Our Parish Nurse, Ann Yeo, is keeping watch on the growing database of knowledge about the COVID-19 pandemic, treatments, and especially preventive measures – including the vaccines that are rolling out. By this time, probably most of us over 65 (and some others) have started, maybe completed, our vaccinations. Commonly, we talk together about life returning to a semblance of normal. Yet, until just this week, we had no official guidance about what that means. On 8 March, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued that eagerly-awaited new guidance, entitled “When You’ve Been Fully Vaccinated”:
“COVID-19 vaccines are effective at protecting you from getting sick. Based on what we know about COVID-19 vaccines, people who have been fully vaccinated can start to do some things that they had stopped doing because of the pandemic.
If you’ve been fully vaccinated, you can:
- Gather indoors with fully vaccinated people without wearing a mask.
- Gather indoors with unvaccinated people from one other household without masks, UNLESS any of those people or anyone they live with is at increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19.”
That sounds straightforward, but let’s be clear about a couple of things – what’s it mean to be fully vaccinated, and who’s at risk for severe illness from COVID-19:
- People are considered fully vaccinated by 2 weeks after their second dose in a 2-dose series (such as Pfizer or Moderna), or by 2 weeks after a single-dose vaccine (such as Johnson & Johnson).
- People who are at increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19 include those with cancer, chronic kidney disease, COPD, Down syndrome, heart disease, heart failure, a weakened immune system, obesity, sickle cell disease, and type 2 diabetes. The list also includes pregnant women and smokers.
The CDC’s updated guidance concludes with these caveats: “We’re still learning how vaccines will affect the spread of COVID-19. After you’ve been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, you should keep taking precautions in public places like wearing a mask, staying 6 feet apart from others, and avoiding crowds and poorly ventilated spaces until we know more.”
If you have questions about how to interpret the new CDC guidance, I will be glad to talk with you.
-Ann Yeo, RN, MSN, Certified Holistic Nurse
