominguez. ” The risk is because the virus is there, we still have very high levels .”
When will the end of the restrictions come?
The big question, then, is what ideal conditions should be in place so that we can start talking about that long-awaited return to normality. Will mass vaccination suffice?
“First of all, a fairly high percentage of the population, at least 60%, needs to be vaccinated. And we are talking about the world population, because we are on a globalized planet and people move from one place to another, it is not worth it that some countries have the majority of their population vaccinated and others do not ”, explains the expert. “This situation, at the management level of each country, is obviously uncontrollable. Well, the ideal would be that, in addition to having our population vaccinated in a high percentage, we have not suffered waves of viruses for a while. Because as long as there are waves it will mean that we still cannot lower our guard, because the virus is there. You have to think about that 40% of the population that will not want or be able to vaccinate, or also that percentage of those vaccinated that the vaccine may not protect. If a vaccine is effective, for example, 95%, it means that there will be 5% of people susceptible to contracting the disease in a serious way ”. Therefore, once the vaccination campaigns are over, it will be necessary to make sure that the circulating viral load has dropped to an acceptable level: “we must stop experiencing waves. See that in the massive screenings or in the tests that are carried out in the wastewater the result is zero… if that does not happen, we cannot think of relaxing the measures ”.
Many unknowns to solve
In addition to all this, it will be necessary to see how the virus and the pandemic evolve over time. “Although everything indicates that SARS-CoV-2 will end up behaving like a seasonal virus, we have been living with it for so little time that we do not really know what will happen, if it will disappear when we get a good vaccination, if it will continue to mutate towards more aggressive strains… we will have to see it, and in the meantime we must be vaccinated and continue to maintain security measures ”, indicates the expert.
In any case, the little information that is being obtained about the immunity conferred by vaccines is encouraging, and it seems that the protection would last at least six months. “The data are good, but they are still scarce and a short time has passed, so you have to be patient,” concludes the expert. Therefore, as long as we continue to live with SARS-CoV-2, and even if we are vaccinated, we will have to endure a little longer and continue with these security measures that are so necessary and that can, in short, help save lives.
