More than 90 million coronavirus vaccine doses have now been administered in the U.S. So if you’re wondering what you can start to do after your COVID-19 vaccine, you are definitely not alone. That’s why the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) just released new guidelines to help those who are fully vaccinated make safe choices as we enter a new phase of the pandemic.
One important thing to note is that the new guidelines don’t just depend on whether or not you’ve been vaccinated—you’ll need to take others’ risks into account as well, CDC director Rochelle Walensky, M.D., M.P.H., said in a press briefing today.
It’s also crucial to remember that these new guidelines specifically address small private gatherings between two households. So even if you and everyone you live with is fully vaccinated, that’s not a license to hang out unmasked in giant crowds. Furthermore, these are just initial guidelines, Dr. Walensky said, and in the future when more people get vaccinated and we learn more about the virus, the recommendations may evolve.
Here’s what the new CDC guidelines say about what you can and can’t do safely after getting a COVID-19 vaccine:
- In small private settings where everyone has been fully vaccinated, no precautions are necessary. So, for example, you and your partner could see your parents for dinner at their home without masks or social distancing—as long as everyone in the scenario has gotten their vaccine.
- In private settings where one household is fully vaccinated and one other household is not, you should take the unvaccinated people’s underlying risk factors into account. If the unvaccinated people are at a higher risk for severe complications of COVID-19 (due to their age, underlying health conditions, or other factors), everyone should continue to take appropriate precautions. That means everyone—including those who have been vaccinated—should wear masks, opt for outdoor or well ventilated spaces, stay six feet apart, and wash their hands frequently.
- But if the unvaccinated people in that scenario are considered low-risk for severe complications of COVID-19, no extra precautions are required.
- In public settings, people who are fully vaccinated should continue to take the usual precautions, including wearing a mask, avoiding large groups, avoiding non-essential travel, and staying socially distanced from others.
- After a potential exposure to COVID-19, people who have been fully vaccinated don’t need to quarantine or get tested as long as they don’t have symptoms. If you do develop symptoms, you should follow the CDC’s usual rules for quarantining and getting tested.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has now given emergency use authorization to three COVID-19 vaccines. Two of them—the one developed by Moderna and the one developed by Pfizer/BioNTech—require two separate doses given a few weeks apart. The third vaccine, developed by Johnson & Johnson, is only one dose. People are considered fully vaccinated two weeks after their second dose of Moderna or Pfizer vaccines or two weeks after their single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the CDC says.
There is “robust data” from clinical trials showing that all three of these vaccines can profoundly reduce the risk for severe complications, hospitalization, and death from COVID-19, Dr. Walensky said in the briefing. But, although there is some data to suggest they can also help prevent asymptomatic infections and reduce the spread of the virus from person to person, there is less conclusive evidence for these claims.
That means that, once you’re fully vaccinated, you have significant protection against developing a symptomatic COVID-19 infection, but there is still a chance you could get a mild or asymptomatic case of the infection—and potentially spread the infection to others, Dr. Walensky explained.
That’s why the potential risks you might face after your shot(s) are not just about your own vaccination status. Even after you’re fully vaccinated, you’ll need to take the risks of those around you into account in order to make the safest choice for everyone.
“This is precisely what @CDC should be doing: cautiously balancing uncertainty with evidence and distilling it into clear, actionable guidance relevant to people’s daily lives,” Angela Rasmussen, Ph.D., virologist at Georgetown University Center for Global Health Science and Security, said on Twitter.
“CDC totally gets it right,” Ashish K. Jha, M.D., M.P.H., dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, said on Twitter. “Vaccinated people can hang with other vaccinated people. Vaccinated grandparents can hug unvaccinated grandkids,” he said, noting that in many cases “broader public health measures should remain for now because lots of high risk folks are not yet vaccinated.”
“I’m very happy to see the new @CDCgov guidance for fully vaccinated people! BUT remember: ‘fully vaccinated’ doesn’t mean you JUST got your shot!” Craig Spencer, M.D., director of global health in emergency medicine at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center, said on Twitter, noting that people will need to wait at least two weeks after getting the full dose regimen of whichever vaccine they get.
Ultimately, this is just an initial guidance, Dr. Walensky said. And as our understanding of the virus continues to evolve, vaccines reach more and more people, and the overall landscape of the pandemic changes, these recommendations will likely change as well.
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