Many families have spent the past year separated from each other due to the coronavirus pandemic, but there is hope that people who are not from the same household will be able to get together soon, when vaccines are more readily available.
After everyone in the family is vaccinated, experts say it must be safe for people to get together, but it will be several months before the vaccine is readily available to the general public to vaccinate.
It is also important to remember that vaccines take some time to be effective: doses should be administered several weeks apart (21 or 28 days depending on the vaccine), and it takes about two weeks after the second injection for the vaccine to be fully effective. against the virus.
“That would be safe, if everyone in the family was vaccinated,” said Dr. Colleen Kelley, an associate professor of infectious diseases at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, who is involved in clinical trials of the Moderna and Novavax vaccines. “I think the problem is that it will be a long time before we reach the place where all members of a family are vaccinated, especially if it is a multigenerational family with grandparents and young children and adults. But I think that when we get to the place where everyone in the family is vaccinated so yes, they should feel free to see themselves freely. “
Dr. David Buchholz, founding senior medical director for primary care at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York, said seeing only a few members of the family can be safe – for example, if two vaccinated adults visit two fully vaccinated grandparents, which can be relatively safe, but the larger a circle becomes, the greater the risk.
“Chances are, yes, you can go and really visit,” he said. “The chances of you being unlucky and not getting (protection) the vaccine and having the virus at that moment are so incredibly small that I think you can do it safely, but if this family gets bigger and bigger, you increase the chances that one of those people could actually bring the virus home. “
Although the two vaccines have an estimated 95% effectiveness, Buchholz said that with the amount of viruses circulating in the country today, even that 5% chance can be risky.
Another complicating factor for some families is that vaccines have not been authorized for use in children: At this time, the Pfizer vaccine has been authorized for use in those over 16, while the Moderna vaccine has been authorized for use in those over 18. Children can carrying COVID-19, therefore, may pose a risk to others in the group, especially if not everyone has been vaccinated.
Experts advise that most people should continue to take precautions, such as seeing relatives outside or in a well-ventilated space, practicing social detachment and wearing masks until more people are vaccinated.
“I think it is fair that people gradually, not immediately, but very gradually, begin to liberalize their activities,” said Dr. Anne Liu, associate professor of clinical infectious disease at Stanford Health Care, California. “That doesn’t mean we’re going from 0 to 60 miles per hour … I still advise a little caution, going step by step and starting to remove some of the most rigid guardrails your family may have had, but try to keep some still in place. “
