Many families have spent the past year separately due to the coronavirus pandemic, but there is hope that people who are not from the same household will be able to collect it once the vaccines become more readily available.
Once everyone in a family has been vaccinated, experts say it should be safe for people to get together, but it will take a few months before the vaccine is readily available to vaccinate.
It is also important to remember that the vaccines take some time to be effective: the doses should be taken a few weeks apart (21 or 28 days, depending on the vaccine), and it takes about two weeks after the second injection before administering the vaccine. fully effective against the virus.
“It would be safe if everyone in the family was vaccinated,” said Dr. Colleen Kelley, associate professor of infectious diseases at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, said she is involved in the Moderna and Novavax clinical trials. “I think the issue is that it will take a long time before we get to the place where all members of a family are vaccinated, especially if it is a multigenerational family with grandparents and small children and adults. But I think once we get to the place where everyone in the family is vaccinated, then they should see each other freely. ‘
Dr. David Buchholz, the senior founding medical director for primary care at Columbia University’s Irving Medical Center in New York, said that only a few family members can be safe, for example if two vaccinated adults visit two fully vaccinated grandparents, relatively may be safe, but the larger a circle becomes, the greater the risk.
“Chances are, yes, you can go visit,” he said. “The chances that you are both unhappy and that you are not getting (protection) from the vaccine at the moment and that you have the virus are so incredibly small that I think you can do it safely, but if that family is bigger and getting bigger, you increase the chance that one of the people can bring the virus into the house. ‘
Although both vaccines are estimated to be 95% effective, Buchholz said that even the 5% chance could be risky with the amount of viruses currently spreading in the country.
Another complicating factor for some families is that the vaccines have not been approved for use in children: At present, the Pfizer vaccine is authorized for use in people over 16, while the Modern vaccine has been authorized for use in children. those older than 16. 18. Children can carry COVID-19, so they can be a risk to others in the group, especially if not everyone is vaccinated.
Experts have advised that most people should continue to take precautions, such as seeing family members outside or in a well-ventilated space, doing social distances and wearing masks until more of the population is vaccinated.
“I think it’s fair that people gradually, not immediately, but very gradually, start liberalizing their activities,” said Dr. Anne Liu, clinical associate professor of infectious diseases at Stanford Health Care in California, said. ‘It does not mean that we go from 0 to 60 miles per hour … I would still recommend some warning, go step by step and start removing some of the toughest handrail your family has, but try to remove some to keep quiet. ‘
