Can the vaccine against covid-19 be substituted?
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(CNN) -
Vaccines against covid-19 are very effective against preventing infections, but no vaccine is 100% effective.
Fully vaccinated people can and do become infected.
It is not known exactly how many cases of COVID-19 infection in vaccinated people are occurring, as the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) does not collect such comprehensive national data.
Based on reports from 25 states that keep track of this data, the Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that the rate of serious infections is well below 1%.
Questions from the audience about the coronavirus: Can I infect people if I become infected with covid-19 post-vaccination?
Many people have questions about what to do if they are vaccinated but test positive.
Should they be isolated and for how long?
What about your family members?
Should they get tested?
What kinds of symptoms should a person be concerned about getting an infection after vaccination?
And how do you address the skeptics who question getting the vaccine if you can still get the coronavirus?
For answers to these questions, we turned to CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Leana Wen.
Wen is an emergency room physician and visiting professor of health policy and management at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University.
She is also the author of a new book, "Lifelines: A Doctor's Journey in the Fight for Public Health."
Why are adolescents vaccinated against covid-19?
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CNN: What Should People Do If They Get Covid-19 After Being Vaccinated? Should they isolate themselves from members of their household? Does it matter if they have symptoms?
Dr. Leana Wen:
Someone who is vaccinated and tests positive for COVID-19 should definitely follow strict isolation protocols because we have to assume that the person is contagious and capable of infecting others.
If that person has symptoms, they should be isolated for at least 10 days from the first day they started having symptoms, according to the CDC.
They can end isolation as long as they haven't had a fever for more than 24 hours and other symptoms are improving.
If the person has no symptoms but had a positive test, they should be in isolation for 10 days after the positive test.
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Isolation means that they should not be in public where they can infect others.
They should also be isolated from close household contacts.
That means, if possible, staying in a part of the house away from others, in your own room.
Essentially, once a person is infected with COVID-19, it doesn't matter if they were vaccinated;
it could infect other people, so follow standard isolation procedures.
CNN: If a person in the household gets COVID-19 after getting vaccinated, should everyone get tested?
Wen:
Yes. All close contacts should be tested.
"Close contact" is defined as people who were within 1.8 meters for a total of at least 15 minutes in a 24-hour period during the potentially contagious period.
The CDC offers different recommendations for those who are vaccinated than those who are not.
The unvaccinated, if exposed to a close contact who has COVID-19, should be quarantined for 10 days.
They can shorten the quarantine to seven days if they have a negative test at least five days after exposure.
During that quarantine period, they cannot be in public.
On the other hand, those who are fully vaccinated, when exposed to close contact who have covid-19, do not need to self-quarantine unless they develop symptoms.
Still, they should be tested within three to five days of exposure and should wear a mask in public for added protection.
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CNN: Does that mean that a vaccinated person who was exposed to COVID-19 can still go to work?
Wen:
According to the CDC guidance, yes, as long as that person has no symptoms, they wear a mask at all times and still get tested three to five days after exposure.
This CDC guide lacks the necessary nuances.
Consider this: Would you be comfortable sitting shoulder to shoulder with a co-worker if you learned that this person's spouse had just been diagnosed with Covid-19?
Even if the CDC guidance says this can be done, I think we should also use some common sense.
If your spouse or child has Covid-19 and is still waiting for your coronavirus test, I urge you to tell your supervisor and see if you can work from home at least until you get a negative test result.
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It would also distinguish what the level of exposure was to the person who tested positive.
If you were at an outdoor party and were with someone who ended up testing positive, you still need to get tested, but your risk of coronavirus is quite low and it might be reasonable to continue going to work, wearing a mask, of course.
But if it is your child or partner with whom you spend many hours together, in closed places, you have a much higher risk of contracting covid-19 and therefore you should try not to expose others if possible.
CNN: What are the symptoms for vaccinated people who get COVID-19?
