Scientists Respond to CDC COVID Vaccine Guidelines: Asking for Trouble
On 3/9/21 at 7:08 AM EST
New U.S. health advice that loosens restrictions for people who are fully vaccinated is a risky move that may be asking for trouble, according to scientists.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released guidance on Monday, saying people who have all necessary vaccine doses can visit other fully vaccinated people indoors without needing to wear a face-covering or physically distance.
Under the new rules, fully vaccinated people can now meet with unvaccinated people from one other household without needing a mask indoors as long as those people are considered to be at low risk of severe illness from COVID.
HuffPost UK reader Pete asked: “Can you catch Covid in a busy park?
As the weather warms up, parks are going to get busier again – especially since Boris Johnson’s roadmap states people will be able to sit with one other person from March 8 – and five other people from March 29.
So as we, once again, have picnics with our pals on the grass, are we putting ourselves at risk? “We know this virus transmits during close contact with people,” says Dr Julian Tang, clinical virologist at the University of Leicester.
If a park is very crowded, with less than two metre spacing between groups, where no masks are worn, “the virus can still potentially transmit”, he says. “If most people have been vaccinated, and there is a strong breeze and strong sunlight, this risk will be less.”
Vaccination efforts are working, if the latest data is anything to go by.
Every week, Public Health England (PHE) releases a report, which details information like where the virus is spreading and among which age groups.
It also includes data on seropositivity in the population in England – and it’s this that’s showing positive signs. A person is ‘seropositive’ when specific Covid-19 antibodies, which help the immune system fight the virus, show in their blood.
Data suggests there’s been a “large rise” in seropositivity in the first four weeks of 2021, increasing from 12.1% of the population at the end of 2020, to 20.5%.
A huge amount of discussion and speculation is surrounding the newly detected variants of COVID-19 and whether they might affect the efficacy of the vaccines. There’s still much more work to be done before we have any solid answers, but here’s what we know so far.
The past month has seen concerns regarding newly identified variants of the SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Some of the most worrying “variants of concern” have undergone mutations that affect the spike protein found on the outer shell of the virus.
One of the most prominent mutations, known as N501Y mutation, has been found to affect the spike protein in the “UK variant.” Meanwhile, the “South African variant” and the “Brazil variant” contain the N501Y mutation along with other mutations to the spike protein, such as E484K. Since this spike protein is used by the virus to enter human cells and is targeted by most of the vaccines, it’s been speculated that the variants may reduce the
The introduction of a short, sharp “circuit-breaker” of national restrictions to slow the spread of Covid-19 is at the centre of public discussions over how to tackle the virus.
Scientists, teachers and politicians have backed the concept as a crucial measure to suppress the ongoing epidemic, but questions remain over its timing and effectiveness.
Here, the PA news agency examines some of the key issues being debated by experts.
Difficulties collecting evidence
One challenge facing scientists is establishing sufficient evidence on which to judge the efficacy and harms of imposing further coronavirus restrictions.
Documents published this month revealed a circuit-breaker lockdown was at the top of a shortlist of interventions recommended to the Government by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) in September.