These unprecedented times seem to be coming to a close. Vaccines are available, allowing municipalities and businesses to lift restrictions. Restaurants are reopening, concerts have begun establishing real dates and people are going back into their workplaces after a yearlong stretch of working from home.
However, this should not make us overly enthusiastic about leaving this lifestyle behind us. Before you get worked up about my seeming pessimism, I do want all the restrictions to lift at some point, and I am as happy as anyone to see places re-open safely, but the keyword here is safely.
Caution is something we have learned a lot about in the past year. We have been operating under the assumption of “better safe than sorry” for the entirety of this pandemic, because we have nearly no idea what we are up against. Near the beginning of the pandemic, we were telling people not to wear masks because the healthcare professionals needed them more than we do; now we have mask mandates. The developments and discoveries being made are ever-changing, even now, which means we need to err on the side of caution, or else we might suffer from an excess of optimism.
One term floating around as vaccines roll out is “herd immunity.” As we get more vaccines, there is a smaller chance of it spreading because people can’t contract it and pass it on. That is how it works for most diseases. But as usual with COVID, we cannot know completely whether herd immunity can kick in with the current wave of vaccines. According to Shweta Bansal, a biologist at Georgetown University, “Herd immunity is only relevant if we have a transmission-blocking vaccine. If we don’t, then the only way to get herd immunity in the population is to give everyone the vaccine.”
There are also new variants arising frequently. We have heard of the one that arose in Britain a few months ago, but there have also been variants arising frequently in the U.S. as restrictions are lifted. The vaccine only works for certain variants, so keeping a herd immunity cannot be possible until it presents transmission and can cover all of the known variants. We also know that immunity cannot last forever; some people have to get a second vaccination within six months of their last one, so we know that either it doesn’t last or they want to play it safe on immunity.
We have been dealing with this for over a year now, so we have the resources to cope with this just a little longer. Masks shouldn’t bother us as much anymore (hopefully), so keeping them on shouldn’t be too much of a struggle. We can see the light at the end of this tunnel, so trudging through isn’t going to be as difficult as searching through the dark as we did in the beginning of 2020.
The pandemic is coming to an end but that does not mean that we should quit all of our efforts outright. Maybe it will be safe to take off masks, maybe it will be safe to re-enter society at large, maybe it will be safe to go into crowds. But it is better to be cautious and safe than risk further outbreaks.
