DEFINITELY hanging on to the masks

[anna_wing]

It is now clear that vaccination does not prevent either re-infection or symptoms, though so far it seems to be successful in preventing serious symptoms or death (which is definitely a Good Thing). It also may not prevent transmission, though hopefully it will at least reduce it. I don't think there is information yet about the longer-term effects (the "long COVID" issue) for vaccinated people who catch COVID-19, but that may continue to be a risk too. The Singaporean cases received the Pfizer vaccine; the Seychelles cases received the Sinopharm one.


https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/ttsh-covid-19-cluster-b16172-variant-vaccination-gan-kim-yong-14786206?cid=h3_referral_inarticlelinks_24082018_cna

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/12/who-reviewing-seychelles-data-after-fully-vaccinated-get-covid

So, masks will continue to be helpful, and I think it's worth while to carry on wearing a mask, at least in crowded public places, and while travelling. I will certainly do so in future. People in retail, F&B, healthcare or transport, basically any industry where they are constantly exposed to large numbers of strangers, should certainly do so for their own safety. People in open-plan offices, too.

Given the apparent global drop in influenza last year, there will be other advantages. Flu kills a lot of people too, and colds aren't fun, so avoiding those will be another positive side-effect. I hope for the development of reliably non-smearing lipstick ...

Comments

[shirebound]

Flu kills a lot of people too, and colds aren't fun, so avoiding those will be another positive side-effect.

So true, and I hadn't thought about that!

[anna_wing]

I used to do a lot of international conference and meeting-related travel, and I'd get sick just after I returned too often for it to be a coincidence. But in those halcyon days, we only wore masks when we were sick, copying the considerate Japanese, and the thought of using them as a preventive just never crossed our minds, it was just considered a hazard of the job.

[mindstalk]

No vaccine is perfect. Hospital data, with weekly testing of all workers in the study, indicates the in-US vaccines are pretty effective in reducing infection, symptomatic or not, but it's like 90-97% effective, not 99.99...% effective. https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/studies-of-hospital-workers-suggest-covid-19-vaccines-prevent-coronavirus-infections/ar-BB1gqKUB

The Seychelles case suggests that the SinoPharm vaccine isn't that great, either intrinsically or due to poor quality control. That's not a surprise; reported efficacies for it had been wildly variable.