Even after being fully inoculated against Covid, some public health care is still needed until more data on vaccines can be collected, Dr. Kavita Patel told CNBC on Friday.
It is well understood that Pfizer and Moderna’s two-dose vaccines are highly effective in preventing serious illness and death in Covid-19, said Patel in a “Squawk Box” interview. Less understood now is how well vaccines reduce coronavirus transmission.
In other words, someone who was vaccinated drastically reduced the risk of getting really sick with the coronavirus, but Patel said that precautions are still needed in the coming months if a small group is meeting and a person in that group has not been vaccinated.
“If you are in a home with young children [who don’t yet qualify for the vaccine] or even children at high risk … or even you if you are at high risk despite having been vaccinated, you should consider taking precautions when you are indoors, wearing masks. If possible, stay outdoors with people, “said Patel, a primary care physician in Washington and a non-resident fellow at the Brookings Institution.
“The only reason I say this is because we need more data to understand what the risk of transmission is,” she added.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week adjusted their quarantine guidelines for people who have been fully vaccinated; Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require two doses for total protection. The CDC now states that, within three months of being fully vaccinated, people exposed to the coronavirus do not need to be quarantined if they do not develop symptoms.
Like Patel, the CDC recognizes that the risk of a vaccinated person transmitting the virus to another person is “uncertain”. But the reason for its modified quarantine orientation, said the CDC, is due to vaccines that show strong effectiveness in preventing people from developing symptomatic Covid.
This is important because people with Covid symptoms are believed to transmit the virus more than asymptomatic individuals, according to the CDC. For this reason, the CDC said that a fully vaccinated person who has no symptoms does not need to be quarantined.
The CDC defines complete vaccination as two weeks after receiving the second injection of a two-dose vaccine or two weeks after receiving a single-dose vaccine. Johnson & Johnson has applied for emergency use authorization for its single dose vaccine and an advisory panel is set to consider it at a meeting later this month.
Patel said he believed the CDC’s quarantine guidance could be updated again as more Americans get vaccinated. But at this stage of the pandemic, she said the United States is in an “intermediate period”. Although she said that about one in three Americans was vaccinated or developed natural antibodies against the coronavirus due to the previous infection, “we still have enough opportunity in the other two people to promote the spread of the virus, particularly a concern about these more communicable variants. . “
To help illustrate, Patel offered an insight into how she is personally addressing aspects of life now that she has been vaccinated. The former Obama administration official said he continues to wear a mask in public, although he feels confident he won’t get sick and die from Covid.
“I’m still doing all the things that we talk about – that we’re very tired of doing – until we have more data that I can’t provide [the virus] to someone who hasn’t been vaccinated, “said Patel, who served as policy director for the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement at the Obama White House, where she worked on health initiatives.
However, Patel said there are reasons to be optimistic and mentioned how he is thinking about the possibility of seeing his parents soon. “Because I am vaccinated and after they take several weeks after the second dose, I will feel more comfortable talking about any risks because it is not 100% that they will not catch the virus, but I am potentially comfortable having a small meeting with them when we are all vaccinated together, “she said.
Although vaccine availability is currently limited, Patel noted Dr. Anthony Fauci’s recent comments on NBC’s “Today” program. The country’s leading infectious disease expert said he expects it to be “hunting season” for Covid’s vaccines in April. If Fauci’s prediction comes true, Patel said he believes more Americans will be able to meet safely by summer.
“As the months go by and more people in your home and potentially in another family, like your parents or grandparents, get vaccinated, it can make smaller meetings more secure,” said Patel. “This is something to be expected, because we have been waiting for more than a year, some of us, to see older parents and relatives at high risk.”