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When can I stop wearing a mask?
Hold your mask (s) for the foreseeable future. At present, there are several unknowns that make wearing a mask and social distance important to protect the wider community.
First, scientists do not know how Covid-19 vaccines can protect against asymptomatic transmission of SARS-CoV-2 (as outlined above). There are promising signs – but research remains incomplete. Researchers also do not know how long Covid-19 vaccines can protect people against the virus.
Scientists will also closely monitor how evolutionary changes in the virus, or variants, affect the effectiveness of vaccines. Researchers have already found that the efficacy of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been reduced in South Africa, where the B1351 variant is found.
However, the most important factor may be the extent to which suitable adults accept the vaccine. Children can spread the disease but are not eligible for the vaccine; some people may be too immune-damaged to accept it; and others may experience bureaucratic barriers to vaccination.
What’s the point of getting the vaccine if I still have to wear a mask?
Think of masked wear and social removal as a continuum of risk-reducing strategies, which exist while scientists do research, more and more people are being vaccinated and the incidence of Covid-19 is declining.
The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, for example, said that people can congregate indoors, without masks, with other people who have been fully vaccinated. People are considered ‘fully vaccinated’ two weeks after receiving their last vaccination. The same people must then be conscientious about social distance and wearing the mask in public, as they may be able to transmit the disease to the wider community.
The hope is that as more and more of the public is vaccinated, fewer people will have serious cases of Covid-19, and that the pressure on the health system will decrease as the disease progresses.
“Hopefully we can get a majority of the population vaccinated,” said Dr. Bruce Y Lee, a professor of health policy at City University of New York’s School of Public Health. “That’s when we can start talking about normalcy.”
When will we get these answers?
Studies on the extent to which vaccines are protected against transmission are ongoing and promising, but incomplete. The vaccines are unlikely to provide complete, or ‘sterilizing’, protection. Only a handful of vaccines can make the claim, including the smallpox vaccine. If a vaccine significantly reduces transmission, it will be very good news for the world’s ability to contain the virus.
Under normal circumstances, these kinds of questions could be answered in clinical trials over years. In this emergency, stopping the disease was a more important goal, and available vaccines do so very effectively.
“We will probably know that more and more people are being vaccinated, somewhere near the middle of September,” August said.
What is important is that vaccines do not necessarily have to provide complete protection to combat the pandemic. “If everyone is vaccinated, there are fewer viruses in the environment,” August said.
