Over time, our vaccination cheat days begin to grow. It can be really harmless for some people to sometimes cut off a few corners. But eventually, a series of flubs will allow exposure, which in turn will trigger disease. Our shortcuts also indicate to others that it is good to relax when it is not very much.
This is not the time to relax – on the contrary. “We are so close to the end that we now need to be extra careful,” Julie Downs, a psychologist and behavioral scientist at Carnegie Mellon University, told me. The problem is that our decline does not just slow us down. It sets us back in the same way as opening an oven door repeatedly, prolonging the time it takes to bake a cake (and in the worst case, collapsing your delicious dessert). After making so much progress, we risk a lot with our impatience. And at the moment we are in serious danger of weakening the final pandemic.
The CDC cannot be expected to outline every possible social scenario encountered by a vaccinated person. But public health officials have the difficult task of adjusting clues based on new data on the vaccine’s effectiveness. Shaky rules are harder to communicate and follow; even CDC director Rochelle Walensky apparently waffled last week while discussing how effective vaccination prevention and the risks of travel after vaccination are.