Even after he has been fully inoculated against Covid, some public health precautions are still needed until more data on vaccines can be collected, Dr. Kavita Patel told CNBC on Friday.
It is well understood that Pfizer and Moderna two-shot vaccines are highly effective in preventing serious illness and death from Covid-19, Patel said in an interview with “Squawk Box.” Less understood right now is the extent to which vaccines reduce coronavirus transmission.
In other words, someone who has been vaccinated has drastically reduced the risk of actually suffering from coronavirus disease, but Patel has stated that precautions are still needed in the coming months if a small group is meeting and not has vaccinated one person in this group.
“If you are in a home with young children [who don’t yet qualify for the vaccine] or even children at high risk … or even yourself if you are at high risk despite being vaccinated, you should consider precautions inside and with masks. Stay outdoors with people if possible, ”said Patel, a primary care physician in Washington and a non-resident member of the Brookings Institution.
“The only reason I’m saying this is that we need more data to understand what this transmission risk is,” he added.
This week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention adjusted its quarantine guidelines for fully vaccinated people; both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require two doses for complete protection. The CDC now says that within three months of being completely vaccinated, people who are exposed to the coronavirus do not need to be quarantined if they do not show symptoms.
Like Patel, the CDC recognizes that the risk of a vaccinated person transmitting the virus to another person is “uncertain.” But the reason for its modification of the quarantine guideline, according to the CDC, is because vaccines show great effectiveness in preventing people from developing symptomatic covid.
This is important because people with symptoms of Covid are believed to transmit the virus more than asymptomatic individuals, according to the CDC. For this reason, the CDC said a fully vaccinated person who has no symptoms does not need to be quarantined.
The CDC defines complete vaccination as two weeks after receiving the second shot of a two-dose vaccine or two weeks after receiving a single vaccine. Johnson & Johnson has applied for emergency use authorization for its single-dose vaccine and an advisory committee is set to consider it at a meeting later this month.
Patel said he believes the CDC’s quarantine guidelines could be updated again as more Americans are vaccinated. But at this stage of the pandemic, he said the U.S. is in an “intermediate period.” Although he said about one in three Americans has been vaccinated or developed natural antibodies to the coronavirus due to a previous infection, “we still have enough opportunities in the other two people to promote the spread of the virus. , in particular a concern for these more transmissible variants. “
To help illustrate it, Patel offered information on how she personally approaches aspects of life now that she has been vaccinated. The former Obama administration official said he continues to wear a mask in public, though he is confident he will not get sick and die of Covid.
“I’m still doing all these things we’ve been talking about (which we’re pretty tired of doing) until we have more data that I can’t give [the virus] to someone who has not been vaccinated, ”said Patel, who served as policy director in the Obama Office’s Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Commitment, where she worked on health care initiatives.
However, Patel said there are reasons to be optimistic and mentioned how he is thinking about seeing his parents soon. “Since I’m vaccinated and after several weeks have passed after this second dose, I’ll feel more comfortable talking about any risk, as it’s not 100% that they don’t catch the virus, but I feel comfortable having a small meeting with them when we’re vaccinated all together, ”he said.
Although vaccine availability is limited right now, Patel noted Dr. Anthony Fauci’s recent comments on NBC’s “Today.” The nation’s top infectious disease expert said it expects it to be “open season” for Covid vaccines by April. If Fauci’s predictions materialize, Patel said he believes more Americans will be able to meet safely over the summer.
“As the months go by and more people in your home and potentially in another home, like your parents or grandparents, get vaccinated, which could make smaller meetings safer,” Patel said. “This is something to look forward to, as it’s been more than a year since we held out, some of us, to see parents and older relatives at high risk.”