Grandparents Unmasked? Friends without Bandanas?

…..Negotiating Through a Post-Vaccine World

A mask and a prayer (photo by Robin Schoenthaler)

There are now over 74 million vaccinated people in the US (and 300 million in the world), most of whom are very excited to be returning to a post-vaccinated life slowly starting to resemble some kind of normal.

Those of us who haven’t gotten our shots yet are trying to contain our VUVE (Very Understandable Vaccine Envy) — the “2021 Version of FOMO” — and are counting the days til it’s our turn.

But many of us are confused or concerned about how we should behave after we are fully vaccinated (which is defined as 14 days after your last dose).

This is what we know about all the vaccines now that eight gajillion needles have gone into arms:

They are safe
They make us safer
They are going to help get us out of this mess
They are our “Get Out Of Jail Free” card.

This is what we know very clearly from the science on how they make vaccinated people safer:

Vaccinated people have greatly reduced chances of catching Covid
Vaccinated people have greatly reduced chances of getting a serious case
Vaccinated people have greatly reduced chances of being hospitalized
Vaccinated people have greatly reduced chances of ending up on a ventilator
Vaccinated people have greatly reduced chances of dying of Covid

This is what science is increasingly clear about:

Vaccinated people seem to rarely get any cases of Covid, and most are mild
Vaccinated people seem to rarely get asymptomatic cases
Vaccinated people seem to only rarely transmit the disease to unvaccinated people.

“Rarely.” This does not of course mean “Never” but it looks like it’s a low enough rate so this particular worry about catching Covid from a vaccinated person can go down several notches on our Worry Bead List.

Now, no vaccine is a Guaranteed One Hundred Percent Total Body Armor Protection. The…