I was able to schedule a first dose of the COVID vaccine a week from tomorrow. A neighbor told me the protocols had changed here in California now including those over 65 along with healthcare and other frontline workers. Neither my wife who had qualified before when the age limit was 75 and over nor my 10 years younger brother who is a frontline worker have yet received either the vaccine or an appointment. The disjointed way these protocols have been implemented is one issue but what I’d like to know is what precautions those of us who get vaccinated early on need to take to protect those still waiting. My understanding is that even after being vaccinated one can still pick up and transmit the disease to others. So I assume masking and social distancing will remain important until many more receive it. Apparently picking it up from surfaces is not as big a concern as before.
I haven’t found clear guidance regarding at what point we can assume we’re back to the old normal and can let up on precautions. Has anyone heard anything definitive or have an informed opinion about that?
Here is a great interview that covers most of those questions:
In short, continue to mask and distance, although the available info indicates you probably are safe and non-contagious even if you get an asymptomatic infection after the vaccine, as the viral load is probably quite low. Belt and suspenders approach.
Wow. Will our old normal become the kind of thing future generations marvel at but never becomes their normal? Thanks for the link. Still reading but this is helping.
Good article that spells out the ideal, but I wonder what the reality will be. Even though Covid is raging in our area much worse than this summer, fewer people are wearing masks in stores as even the big corporate chains have loosened up enforcement of rules. It does seem that the polarization in society over this issue is functionally worse, with hard core maskers and hard core non-maskers being the norm. One good trend is that I seem to hear little anti-Vax talk from my peers, probably because nearly everyone knows someone who has been hospitalized with Covid. Of course, that is the older age group, but we have a 50ish deacon in our church in ICU now, as well as the wife of another deacon who is 60ish.
I talked to an infectious disease doctor I work with, and he said the very same things you just said. It is possible that you can still be infected and infect others after being vaccinated. How often this occurs isn’t known, and is a big focus of research right now, but everyone agrees that it is possible. What the vaccine will protect you from is symptoms.
We should all adhere to social distancing and masking until told otherwise. Those safeguards will probably remain in place until the rate of new cases starts to go down and reaches levels that scientists and government officials are comfortable with, in combination with vaccine coverage.
Well, I am going to be volunteering in a vaccination clinic, and got a call today that they had a shot for me, so got my first Moderna vaccine. So far, have a heightened sense of hope as a side effect, but that is probably just placebo.
Thanks. The articles Phil and Hillary shared also threw a lot of light on the situation. And now I have Phil out there a week ahead of me to show the way.
I, my wife and my two sons who still live at home all have Covid, we have had it a little more than a week. I figured I would be hit hard if I got it because I have a mild form of Asthma and my wife has Diabetes, but we all have fared reasonably well up to this point. But whether it is by some virus, a car accident, falling off a roof (job related), heart attack or a million other ways, my body will die. In fact, it is in the process of decaying even now, all of creation is subject to decay.
So, since I know that all of creation will be consumed with fire by God and a new world made, my goal is to please the Lord each moment. This is not my home. I died in the late 70’s when I repented and submitted to Jesus as Lord. That’s when my spirit died and I was raised and recreated in Christ, in the righteousness of God and became one spirit with Christ. It is no longer I that live but Christ that lives in me. So, since I have already died and been raised up in Christ, I resist the temptation to fear the things this world fears. I place no confidence in the flesh but place all my hope and trust in the Father and what He did through the cross of Christ. It is from that supernatural act of the Father that I now abide in Him, and He in me. I have a high priest that is in the presence of the Father interceding for me. His blood was taken into the heavenly Holy Place and by it I have been redeemed from sin and death. I have been transferred into the Kingdom of the Son of God and it is Christ living in me.
What shall separate me from the love of God that has been shown towards me through Christ, neither persecution, suffering, trials, sickness or even death, for my life is hid in Christ. That is why I will only glory in the cross of Christ, for through it I have died to the world and the world to me. I deserved death, condemnation and wrath but God gave me life, righteousness and mercy through the execution and resurrection of Jesus.
Thank God for the new birth, for becoming a new creation in Christ. Thank God for the salvation that is at work in me moment by moment. And thank God for the final salvation at the return of Jesus.