As much as we miss the Before Times-when we didn’t have to wear masks and could go to crowded places and giving trips and parties and attending concerts and eating at the same table as acquaintances and strangers – those times will not return any time soon. As good as the news about vaccines is, stick with your masks.
Ultimately, we may be able to get rid of it, but don’t expect a return to a pre-pandemic in the next two years to be normal. This is why:
We don’t know if the vaccine prevents transmission
So far, the efficacy data suggests that both the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine (the first COVID vaccine approved for use in the US) and that of Moderna (likely to be the second) are good at preventing people from getting sick to become.
But we don’t know if the vaccine will prevent you from getting the virus, or if it will keep the infection from making you sick. It probably does both, but we just don’t have enough information to say.
So if you get the vaccine, you may still be able to spread the coronavirus to others. Even if you are one of the lucky people to have already received the vaccine, you should still wear a mask when you are around other people.
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Not everyone can get the vaccine
Right now, supplies are so limited that only a handful of people can get the vaccine. (Her is given first to health workers and residents of care institutions such as nursing homes; other people at high risk will follow.)
But even if more doses are available, not everyone will receive the vaccine. Some people may choose not to. Some may have a health-related reason why they cannot, such as an allergy to a vaccine ingredient.
And, crucially, the vaccine is approved for children. The Pfizer vaccine is for people 16 and older and the Moderna vaccine is for 18 years and older. No manufacturer has conducted large-scale trials on children to date.
Children and many teenagers will therefore have to wear masks for a while. While kids don’t tend to get very sick, they can still spread the virus –probably less often than adults, but research is ongoing. Children make up more than 20% of the US population, so until they can be vaccinated it will be difficult to impossible to achieve herd immunity.
During this interval, when not everyone has been vaccinated, expect meetings and travel with caution, with mask rules still in effect. It is unlikely that anyone will or will be able to check medical records at concerts, parties or family gatherings, so distance and masks will probably still be needed in many contexts while we wait for COVID cases to subside.
Masks are actually good
Before COVID, wearing a face mask in public had some kind of stigma. To be honest, at first I wasn’t sure Americans would be able to embrace the trend. But masks have been popular in Asia for years, and they’re not just for pandemics.
Masks help you if you have a standard problem, avoid spreading your germs cold or flu, and that’s how long they have used in Asia. Plus, they can be useful in other situations, such as keeping your nose warm when a scarf would just fall.
So even if the vaccine rolls out quickly and evenly if it turns out to be safe for everyone, and even if it proves effective in preventing transmission, we will wear masks for COVID prevention for a while anyway. And after that, they are still handy to have around.