After a year of quarantining and not being able to see our friends in person, a year of masks and maskne, and a year of uncertainties, the COVID-19 vaccine is finally here and will be rolling out sooner than later, giving the public some glimmer of hope that the end is here and we can go back to how things were pre-coronavirus.
Nevertheless, would things really go back to how they were? What happens after we receive the COVID-19 vaccine?
Why Masks are Still Important
Before the general public can receive the vaccine shots, most governments, including the United States, are planning to have the frontliners get the dosages first, especially as they are most vulnerable to getting the disease.
After that, it may take the second quarter or so of 2021 before everyone can get the dosages, and according to the New York Times, there is no immediate return to how things were.
Furthermore, getting fully vaccinated, which takes a week or two after the second dosage, does not mean we can all just toss our masks goodbye, and as scientists say, the vaccines do not provide perfect protection against the disease, which is why keeping our masks on is essential.
Experts say that we are not a hundred percent sure that people who have been injected with the COVID-19 vaccine are unable to spread the virus.
This is essential for both our healths and the health of other people, especially the vulnerable ones.
Read More: CDC's New COVID-19 Guidelines for Allergic People; Here are the Recommendations You Need
What Can We Do After Getting COVID-19 Vaccine?
Moreover, the virus is more likely to spread fast until the vast majority of people are vaccinated or have survived naturally from the disease
Uma Karmarkar, a neuroeconomist from the University of California, San Diego, said that the vaccine is not a ticket back to 2019, where things were normal, and that instead of thinking about how we can get "back to normal," we should instead think of "how we are moving forward," and the vaccine is our best way to move forward.
So, what can we do after getting the COVID-19 vaccine?
If you and your circle of friends and family are fully vaccinated, you can do what you've been longing to do: socialize with them, even indoors.
However, it is still important to avoid any massive gatherings or traveling, where it's hard to know whether the people around you are vaccinated or not, which could be risky.
The Hardest Phase?
What happens after the COVID-19 vaccine could be the hardest phase of our post-vaccine lives since we'll be weighing everything we do, whether it's safe for us or the people around us--again, just because you've been vaccinated does not mean everything is safe.
It is still unclear how the US government will monitor people who have been vaccinated or if they would be doing that.
According to NPR, US officials have said that American companies are considering making it mandatory for employees to get vaccinated and those who do not will be unable to go back to work, plus some are considering giving out immunity passport or some sort of documentation to prove they have been vaccinated against COVID-19.
Related Article: UK New Strain of COVID-19 70% More Contagious, Already Had Nearly Two Dozen Mutations
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Written by: Nhx Tingson
