Illinois Air National Guard Sergeant Jennifer Callender (L) administers a Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine to Virginia Persha at a vaccination center established at Triton College in River Grove, Illinois, on February 3, 2021.
Kamil Krzaczynski | AFP | Getty Images
The deployment of life-saving coronavirus vaccines gives hope that life will return soon to a time before the pandemic, where we were not advised to wear a mask almost everywhere we go.
But even if you’re one of the lucky few to have been shot against Covid-19, it will be important to keep dressing your face until researchers can determine if vaccines prevent people from spreading the virus to people who don’t. they are vaccinated. , White House health adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci.
“Currently, we don’t have enough data to be able to say with certainty that vaccines can prevent transmission,” Fauci said in a tweet during an online question and answer session. “So even if you get vaccinated, you may be able to transmit the virus to vulnerable people.”
What clinical trials of vaccines have shown, however, is that medications are very effective in preventing symptomatic infections in people who have been inoculated. Both Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, the only two in the United States that have received emergency clearance so far, have been shown to be approximately 95% effective in preventing symptomatic infection in people given two doses. spread over weeks.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine, a single-dose jab that has not yet been granted the same authorization by the federal government, reported Friday that its vaccine was globally 66% effective in protecting against Covid-19 in clinical trials. Although it is lower than the others, it is still above the threshold set by the federal government (approximately 50%) for obtaining emergency authorization.
In addition, the company’s drug was 85% effective in preventing people from suffering serious illnesses with Covid-19 four weeks after its firing. The J&J vaccine could be available in March if it clears U.S. Food and Drug Administration standards for emergency use, Fauci said.
Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, also urged people to accept any vaccine available when it was their turn.
Researchers are currently collecting follow-up data from people who participated in clinical trials to determine if the amount of virus they carry in their noses is reduced after vaccination or if there are “significantly fewer” cases where people show no symptoms. course of their infection.
This would indicate “a decrease in the ability to transmit the virus after vaccination,” Fauci said.
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Masks, combined with other measures such as frequent hand washing and social distancing, have been a key tool in suppressing the spread of Covid-19, according to medical experts.
The virus spreads from person to person through respiratory droplets that travel through the air when someone speaks, coughs, sneezes, sings or screams, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Facial coatings serve as a barrier that can prevent these drops from spreading to other people.
There is now evidence that masks could also protect the virus from the virus, the CDC says, although their proper functioning depends on the type of mask.
It is also important to remember that most Americans have not yet been vaccinated, said Dr. Joshua Barocas, a professor at Boston University School of Medicine. According to recent CDC data, nearly 34 million doses of vaccine have been administered to date.
“We don’t know who isn’t vaccinated. We don’t wear it like a badge on our coat. We don’t wear our immune function, we don’t show our risk factors on our T-shirts,” Barocas said during a call organized by the Society for Diseases Infectious of America on Wednesday. “We need a continued multilayered approach.”