Vaccines - Are we normalized?

 

We're officially more than a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, and it's almost hard to recall what life was like in the "before times." But with the vaccine roll-out underway, there's a glimmer of hope that those times aren't permanently gone and that we won't be forever trapped in a world where avoiding other people is courteous; events exist solely on Zoom and face masks. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), almost 8 million people had been fully vaccinated (completing the mandatory two doses) with either Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna COVID-19 vaccine as of February 20. A return to normalcy hinges on the global level of herd immunity, a stage where enough people are immune to the virus, making it harder for the population to spread. The first ones to normalize in the corporate sectors are the Industrial Professional Recruitment agencies.

 

"Herd immunity is not just about the enjoyment of social interaction," says Sheila Leen, a Licensed Advanced Practice Nurse at Rush University. At Taplow, we find it crucial to inform and make our clients aware that limited interactions are a must, even when we call ourselves vaccinated. Many IT Services Executive Search agencies tend to loosen the harness to normalize, which is not at all "okay", says Leen. She adds, "It also helps society achieve a standard that prevents those who cannot be vaccinated, including children or individuals with immune systems who cannot respond to the antibody. It's just about securing and reuniting those that are most at risk."

 

Can the vaccinated ones relax?

 

No. Both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines successfully prevent COVID-19 disease (which was the subject of clinical trials). However, scientists still do not know if they prevent asymptomatic cases or transmission. Many are still running a professional search on the list of potential volunteers willing to take the experimental medicine. So even though you are vaccinated, there is a risk that you will still potentially transmit the virus to others who are not. Let's hope that as more and more people get vaccinated in the coming months, we'll start to better understand whether these vaccinations protect people from infection or, more often than not, from the disease.

 

Are Masks the New Normal?

 

Almost any potential post-vaccination situation involves the ongoing need for face coverings. Indeed, despite the erroneous statements made by confident politicians, experts, including the CDC, believe that getting vaccinated is not an excuse to throw away your face masks. They're probably going to be required for a while. Mask-wearing will be with us until we know that we have a sufficient reduction in the vaccine's transmission. Since, right now, we're either going to be lucky, and the vaccines are going to do the transmission-blocking for us [which evidence has yet to be confirmed], or we're going to have to rely on basically mechanical transmission blockades, which are masks.