Wen:
The key benefit of vaccination is that it reduces the likelihood of serious illness. Those vaccinated who still contract the coronavirus are much more likely to have mild symptoms compared to those who are not vaccinated. A person who might have been very sick with a high fever, severe cough, and so much shortness of breath that they need oxygen or a ventilator, may now have body aches, fatigue, and a cold. That is the power of vaccination: it reduces the severity of the disease.
Since symptoms in the vaccinated are much milder than in the unvaccinated, be on the lookout for even one of the symptoms of Covid-19.
These include fever, chills, cough, fatigue, muscle or body aches, headache, sore throat, runny nose, nausea, diarrhea, and loss of taste or smell.
Of course, this is a long list and it could also indicate other viral diseases.
Given the number of coronavirus cases in most parts of the country, keep your radar on high alert.
If something doesn't seem right, get tested.
US Would Fully Approve Pfizer Vaccine 0:45
CNN: If you find out that you are positive, should you tell your colleagues? What if you were at a party? Do you tell the host?
Wen: You
must follow the procedures at your workplace.
Talk to your manager, who can direct you to your company's human resources department or someone else who can help you with contact tracing.
Typically, this would include identifying people with whom you had close contact in the period of time that you may have been contagious.
Usually this includes up to 48 hours before your symptoms start.
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The term "post-vaccination infection" raises questions about the vaccine, but should not
You definitely need to think about the social activities you participated in during that potentially infectious period.
If you were at a party, you should inform the host, as well as any guests with whom you remember spending extended periods of time.
This is a job your local health department contact trackers should do, but in many places they are overwhelmed.
Remember also that contact trackers depend on you to remember where you were, and you'd better know who you were with and when.
It is important to inform the people to whom you may have exposed as soon as possible;
we would like the same courtesy ourselves.
CNN: Do you need to be retested before receiving clearance to return to work?
Wen:
No. Assuming you haven't had a fever for more than 24 hours and your other symptoms are improving, 10 days after your symptoms start is the CDC recommended isolation period.
After that, you can end the isolation and go back to work and interact with others.
If I get vaccinated, is protection lost?
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CNN: Would a booster shot help reduce infections in already vaccinated people?
Wen:
Probably.
Federal health officials have already said that people with moderate or severe immunosuppression, who received the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, can get a booster dose now.
The White House announced that beginning the week of September 20, pending final approval from the FDA and CDC, they will begin allowing people with at least eight months of their initial vaccinations to receive a booster dose. .
More than 99.9% of those fully vaccinated have not had a serious post-vaccination infection, according to the CDC
This is because the vaccine's effectiveness against symptomatic disease appears to decrease over time (although the vaccines still protect very well against severe disease), so one might hope that a booster shot would prevent future infections.
I advise you to talk to your doctor.
The decision to give a booster dose is probably not a one-size-fits-all recommendation, but rather an individual decision based on your medical circumstances.
CNN: Some people might wonder what's the point of getting vaccinated if they can still get sick
Wen:
We get vaccinated for two reasons.
Remember that vaccination reduces the likelihood of serious illness, as estimated by CDC data, by about 25 times.
Second, vaccination also reduces the spread of COVID-19 by about eight times.
A vaccinated person is much less likely to get COVID-19 and spread it, compared to someone who is not vaccinated.
How Concerned Should People Be About Post-vaccination Covid-19 Infections?
Why do infections continue to occur in vaccinated people? We can think of vaccination as a very good raincoat. The raincoat will keep you dry in a drizzle. It could even work in a thunderstorm. But if you are in thunderstorms day after day and sometimes you go through hurricanes, at some point you might get wet. The problem is not that the raincoat does not work, it is that there is too much bad weather around you.
That is what is happening now with covid-19 throughout the country.
The level of the virus is so high that the vaccine alone may not be enough to protect you.
That's why a mask can help, as well as reduce the number of high-risk environments you find yourself in.
Ultimately, we need to reduce the level of virus around us, and the best way to do that is by vaccinating all of us.
Fauci supports that vaccination against covid is mandatory 0:23
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