And I’m sorry, but even fully vaccinated grandparents shouldn’t be taking their grandchildren to church or exposing them to crowds, CDC officials said during a web briefing.
The CDC will update its guidelines as soon as it becomes clear how well vaccination prevents the virus from spreading, but for now, there are still limits on what fully vaccinated people should do, they said.
“In the scenario where unvaccinated people are from a single family and all unvaccinated people are at low risk of serious Covid-19 disease, no preventive measures are necessary, so these visits can take place indoors without a mask or distance. physicist, “said Tami Skoff, CDC epidemiologist on the Vaccine Task Force Clinical Guidelines Team.
“And the example we like to set here is that fully vaccinated grandparents can visit their unvaccinated daughter and their unvaccinated children, assuming that none of them are at high risk for serious illness. These visits can be done indoors, without masks or physical distance, “he said. Skoff said during a CDC webinar about provisional public health recommendations for fully vaccinated people.
These recommendations apply only to people who are fully vaccinated, said Skoff, meaning that it has been two weeks since the second dose of a series of two-dose vaccines or two weeks since receipt of the Johnson & Johnson single dose vaccine .
“There is a growing body of evidence that suggests that fully vaccinated people are less likely to have asymptomatic infection and therefore potentially less likely to transmit SARS-CoV-2 to others,” said Skoff.
“We know that Covid vaccines are very effective in preventing symptomatic diseases (and) even more effective in preventing serious Covid-19 diseases. Furthermore, as I just discussed, you know that there is a lot of accumulated evidence that currently available vaccines have really helped to reduce or stop the spread of this virus from fully vaccinated people to others, “she said.
But there are two important exceptions that require everyone to follow standard precautions, such as physical distance and wearing a mask. One is whether any of the unvaccinated people are at increased risk of severe Covid-19, such as older adults, pregnant women or people with Down’s Syndrome, among others. The other would be if more than two unvaccinated families get mixed up.
“According to the CDC’s recommendations, if unvaccinated people from more than one family are participating in a visit, then those visits must continue to take place outside and everyone, regardless of the status of vaccination, must be physically distant and using well-fitting masks, “said Skoff.
“The example we like to set here is if we have two families visiting each other. Both families have two fully vaccinated adults and two unvaccinated children. In this example, we recommend that the visit takes place outdoors and everyone wear masks and physically distance”, said Skoff.
Asked whether two fully vaccinated adults would take the children to church, Skoff said no.
Children, she said, cannot be vaccinated for the most part and may be at risk in the church crowd. “The current CDC recommendations are that everyone, including those who are fully vaccinated, should continue to avoid medium and large face-to-face meetings,” said Skoff.
Likewise, even fully vaccinated people need to be careful when traveling, said Dr. Cynthia Ogden, from the CDC’s Covid emergency response team.
“As we work to vaccinate more people, preventive measures, such as pre- and post-trip tests and post-trip self-quarantine, along with the use of tightly fitting masks, will help us prevent the spread of Covid-19,” said Ogden.
“No vaccine is perfect. A small number of people can still receive Covid-19 after being fully vaccinated and can spread the virus to unvaccinated people. Studies are now underway on how vaccines reduce the spread of the virus and we can update our recommendations, we will learn more, “added Ogden.
“We will be following the trends in the cases closely next month,” she said. “Until more information is known and the coverage of the vaccine increases, some preventive measures will be necessary for all people, regardless of the state of vaccination.”