I had a friend send me a message she received from a former student questioning the vaccine and why, if you were vaccinated, you still are encouraged to wear a mask. There were other statements in the message (actual or implied) that needed to be addressed as well. Below is my response. I may add to this as I come across other points of misunderstanding about COVID and the spread of disease.
1. No vaccine completely prevents infections (replication of virus in humans). The aim is to prevent disease (symptoms). Given that this is such a new virus & vaccine, we are testing more and finding “breakthrough” infections. But the number of people that are vaccinated and are getting infected or sick is so much lower than if you didn’t get vaccinated.
2. With the COVID vaccine, you have a much lower risk of getting sick. BUT low risk is NOT the same as no risk. So everyone should continue to wear masks for a few reasons: (i) to prevent getting infected ourselves and (ii) to prevent spread of the virus to others - Some people cannot get vaccinated (too young, immunocompromised) or the vaccine doesn’t work as well in them (as we age our immune systems don’t work so well; people who have cancer or other diseases have immune systems that don’t work so well).
3. Another reason for everyone to wear masks is that every person that gets infected with SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID) can contribute to the evolution of virus variants that may be more infectious or cause more severe disease (like the Delta variant) or even variants that may evade the vaccine!
4. And reason #4 for everyone wearing masks – children younger than 12 yrs can’t get vaccinated yet and can, and do, get very sick. There are a lot of children over 12 yrs that are not yet vaccinated who can get sick, and even die.
5. The variants are not new viruses. They are the same SARS-CoV-2 virus with genetic differences. Think of virus variants like humans. We are all Homo sapiens but we have some genetic differences that make us unique, just like virus variants.
6. The vaccines were created quickly because scientists saw the need to make a vaccine even before the government provided the money for them (and Pfizer didn't accept any government funds). We also used information and technologies that have been in development for decades. We know a lot about viruses so we knew what protein we should use in the vaccine. Using mRNA for treatments or vaccines have been studied since the 1990s. So it might seem new/novel but only to people that haven’t learned about them before. The advantage of the mRNA vaccine is that we can quickly produce new versions. So if a variant evolves to escape the current vaccines we can quickly make new ones. Also, the different clinical trials were done at the same time and not sequentially so we ended up getting the data much quicker because we had a vital need to get vaccines out very quickly. This should be celebrated and not think that they aren’t safe.
7. The “risk” to getting the vaccine is low. Very
few people get such serious side effects that their health is negatively
impacted. The side effects that many people feel are due to the immune system
doing its job to recognize the virus protein, train immune cells to recognize
the invader better, and clear it from your body. For vaccines based on virus
proteins, and do not contain replicating virus, there are no long-term side
effects because once the body is cleared of the proteins your immune system
gears down because there is nothing to fight. But since they have already fought
off the invader they are much more ready to respond if you do come in contact
with the virus. This means you are less likely to get infected and much less
likely to get sick.
