COVID: CDC recommendations for fully vaccinated

 The CDC just published their 1^st public health recommendations for fully vaccinated people (see https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/fully-vaccinated-guidance.html )

 

General points:

-- there is increasing evidence suggesting that fully vaccinated people are less likely to have asymptomatic infections and potentially less likely to transmit the SARS-CoV-2 virus to others (see their document https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/more/fully-vaccinated-people.html and my recent blog on this, which includes a couple of newer studies: http://gmodestmedblogs.blogspot.com/2021/03/covid-vaccines-seem-to-decrease.html

-- they acknowledge the burden of social isolation, noting that “the benefits of reducing social isolation and relaxing some measures such as quarantine requirements may outweigh the residual risk of fully vaccinated people becoming ill with Covid-19 or transmitting SARS-CoV-2 to others”.

        --And another possible benefit of relaxing requirements for those who are vaccinated is that it might stimulate more people to get vaccinated….

    -- that being said, they do note that there’s a lot we still don’t understand, including how long vaccine protection lasts and how effective it will be against the emerging variants

    -- which means: though it appears that vaccinated people are low risk to themselves, they should be “mindful of the potential risk of transmitting the virus to others”

 

Recommendations:

-- fully vaccinated people can do the following:

    -- visit with other fully vaccinated people indoors without wearing masks or physical distancing

    -- visit with unvaccinated people from a single household who are at low risk for severe Covid-19 disease indoors without wearing masks or physical distancing

    -- refrain from quarantine and testing following known exposure to Covid-19, as long as the vaccinated person is asymptomatic

-- but, fully vaccinated people should:

    -- take precautions in public, wearing a well-fitted mask, physical distancing at least 6 feet, avoiding crowds, avoiding poorly ventilated spaces, covering coughs and sneezes, washing hands often, and following any applicable workplace or school guidance

    -- wear masks, physical distancing, and these other preventive measures when visiting an unvaccinated person who is at increased risk for severe Covid-19 infection (e.g. older adults, pregnant people, people with high-risk medical conditions)

    -- same restrictions for visiting unvaccinated people from multiple households

    -- avoid medium- and large-sized in-person gatherings (size was not specified)

    -- getting tested if having Covid-19 symptoms

    -- follow guidance issued by individual employers

    -- follow CDC and health department travel requirements and recommendations

 

--here is their visual cheat-sheet: 

It is clear from the above that:

-- this is a reasoned, measured position but a compromise, where the science is not rock-solid but evolving.

    --It is weighing the unlikely risks of Covid spread to vaccinated people (vaccines are pretty impressively good) against the huge and devastating physical/mental health/social effects from social isolation that has dominated life over the last year

        --and, importantly, vaccines are even better at preventing serious/critical/fatal Covid-19

    -- it is weighing the unlikely risks of asymptomatic carriage being a major source of SARS-CoV-2 transmission against these devastating social effects

    -- and, it is using a probabilistic approach: differentiating between exposures to high- and low-risk unvaccinated people in making their recommendations

        -- of course, individuals have different risk thresholds, and some may feel even very small risks are unacceptable...

-- this guideline is certainly a huge incentive to get immunized: there certainly are people who have felt  like "why should I get immunized if I have to wear masks and social distance anyway??"

-- This is a major appropriate step back towards normalcy, diametrically opposite to the remarkably dangerous approach in many states of simply relaxing access to restaurants and bars because of Covid fatigue or (likely very) short-term economic benefit....

geoff

 

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