NPR says we should feel grateful after we have a coronavirus vaccine, because not everybody has that privilege. However, that ‘school’s out’ feeling is not yet appropriate. We asked experts whether we should still double mask after the vaccine and we learned we are not over the hill.
This Is Not the Time to Succumb to Mask Fatigue
Pub Med explains mask fatigue as a lack of energy to keep on going after prolonged use. We don’t see the benefits up in lights, although they are obviously still there. If we have minor side effects, that’s probably a sign the vaccine is working. But if we have none, what does that mean?
Dr. Lisa Adams is associate dean for Global Health, at Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine in Hanover, New Hampshire. She told NPR those ‘positive’ side effects include fever, headache, fatigue, muscle aches, joint aches, nausea and chills. In other words similar to feeling like we have a bad dose of the ‘flu. However, we should not pre-medicate, because we could dent the vaccine’s effectiveness with pain killers.
Reasons Why We Should Still Double Mask After Vaccine
Jonathan Runstadler is a professor at Tufts University’s Department of Infectious Disease and Global Health on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts.. He told NPR the vaccination should still be working even if we did not show any side effects. ‘This is not a reason to believe the body did not develop an appropriate response that will be protective,’ he explains.
However, Dr. Lisa Adams still believes we should still double mask after the vaccine. That’s because, as she explains ‘no vaccines are ever 100% effective at totally halting the spread of disease. What they do, rather, is reduce your risk of hospitalization or death if you are infected,’ and not necessary prevent the infection.
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Preview Image: Wear a Non-Medical Mask Safely
