Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates, 65, received his second dose of Covid vaccine a week ago, he said during an interview on the social media app Clubhouse on Wednesday. But even though the co-founder of Microsoft has been fully vaccinated, he still follows safety precautions such as wearing a mask.
“I want to set a good example,” Gates told Andrew Ross Sorkin at Clubhouse. “If you’ve been vaccinated, you can still send.”
The Centers for Disease Control says that even people who have been fully vaccinated for Covid should continue to follow public health safety measures. Although the vaccines used by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech appear to be very effective in preventing serious diseases and deaths due to Covid, it is not yet clear at this stage whether they prevent transmission.
“I’m not going to stop wearing masks or be careful, especially not with older people who have not been vaccinated,” Gates told Sorkin, who is also co-anchor of CNQ’s “Squawk Box.”
Many people have wondered at what point we will be able to be normal again, or at least cut back on preventative measures such as social distance and masking.
“It is only by late spring or summer that we will reach the numbers where you can see how your behavior can change in an important way,” Gates said.
Gates said he plans to wear masks during the fall until infection rates drop significantly, adding that the practice ‘is not a big disastrous thing’.
White House Chief Medical Officer Dr. Anthony Fauci said Americans may have to continue wearing masks until 2022 during an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. The necessity of masks depends on the virus spreading in a community.
“If you see the level drop really, really very low, I want it to keep going down to a baseline that is so low that … there is a minimal, minimal threat that you will be exposed to someone infected, “Fauci said. .
While vaccinated people should wear masks in public and around people from outside their household who have not received the vaccine, it is safe for people who have been fully vaccinated to get sans masks together.
In May or June, all priority groups will be vaccinated so that young people without underlying conditions are eligible to be vaccinated, Fauci said during an interview with Pod Pod America on February 18.
There should be enough doses of vaccine to vaccinate 300 million people by July. According to Fauci, it can then take through the summer to get vaccinations in everyone’s arms.
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